Effectiveness

As life goes on you find that you have more and more responsibilities. It does seem that in some ways your capacity to do things grows over time, but there are also ways to effectively increase the amount of time that you have in the day. It is important to see that in some situations it is possible to achieve more than one goal at a time. At first this would seem a bit insincere, because you are not giving yourself wholly to one thing by focussing on too many things at once. That is not what I am talking about here. Many things do not need to be done in isolation. Take going to the shops for example. This could easily be done with someone else that you have been meaning to catch up with anyway and therefore you could do both things are once. You could also have used the time to talk through things with God if what you were doing didn't demand your whole attention.
Recently I started up a jogging program to gradually ease back into it. I realised though that although that was a good goal I had very little time in my week to be able to fit it in, even though I really needed to do it to prepare for the soccer season. I realised that I could easily begin the program with Lachlan and Isaac. Thus I was able to achieve a number of important goals through the one activity. I was able to increase my fitness, as well as help my boys to increase theirs, and I could spend quality time with my boys. These have become quite rich times, which both my boys and I really look forward to.
It is important to understand that I am not talking from a paradigm of efficiency here. Rather I am talking about effectiveness, which is vastly different when it comes to people. You cannot really be thinking of people's best and talking about efficiency as relationships are rarely that way. You do however need to choose between many good things. Not only do we need to think about choosing the best, but also the best way of doing them.

Ethan's birthday

Ethan is 4 today. He has been looking forward to turning 4 for a while now. When told this morning that it was his birthday he said "is it now?".
It has seemed that Ethan has grown up a lot this year. Having a new baby makes him seem so big and no longer the baby of the family. He has strated to go to pre-school a couple of days a week and has become more independant, although he will always be a bit shy.
We had a bit of a celebration at home with the family. Millie made a cake and we sang for him (which made him a bit self-conscious). His highlights out of his presents so far were the cheap sword and his transformer. He also got his first bike. Here are some photos.

2 weeks

Benjamin is now 2 weeks old. Mum has been visiting, helping out with looking after the kids, cooking and cleaning. It is easy to forget how much work it is to look after a newborn child, so it has been great for mum to be here. You really do forget how small they are and totally dependant on you in every way. He is very cute though and it is easy to love him.
As I write Benjamin is sitting up next to me on Millie's lap, checking out the room. Mum is already in bed worn out by the kids. The air cooler is still on as it is still more than 25 outside. Unfortunately the cricket has finished and Australia have lost the series to the Indians.
This month the boys and I have begun a running program in preparation for the soccer season. It is called the couch to 5k running plan and is a good way build up slowly. It has been good to spend that time with the boys, although I am not sure that they have always enjoyed it ;-) .