A Princess' Morning Tea

A new party skirt that Mama made.

Our Princess turns 11 today. We delighted her with a lovely high tea inspired morning tea with her cousins and dearest friends (actually they are all her dearest friends).

She is growing up to be quite a special young lady. She is kind and generous. She has a beautiful serving heart, and helps with her younger siblings in a lovely way (I can hear her teaching Joybug piano right now). Sure we have our moments, however she recovers quickly. She is growing in her relationship with Jesus and loving telling others what she learns. I particularly love the way she takes her responsibilities with homeschool and the chooks seriously.

We love our little Princess...who is really not so little any more!

Christmas 2015

The Pastor's Family - taken at Sovereign Hill

What a whirlwind of a year 2015 has been!

Homeschooling, Renovations, Christian and Tiger going to Germany, Pastors Conference, tornado, repairs and insurance dealings, General Synod, a visit to Sovereign Hill, and then toping it off with extended Fandrich family for the week before Christmas.

And yet in all of the busyness there is so much to be grateful to God our Father for!

Grateful for a steady, but slow recovery of Christian's mother's health in Germany.

Grateful for a tornado that has allowed us to fix things that we didn't think we would be able to do (Look for further updates on this in the future, we should be finished by Easter).

Grateful for wonderful friends to spend time with when we went to Sovereign Hill and Adelaide this year.

Grateful to my parents for the wonderful rest they gave me during General Synod.

Grateful for our 6 beautiful children, all growing in God's grace, wisdom and stature. And grateful for the wonderful friends we have made homeschooling this year.

Grateful to be living in the country, raising our own veggies, orchard, sheep, ducks, geese and now 18 chooks! Yes, some of these will be dinner in the future. We really are living like "Little House On the Prairie", except as the kids say, we have internet, electricity and running water.

Grateful to Christian's brother and his family and Christian's Dad for the delightful memories we made over the time they were here.

And we are also grateful for a wonderful church family here in the Burrumbuttock Parish who support us in our work sharing the Gospel with the people here. They continue to be a great source of encouragement to us both, and are so generous with us.

Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)

 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Christian and Sarah Joy

Pepper

Pepper being hugged by Tank and fed by The Man

Pepper taking Tank for a walk
(although he says it was the other way around)

 Pepper, our beloved horse died today.

Pepper knew she was a horse, but was very gregarious. She loved being around us. She thought she could walk right in to wherever we were, including our house (if we let her, we kids did, but were careful not to let Mum see). She was always very gentle, and yet she was feisty too. She knew full well that she was the queen of the horses we owned. She was the boss horse, but a graceful elegant one at that.

She was the last of Grandma's hand reared horses, trained to both saddle and harness.

As a saddle horse she was good, but as a harness horse she had no equal!

She pulled our little sulky on a four week adventure from Sydney over the Barrington Tops mountains to Inverell. Our route was well over 700km. We even made the Tamworth newspaper and had a small spot in the local Win News.

That was quite an adventure! But she was such a good horse that we didn't have to hobble her at night, she stayed near our camp (and her horse friend Sam) and happily munched away.

Recreating my Mother's five kids on a horse photo.

As kids, when we lived in the western suburbs of Sydney, we had so much fun with her. Who else at our school could say they lived on an average 1/4 acre block and had a horse!? We would agist her down next to the Great Western Highway. We would ride her up in the George Street bush in Mount Druitt, which is where I finally got the courage to go against the dogs and chased a nasty dog that was scaring her all the way back to it's home.

Pepper walking inside...again.

Like all horses, she could occasionally get a bit flighty, but I distinctly remember driving with Mum down Pennant Hills Road in Sydney and so long as we kept singing she wouldn't flinch at the huge semi-trailers zooming past (it was highway status even at that time).

The singing was one of Grandma's great tricks with all her horses. It would distract them from whatever they were worried about and they would listen to the song. Grandma used to sing all sorts of hymns to her horses. We did too.

Travelling with horses can be a bit touchy. But not with Pepper. So long as she knew we were going she was happy. My favourite floating memory was the time we took Pepper in the double decker bus that my folks used for ministry in the Presbyterian Church in NSW. We drove up the highway to the central coast. Pepper standing next to one of the downstairs windows. It was so funny to watch the kids in the passing cars looking so bored by the trip (no DVD players in cars back then) and suddenly seeing Pepper and yelling and screaming to their parents about the horse in the bus!

We thank God for the wonderful memories we all have of Pepper. All my children have precious memories of her, and my childhood memories of her are unsurpassed.

Riding Pepper and Sunshine at Geebung Flat
(that's a young Tiger on board too)

Busy Takes On New Meaning

Electrician, landscaper, and builder...on the day the Boarder
Mail arrived to take photos

Lent...the 40 days before Easter (not including Sundays) where as Christians we focus our thinking on repentance. For a pastor's family, Lent rivals Advent (the 4 Sundays before Christmas Day) for the busiest time of the year.

This is normal for us. So generally during Lent (and Advent) I try to keep things as simple as possible in the home. We reduce our extracurricular activities to the absolute minimum so that we can allow for the extra events that happen in this time.

Somehow I forgot about all that this year. So how has Lent been busy for us? Let's see:

• I finalised our registration for homeschooling in NSW (currently considered the most difficult state in Australia to register...although I would dispute just how difficult it is)

• Our landscaping started at the beginning of Lent...and took all four weeks to finish. Dust...

• The builder came to fix the termite damage...MORE dust.

• On the day our landscaping and building began the kids and I took part in an interview for our local paper about homeschooling (flick through the photos, there's some great ones of the kids).

The Man enjoyed taking photos of the photographer who
came from the Boarder Mail.

• The electrician came to make safe and fix up some electrical issues in the house.

• My laundry was built  (I think this was my favourite thing!)

• We laid out 100m2 of turf.

• For three weeks our phone and internet weren't working. It's only just now back to normal. 

And at the beginning of Lent we discovered that Christian's mother is very unwell in Germany. So we have been praying and planning about his travelling to Germany to help assess her care. Tiger is going to accompany him, which is both exciting and nerve wracking. We look forward to reading Tiger's blog posts whilst he is away.

2014's Review

Harvest 2014 - The storm clouds were rolling in so we
headed off down our road to watch the headers.

Yep, I know, we are now in February of 2015. But the last few months have been so incredibly hectic that any thought of a review of our year was simply out of the question!

So what were we up to last year. Well you could trawl through our posts of 2014...but never the less here are our highlights.

So many good photos...we saw the header enter the paddock
and then put his comb down...and shortly after passing us the
first time another header came into the same paddock...
a rare treat!

Our year began with preparations for the birth of our delightful baby, Skipper. The kids and I spent much time going through each room and culling the excess. Simplifying is such a beautiful thing. But it was a slow process, with my growing belly causing significant tiredness and getting in the road of too much bending.

My pregnancy was punctuated by regular contractions that concerned my doctor. And then our little Skipper decided to start labour before our set caesarean date. He was born 3 weeks premature, but only 8 hours before he was intended. The poor little man spent a week in the special care nursery, and then we struggled to breast feed for 2 and a half months. But our struggle has proved to be just a blink, with time since then flying past.

Christian bought me a much longed for camera this year. I have enjoyed honing my photography skills, although with that comes the need to delete a whole heap of unnecessary photos. It's a great hobby to have with kids, they are constantly coming up with new things to photograph and I think even Christian has enjoyed taking photos this year too.

Our last Sunday in Toowoomba...Enoch's Confirmation.
After this we went to Lunch and then began our drive to
Burrumbuttock.

And then Christian was given the call to Burrumbuttock Parish when we were 2 months into our feeding struggle. It came at an interesting time. My parents had retired from Wagga (2 hours from Burrumbuttock), and would be moving to Inverell (4 hours from Toowoomba, but 11 hours from Burrumbuttock) and at the same time my youngest brother was just about to put his Burrumbuttock house and 13 acres on the market. We had to visit...and of course then we were in love with the place!

Christmas on the front verandah

We took our holidays to Tasmania for a friends wedding and had an amazing time travelling around and exploring. So much history! We made a wonderful journal of our time there.

Saying goodbye to Toowoomba was hard in some ways and easier in others. We made some wonderful friends in the homeschooling community there and we all miss them.

Since arriving in Burrumbuttock I have sewn curtains for 8 windows, planted a veggie patch, preserved fruit from our orchard, and made a good dent on the many renovations we have to do to the 130 year old house. Christian has really enjoyed taking up woodwork again, with making another set of large shelves for our growing library, repairing gaps in the floors, making a sign for our property, a cabinet for Tank and a treasure chest the Man. There is still much to be done, but we are pretty much enjoying each bit as it comes. This year holds much change for our property "Stoneleigh".

Birthday fun

Bonnet by Tiger and Mama.

Happy 10th Birthday to Princess! All she really wanted...has wanted for some time...was a bonnet. The kind worn by Laura Ingalls Wilder of "Little House on the Prairie" fame, or Mandie from her favourite adventure girl books (by Lois Gladys Leopard). Then of course there is her love of Jane Austin, Anne of Green Gables and all things old fashioned...so much like her mother. And yes, we had to make one for Joybug so they could be beautiful girls together. I truly enjoy indulging her

And for a fantastic lunch we had a homemade lunch...home made buns (thanks Sal), homemade mayonnaise (thanks to Mrs. Patmore - our Thermomix), and homegrown tomato and cucumber. Delicious! 

Clearly we are in our element! The veggie garden is growing great, as is the orchard. We are inundated with cucumbers, zucchini, plums, grapes and soon tomatoes. We are preserving, preserving, preserving. The kids are loving the idea that we are saving up for the winter, just like we have read about in the "Little House" books.

Tiger's 2014

This year Daddy got called to the Burrumbuttock Lutheran Parish in NSW. Burrumbuttock is in the Albury-Wodonga area which is right on the NSW-VIC border. Our new home, ''Stoneleigh'' is 5 minutes out of Burrumbuttock and the West Burrumbuttock School is on the property and so is the teachers house which has had extensions added and is where we live. We are still doing our own renovations and so far we have built the pantry, made curtains and a whole heap of other stuff. We have  1 horse Lorien, 2 ducks: Mopsey and Flopsey, 3 Guinea Fowl: Bash, Dash and Crash, 7 Silver Sussex and 20 Sheep, 3 of them have names Bob, Jim and Moo Moo.

This year on April 24th we welcomed our new brother Skipper into our family. It was really fun feeding him with the bottle and holding him. I like watching him do different things and seeing him smile.







Earlier this year we went on a holiday to Tasmania.

We went to a place called Tasmazia with life size mazes, cubby house villages and even a correction centre. I liked all the cubby houses the best because they were fun to play in. The mazes were downright annoying because it took ages for us to get into the centre. Mama got completely lost more than once.

We also went to Port Arthur where we learnt about convicts and looked inside prisons and went to the Isle of the Dead. At the Isle of the Dead there were interesting stories of the people who were buried there.  The day we were there was freezing!

In Hobart we visited a replica of Mawson's Hut in Antartica. We got to dress up in the clothes they would have worn and write with their typewriter and read stories about them.

While we were in Tasmania we made of what we did and each of us kids, including Mummy and Daddy, wrote about what happened for every day. We still look at it. It has lots of great memories.

This year I got Confirmed on November 9 2014. Me and my fellow Confirmees stood up in front of the church and proclaimed our faith. Here is my faith statement: I believe that Jesus is my saviour. I am a sinner like all people, and that Jesus saved me by dying on the cross. I also believe that Jesus cleansed me, a bloodied person like every body else, so that I am now with as snow. I chose Deuteronomy 31:6 because it reminds me that I can be strong in God, faithful and trusting him no matter what, and that he will be with me to the end of the age.

2014 has been an adventurous year and I hope 2015 will be just as fun!


By the Tiger  

The Man's 2014

We went to Robinson Cabin at Boonoo Boonoo National Park. We went for a little holiday after Skipper was born. I liked the river and the big rocks called granite. I liked being able to light fires and going bushwalking. In this picture I was holding pure quartz.









When Skipper was born he was very cute and I like that I am his buddy. Being his buddy means that I have to help him when he needs help. Skipper struggled to breastfeed so I got to feed him using the bottle. I liked doing that. Now he has normal food. He likes sweet potato and rice with Korma (we all like Indian food).

 I like going swimming. This year I have got really good at swimming, but I still need a few more lessons.

I miss Toowoomba because I miss our church there.

In Burrumbuttock I like it best because we have a bigger yard and lots and lots of pets. My favourite pet is our chickens.

Tank's 2014

I liked going to the museum of army stuff. I liked looking in the surgery. It was fun to look around in it.














This year we met Sir Tony Robinson. He works with archeologists. I like to watch his show "Time Team". He came to Toowoomba to make a show.

Our baby was born in April and he's so cute because he laughs a lot. I like Skipper because he's very beautiful. When we were in Toowoomba he could not sit up, but now he can. He can crawl.

 I miss Toowoomba. I liked the house we used to live in, but now we don't. It had very good hide and seek places.

Burrumbuttock is a very good place. I like our animals. We have a horse, two ducks, seven chooks, three guinea fowl and 20 sheep. And we even have wild duck in the dam.

Burrumbuttock

What a strange name!

Well we have moved here and have been in our new home all of a week. There is SO much to do with  all the unpacking, but there is also the exciting outdoors. We have bought a 13 acre property that used to be the West Burrumbuttock school (for a very short time 100 years ago). And with our property we have inherited a horse, Lorien (yes that's a Lord of the Rings name in honour of my horse rearing Grandma), 20 or so Dorper sheep (they naturally lose their own wool, so no shearing required), two ducks named Mopsey and Flopsey (who started to lay when we arrived), and three guinea fowl (whom the children named) Bash, Dash and Crash (apparently they will help keep away the snakes because they are so territorial).

The house we are living in is 130 years old, and used to be the Principal teacher's house for the school. So we are returning the property to it's original use after a long time. Look forward to more reports of our exploits. We are looking forward to finding some artefacts from the time this place was a school. Already this week we have found a glass bottle that was clearly a small cordial drink bottle from some time ago.

We are surrounded by paddocks and no houses are in view...it is quite blissful!


About-Australia.com says of our little town:
Burrumbuttock is a small village 32 kilometres north west of Albury onthe Albury-Urana Road. The early settlement began in 1839 at the "Burrumbuttock Station" which was at that time 30,000 acres on both sides of an unfenced track stretching from Jindera Gap towards Walbundrie. The present town has a number of buildings including a General Store and Post Office, Primary School, Farmers Inn Hotel established in 1880 and the Holy Cross Lutheran Church dedicated in 1877. It has a population of 150 people. The Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre is a four hectare area featuring a large dam constructed in 1902

Tiger Saves The Day

TIGER SAVES THE DAY

Tiger saved the day by putting out a fire in some straw. The kids were having a fire when suddenly one of the kids (we don't know who) started a fire in some straw, Daddy was in the kitchen when one of the kids came in saying that there was a fire in the straw. Luckily by the time Daddy came out Tiger had already got the hose out and was putting out the fire. After that Daddy heavily interrogated the kids but of course no one admitted to it.

By Tiger

Our Best News for 2014!!

Checking monitors and helping Noah remember to breath

As a family, we would like to introduce you to the newest member of our little clan.

Noah Wesley Fandrich

Born on April 24th at Toowoomba Base Hospital by emergency caesarean at 1:37am because Sarah Joy went into labour. He weighed in at 9lbs or 4070 grams.

We had planned to have the caesarean on April 24th, at 8:30 or 9am. But during the afternoon of Wednesday 23rd I started having some very strong contractions (I had these on and off throughout the pregnancy, causing one hospital stay at 26weeks). After the kids were in bed I had time to sit down and notice the timing, and we realised we had to forego a good sleep and head to the hospital.

Happy to have him to ourselves on rooming in night.

Our fine young men.

It turned out we did a good thing. Noah inhaled merconium that was in the waters, and this meant he had trouble breathing. He was taken fairly quickly to the Special Care Nursery, put on CPAP to assist his breathing for two days. But was kept in hospital for 7 days until his breathing was completely back to normal. This was a very difficult time for Sarah Joy as she had to be present for all feeds (you get out of hospital quicker when feeding is established), and it's hard communicating and asserting your needs, wants and desires to others regarding your baby when you are tired and unwell and they have their own plan for your baby that they don't want to divert from.

Noah is now back to almost full health, a wee bit of jaundice and a few feeding issues due to having to give him expressed milk via bottle to get him out of hospital (needed all suck feeds and he wasn't up to that just yet). Sarah Joy has quite a few weeks of recovery to go, but needs to be constantly reminded to go and lie down. It's hard to sit still when you feel that your brain is functioning properly (which really it isn't because I am so tired and change from third person to first person in one sentence!).

Noah means rest or comfort. Noah in the Bible was a godly man who trusted and obeyed God, building an ark to save not just his family but a pair of each kind of animal on earth. Saving creation through water of the great flood, where all the world was covered. Through the water of baptism, we too are saved. We pray that Noah, who is already our rest and comfort will be a godly man, following Christ even when all turn away.

Home at last!!

The name Wesley comes from the great hymn writer Charles Wesley. One of 19 children, homeschooled by his mother, Charles was a leader of the Methodist movement with his brother John, and wrote over 6000 hymns, many of which are our favourites. Christian really likes: "Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending", and my all time favourite hymn is: "And Can It Be That I Should Gain". Other great Hymns are:

• Christ the Lord is Risen Today
• Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
• Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
• Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
• O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
• Rejoice, the Lord is King
• Ye Servants of God

Our first family photo, with Granny

Christian's news

Merry Christmas!

Our big news for this year is the expected arrival of a child in May next year!

This year I have continued in pastoral ministry at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Toowoomba with occasional visits to Stanthorpe and Glenarbon.  In April I was elected onto the LCA's Commission on Social and Bioethical Questions at the General Synod, and have continued as President of Lutherans for Life.  On issues moral in the western world and in Australia I survey the future with trepidation and some despair.  Yes, it is an opportunity to speak to the world about God's gift of life to the world, but I have little confidence in the world's ability or willingness to hear God's Word.  But that's OK, nations rise and fall, but God's Word will stand for ever.

My mother visited from Germany this year, a blessing to her and us.  Mondays I enjoy keeping my hand in general practice at the Toowoomba Medical Centre with a great group of receptionists, nurses and doctors.

This year I have enjoyed watching our children grow, and I especially love seeing Enoch and Abigail devouring books!

Sarah Joy and I wish you a blessed Christmas and God's richest blessings for the new year.

… Pleased as man with man to dwell 
Jesus our Immanuel
Hark! the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn king.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Colossians 1:19)

The Son of God, the spiritual being who enjoyed becoming a human.  If it was good enough for God, it's good enough for us!

Tank Adventures for 2013

Photo by Kirsty Humphrey

I made this computer.

We got to have my birthday cake
and it tasted delicious!

I like races because my bike is strong.

I do schoolwork and I am good at drawing pictures

I am the knight. I like knight and cowboy dress ups. I look
after my queen. I protect the queen's baby.

I like my Opa, I want to see him again.

This tree fell down when it rained. There was big lightning.
We climbed it. The council came and cut it up.

I like my Dadda. I cuddle him all day.

I like my Mama on the trampoline. We can jump!

I like swimming at my swimming lessons.

Captions by Tank

The Man's Adventures in 2013

Photo by Kirsty Humphrey

Climbing trees at Opa's place.

This year we went to Uncle Simon and Aunty Kim's wedding in Sydney. We liked the kids party because we played games with our cousins. After the kids the party we went to the adults party and had a little play there. We then went back to our hotel, and went to the cousins room to have dessert.

The next day we went to Sydney Harbour with the cousins.

I got to see my godfather at General Synod in Adelaide.
I was really excited.

We drove to MacIntyre Caves and had a little explore in the caves. We saw another cave opening up high but there was a kangaroo in front of it. We had lunch there and then we went for a walk to the plunge pool and had a swim there. We couldn't go too far from the edge because it was slippery. After that we drove home.

I enjoy doing my Maths in school. We went to an awards night for school. We got to say our poems. When we got our awards we got gem stones with them.

Written by The Man