Rachel drew this picture on the computer of her and I cooking marshmallows around the campfire.

A Midsummer Nights Dream

Dear Gran,

Cheryn and Rachel "camped" in the entrance hall to our home on Saturday evening - sleeping in their new sleeping bags bought for the ward camp the night before.

Gill's been away in England looking after her nieces. You might think that me having to look after four young kids would be a challenge - not at all - here are Mr. Mom's housework tips.

• Live on sandwiches, yogurt and cereals - saves washing up and the kids can make their own.
  
• Slash laundry effort by allowing only one outfit per week. Two of my kids (they shall remain nameless for now) usually go through more outfits than a fashion show. And the clothes are not really that dirty - if the kids in Dafur can wear their outfits more than once so can mine.
  
• Appoint one kid as a "housework slave" and make him do all the work. Pretty soon he's enforcing the rules and the others are tidying up after themselves. It's a bit hard on the kid but three days at a time is about enough to let the message sink in.
• Pile the laundry on the lounge chairs. Last time Gill went away I got moaned at because she came home to a huge pile of unsorted laundry on the lounge floor. I've put in on the chair this time so she'll be much happier, and it hides the grafiti Corbin writes all over the house.
  
• Don't do the dishes until you've used the back of the last spoon to make a peanut butter sandwich - it discourages the less creative from making a mess.
  
• Let a 7 year old wash the bathroom floors. Rachel used so much soap that they now get cleaned every time they get wet. It's a bit slippery but very hygienic.

Swim like fish

I love these long summer evenings. It's just before 8pm and our front yard has been turned into a soccer pitch. I don't know where the boys come from but word spreads somehow and soon there are piles of bicycles spread all over the driveway, two or three girls talking on the grass and about 10 boys playing "footie".

My kids are fast swimmers! But I had no idea until the Stake Gala on Saturday evening.

Zeek was the man of the moment. There was nobody from our team to swim in the youth boys race, so Zeek was put in even though he is only nine and was competing against 14 year olds.

He won the first two races quite convincingly, finishing with several metres to spare. In the next two narrowly missed winning by less than a metre, this was no shame as he had swum four races while the other competitors were fresh.

He gained quite a reputation with people from all the teams cheering for him as he courageously challenged what seemed like hulking brutes in comparison to his small size.

Cheryn and Rachel were no slouches either, making a mockery of efforts of the people who finished in second and other places behind them.

Gillian won the woman's freestyle event and I came second in the men's to a professional swimmer!

Our team won the relay after my bro. Donovan and Gillian set a cracking pace to make up for a slight delay from the first swimmer. I was able to use the 1/3 pool headstart to finish just a stroke or two in front of the professional.

I think we will get Zeek some training as he really enjoys swimming - last week the school sent him off to swim in the 2 mile challenge - I doubted he could do it not having trained for it at all, but he did - all 3000m - and finished before anyone else!

My cousin Alleyn Bowen came over to visit - he stayed with Don and Eva and we got together on Saturday morning to fly our kites and then a couple more times during the weekend before he flew back to London where he is completing his masters degree in electronic engineering. I look forward to getting to know him better as I have not seen him much over the last few two decades!

Cheryn gave a talk in church today - I wonder how many other 11 year olds would be brave enough to stand up in front of 100 people and talk (from keywords only) for 6 minutes on "What I learned from my father's example" - being father's day and all. She was very nervous but it didn't show at all and while I was cringing wondering what embarrassing things she was going to say about me, she did a great job. The church gives us an unfair edge when it comes to competing in public and business life!

Cheers

Pete

Irish Sunburn

Didn't think it was possible to get sunburned in the land of the long rains. However, we spent the day at Millisle playing on the beach in perfect sunny weather and all came home pink. Gill is finding it a little uncomfortable to sit!

The highlight of the day was the test flight of my new power kite. It's a 4m2 Ozone Samurai which will whip me into the air with a good breeze and pull landboard or buggy across the sand at high speed. Boys and their toys!

The kids are starting to sound more Irish - worlds like "claaaaaass", "amaaazing" and "cracking" which all apparently mean good and phrases like "at the minute" and "so it is" creeping into their vocabulary.

Just got back from a lovely ride along the beach. Long summer evenings are the best! Having 5 hours of light after working hours (not that I actually work - but you understand the concept) means that you have time for fun. It's just hard to get the kids asleep at 930 when the sun is still shining!

OK, that's it for the week

Cheers

Pete

Dear Blog,

A week of entertainment contrasts. Thursday night rocking to a three hour Meatloaf concert and Sunday Morning a two hour broadcast conference with President Hinckly the Prophet.

Picture on the left shows me before the concert in my "Sieze The Night 2007" official tour hoodie and the stage in the background.

I am reading a book called "The 4-hour Work Week" by Tim Ferris. He speaks of taking several mini-retirements throughout life while you're young and full of energy rather than saving towards some undefined event in the future when you have enough money to sit around and do nothing. I realize that this is exactly what I am doing now - it's nice to have someone else say it's ok because so many have thought me strange selling everything, stopping work and moving to another country. It seemed like quite a logical thing to do and I don't know why more people haven't done it.

Picture of Meatloaf in full swing - he has tremors in his hands and looked like an old man for the first few songs but built up through the evening until he had the whole audience on their feet rocking to "Bat Out of Hell".

Corbin got a new bike - for some reason his first one did not have gears while everyone else in the family did. He pedaled as fast as he could but was always at the back. Now he has lots of fun going on bike rides.

Rachel: I met some new friends at stake conference and saw a boy that looked like Joseph Smith on one of the church videos. I also watched a censored version of the Titanic movie and cried buckets of tears when all the people drowned (especially the poor ones locked in "last class"). I like to go to school, my teacher is the kindest teacher.