Microscopes are FUN!!!

This is the head of the bug we found. We looked at both ends
and determined that this end had beaded eyes.

I ordered a digital microscope for our homeschool a few weeks back...and when it came this week I decided to put it away, maybe for Christmas, maybe for when we come back from our holiday.

But the kids caught a bug in the house...it was time!

The kids were SO impressed...they ran around finding heaps of things to put under it.

This is Tank's finger...on our screen we could see heaps of
dirt on what looked to the eye to be clean fingers.

We also took video of a garden lizard that The Man found. Finally I was able to show the answer to one of the kids questions regarding how does a lizard hear. We could clearly see the holes on the sides of it's head for hearing...and the claws were very cool!


P.S. If you double click on the photos you can see them bigger and with some of the details we were talking about.

This is the centre of dying rose that Tank picked. You can
still see a piece of yellow pollen in there.

This is a spiderweb we found. The beading is not dew,
we think it is how the web is made...area for further research!

Kittens!

Tiger is holding Twining (only the best brand of tea!)

We are all enjoying the Weidemann week old kittens. In keeping with the Weidemann tradition, they all have "tea" names (Aunty M and I love to have cups of tea together). The mother of these kittens is called "Chai".

Would we like to have a kitten? Oh the children would love it...but I think Mummy likes the fact that we don't have to worry about the kittens getting squished with love. We can always visit Aunty M...she is the keeper of all pets!

Joybug is holding Earl (short for earl grey)

Tank and his favourite cousin hold up the new kittens

Princess is holding Jeely (Darjeeling) the only girl kitten.

The Man was so stoked to hold Earl

Studying the Reformation

Our children have been studying the Reformation during their history lessons. We all like to supplement our history with some videos (usually on Youtube), and of course their favourite show to watch is "Horrible Histories". It has a little bit on lots of different subjects, although it's often a little bit light on.

Today I found four great short videos on the Reformation that were easy to watch, fairly good on facts and explanations (with no derogatory statements about Christians) and with no "reenactment" scenes (which at this time tend to be rather violent). Under the title: Introduction to the Protestant Reformation, the four videos are: Setting the Stage, Martin Luther, Varieties of Protestantism, and The Counter-Reformation.

History and Gardens

Tutankhamen, Pharaoh of Egypt

Viking ships and the Parthenon.

Our town holds a fantastic flower festival every spring. We are just a week and a half away from the opening,  but the public parks are all open and nearly ready.

What a joy it was to explore Laurel Bank park today and discover that the theme for this year is: A Long Time Ago...

It was a wonderful combination of two of my favourite things: History and Gardening!

The children raced around deciphering the pictures and telling the story from their memory of their history lessons. It was a delightful joy!!

Anubis, Ancient Egyptian god of the dead  

Solider's helmet...Mummy says Roman, Tiger says Greek.

When the Carnival starts there are little signs with  overhead pictures to tell you what each creation is...but at this stage we had to work it out for ourselves! Good thing our kids have a good grasp on their history.

The Trojan Horse and some happy Fandrich soldiers.

Family Politics

Preparing to vote.

There was an election recently...did you vote? Our children did!

Initially, they were a little unenthusiastic (weren't we all), but that was just because it was a Saturday, and they needed convincing that we could do school on a weekend.

With Daddy's help, I explained the two houses of parliament. And then we voted for favourite food in the House of Reps and meal time parties in the Senate.

Princess votes for our Senate.

Firstly the House Of Representatives, which we explained to be like the children in our house, because the House of Reps gets to make decisions and plans but they are reviewed by our second house, The Senate (also known as The House of Review). The Senate we likened to Mummy and Daddy. The children make plans, but all these plans have to be taken to Mummy and Daddy for review. If Mummy and Daddy agree that it is a good idea, then the new rule (or plan) is allowed to happen. If Mummy and Daddy don't agree, then we send the plan back with some ideas of how the children can change their plan so that we will agree.

And who gets to be Prime Minister? The leader of the biggest group (party) in the House Of Representatives is the Prime Minister.

In an effort to teach our young ones about preferences and how voting works, we made up some voting forms for each house, then carefully counted the votes.

All voting involves thought! The Man votes for our
House Of Representatives.

We have been told by friends and family that our children often talk politics to other children. Initially we wondered where they got this interest from, but we realise that we often talk to them about the important political issues of the day. Issues like "same sex marriage", refugees or the homeless. We don't impose our thoughts,  but allow them to think through each issue biblically. They come up with some really interesting ideas for how to solve some of these issues

My Wedding Veil Came From A Rubbish Bin!

My Dad was determined to wear his scottish
regalia. The Campbell scarf I am wearing
was intended to be worn by Mum, but was
a last minute decision. Dad had worn a kilt
to their wedding 30 years before.

A friend recently ran a wedding dress fashion parade, telling the love stories that go with the dress.

She asked me to share mine...in 500 words or so...how is that possible!

The story of my dress starts with my veil and bodice. My Dad pulled it out of a rubbish bin one night in the early 1990's. It was really good quality veil and satin fabric in a bin outside a top dressmaker's shop in the centre of Sydney. There was no wedding in sight, but we couldn't pass up the bargain (my Dad is one of those who rummages a bin if he sees something he can recycle).

The love story started in 2001 at Australian Lutheran College in South Australia. I was that "late to start" student who got their own personal introduction. Christian noticed me.

We noticed each other after church my first Sunday in Adelaide. We chatted for some time. He offered me a ride home, but I had come with someone else, and felt I should go home with them. I joined the church choir, and then walked a few times in the hope of a ride home, I walked to church each Sunday for 8 months (under the guise of exercise)...sigh...he didn't think to offer again.

I noticed Christian in a class we had together. I occasionally left my books behind so that I could share with him. These, of course, were the few classes where he couldn't come because he was called in to work as a doctor.

In August he invited me to coffee after church, with my girlfriend and another sem student. He was then rude to my friend and "scrubbed" from the eligible list in my mind.

My father married us at Brighton Presbyterian
Church in Victoria. Our Lutheran pastor preached.

In late September I asked Christian a medical question. He said "That will be $50 thanks!" I told him it was only friendly advice and if he wanted I would buy him a coffee. He said "I'll take a rain check." And I thought I was off the hook.

In early October he rang my room and asked to cash in his "rain check". I was stuck. I didn't know how to say "no" to him. Technically, I owed him! The only time that was mutually agreeable was Friday night. We went to dinner at Kwik Sticks. I don't know what he thought, but he barely spoke all evening! When he walked me home I asked for a lift to the airport the next day.

He took me to the airport, but instead of a drop off, as I expected, he parked and walked me in. My plane was 2 HOURS late!!! He stayed!! We sat and I tried to get to know him. Conversation wasn't always easy, but it wasn't impossible. Still one line stuck in my head. He said:

"I'm nearly 30, and I've done nothing with my life!"
I thought: He's a doctor, studying theology in his "spare time"? This can only mean that he is looking for a wife, and he's looking right at me!!! Oh no! How do I get out of this!!???

The plane couldn't come fast enough!

A week or two after I came back he rang and asked if I would see a movie with him. I was stunned. Speechless! Without realising it I said yes, mostly because my brain froze and I couldn't come up with a reason to say no. What was wrong with me? It was a Friday night, we saw the least romantic movie I could come up with, which is always a good thing when you are on a date that you want to stay purely platonic.

We walked next door from the church to the rose garden for
afternoon tea, and photos.

We went for pizza afterwards in Glenelg, and then a quick walk up the jetty. Okay, this was not a good move. He started to hold my hand, and my brain again froze. How do I get out of this? So I detoured to show him the church my grandfather was minister, and firmly stuck my hands in my pockets!

We got back to his VW Golf. I just wanted to get home. But he made a move to kiss me before I got in the car. I did that "sink" move to get out of his embrace. I did like Christian, but suddenly this all freaked me out.

The next time I saw him was Sunday after church. I asked him up to the common room in my accommodation hall. There I laid it out. I remember the point I went over more than once was "we are not 'kindred spirits'". I was trying to say, and I'm sure I said it, I was NOT interested in a relationship. As I saw him out the door he asked: (in a slightly confused voice) "so can we still go out as friends?"

"Friends, yes! Nothing more."

I went back home to Mum and Dads in Melbourne for a weekend. We talked a lot about this Christian fellow. I explained that it was just too hard to be friends with him. Whilst I was away he rang and chatted to me for an hour and then invited me to Cirque du Soliel. I wanted to go, but with him? This sounded like a date! Sigh! This was an opportunity that I didn't want to pass up, and as my Melbourne friends said "who says it has to be more than friends?"

Long before I was wearing my Campbell
scarf, Christian decided to have a Campbell
hatband, as a nod to my family.

Cirque du Soliel was BRILLIANT! He held my hand. I decided I didn't mind that all too much. I also decided to be brutally honest with him. Maybe he might not be so interested. I told him that night that the girls in my dorm all laughed at the way he flicked his hair, and all thought he needed a good hair cut. I told him worse than that, but it doesn't bear publishing. He bore my criticism so beautifully. He was amazing...is amazing.

But no, this couldn't go on. I didn't want to lead the poor guy on. He invited me to lunch one Sunday soon after. I was talking about my parents going to holiday in Tasmania after Christmas, and he suggested we should join them. I instantly put my foot down! "I am not THAT kind of girl!!!" He assured me that he knew I wasn't and he was thinking about separate rooms.

Tempted as I was, I told him that it just wasn't going to happen between us (again). After all, I said, I believed God wanted me to teach in Queensland. I remember his response clearly: "Well, I guess they need doctors in Queensland." I was horrified! What had I gotten myself into! He was a stalker!!

It came to a head one Sunday when he invited me to his home for lunch (actually his Dad's house). I decided I had to say "no" once and for all.

I arrived before him, and I distinctly remember seeing him as he came around to the front door from the garage. The sun shone on his hair so that he had one of those "ahh" halos that you see in adverts sometimes. He looked amazing! I mentally slapped my face and reminded myself of the task at hand.

Extra fun photos were taken at the beach houses on
Brighton Beach.

We went to the backyard and sat down, where I preceded to tell him "it's not you, it's me. No, there is nothing you can do to sort out my issues. I will not travel to Tasmania with you. We are not kindred spirits. It's not going to happen!" Poor guy. He was concerned, and clearly deeply upset. But he bore it beautifully.

Monday, next day...I took a good male friend over to speak to him (in a group), so as to "break the ice". Both my friend and I noted how chatty he was! Unusual.

Tuesday. I was behind in a few assignments, and borrowed a heap of heavy books from the library. Christian saw me, and questioned me over them as I stood holding said heavy books. Then he drew me inside the library where he added a few more heavy books to my pile that he said would help. No, he didn't help me carry them to my car. But that night, I noted to my girlfriend that I was living with that  "he's just like Mr. Darcy!" I was hooked. But how could I tell him I was wrong, when I had been so clear that there would be no relationship? That night, he dejectedly told his boss of Sunday, and she encouraged him to ask me out again, "just as friends"

He called me that night, and when he asked me to go to a movie with him "just as friends" I was stoked. I had a way to change my mind without much trouble.

All the girls dresses were different colours (a nod to
 Mum and Dad's wedding) and slightly different design.

Wednesday. We went home from choir together, I attempted to tell Christian that I was mistaken on the Sunday just past. But I wasn't sure that he got the message.

Thursday. After seeing a movie together we walked along Semaphore Beach. I finally got the courage to give him a kiss. I figured that since I had been so negative, I should jolly well make it clear I had changed my mind. When we got back to his car he gave me some wilted roses that he had picked from his garden, but was obviously too nervous to give to me.

Sunday. After watching Shrek where the main character says "I love you" right at the end, Christian told me that too. I told him that was "nice" but I wasn't prepared to say that just yet. Truth is, I somehow had this idea that if I told him I loved him he would ask me to marry him in the very next line, and I just felt that was too fast!

The day was overcast, and ready to rain...
until just before this photo!

Following Sunday, November 18th. I had decided I was well and truly in love with Christian, but that I was going to save it for Christmas. Funny! After a teary discussion, it was decided that I needed to sleep, in the process of which Christian made it clear that he intended to marry me. I couldn't help it...it just happened! I said:

"Christian Alexander Fandrich, I love you!"

and his very next words were:

"Will you marry me?"

We were married five months later on April 5th 2002.

Birth of a Tiger

We had a lot of snow that year!

Waiting for our Tiger to arrive in 2003 felt like forever!! Tiger is our firstborn, our ground breaker in our parenting journey, and like most first time Mums I told a lot of people the "actual" due date, instead of my due month. And I showed BIG, so we all kind of expected that the due date would be more like the last date.

We had bought a 6 acre property a few months earlier, with a beautiful four bedroom, bullnose verandah home. Our dream home, in Cooma NSW. My Mum came to stay with us for the two weeks before Tiger was born. Since Tiger wasn't in a rush to arrive, we spent those two weeks raking leaves in the paddock and burning off, chopping down dead trees and thinning out the weedy ones. I distinctly remember sitting on the ground trying to saw through the base of a little tree (only as thick as my calf) with my gigantic belly in front of me, thoroughly getting in the way, making the task twice as hard as it should have been. One would have though that all the action should have got something going, but it didn't!

Mum and Christian even had time to put together our massive bookshelf. But finally it came to Sunday August 31st, and after church Mum said she had to go home for some Uni assessments. We were both so disappointed, but decided to leave the plane ticket buying till after our traditional Sunday afternoon nap.

I didn't nap well. I couldn't get comfortable. When I finally got up I had the worst back pain, and felt in a daze...until I saw my "show" a minute later. Finally I understood that the aches meant labour! Christian and Mum were ecstatic!

We sorted out plane flights, for Mum and Dad (he was anxious to meet the new little one), then, as you do, went to town for supplies and DVDs. I remember having some pretty huge contractions in the video store, and trying desperately to cover it up. Being so HUGE, people had been ushering me out of their stores for well over a month now with the words: "Don't have your baby here!" 

Such a gorgeous happy little Tiger!

We hired Lord Of The Rings (the first one), we thought we were in for a long night, so we might as well enjoy it as much as possible!

We tried lots of ways to help things along during labour. At midnight, with no progression other than significantly more pain, Mum sent us to bed to rest. At 2am, realising that I had 10minutes to drive to get into town, and that I needed help with the pain, we drove to our country hospital.

Further checks confirmed that labour had not "properly" started as I had not reached 4cm dilation. Baby seemed fine, and so we tried out gas. Disgusting stuff!! I didn't like how weird it made me feel. Tiger was keen to avoid detection on the handheld doppler, so I was strapped to a monitor. The nurses also confirmed that Tiger was posterior, however, I was already labouring leaning forward or on my knees, so there was nothing else to be done.

At 6am Christian's GP/Obs colleague and friend David was called in to check on us. By this stage I was resting on the bed, with Tiger's heart under constant monitoring. Due to my level of pain, which with constant contractions was not abating, we consented to an epidural. As they were prepping for this David asked for me to use the gas. I didn't want to, so Mum and Christian held the mask to my face as I moved my head from side to side. I don't think it offered pain relief, but I became so drowsy that I felt I was in and out of consciensness. When finally I was asked to sit on the edge of the bed I told them I was going to be sick. Then for the first time in over 10 years I vomited...all over the newly scrubbed nurse. For the first time in David's career the epidural was instant and perfect. The pain relief was wonderful, God, our Heavenly Father provided in an amazing way.

Soon after, Mum saw David as he left the room, and our usually happy, easy going doctor was worried.

He's a real thinker, our Tiger!

The nurses started prepping me for a caesarean. I asked them to wait for the doctor to talk to us about it. David came and told us that Tiger's heart rate had dropped during a contraction and whilst this was normal, his return to a normal heart rate had been exceedingly slow (over five minutes), I had merconium in the waters, I had not progressed in dilation at all even though the contractions were on top of each other. Christian and I had prayed that should intervention be necessary it would be really clear cut. David was worried that we might lose our baby if we didn't move fast.

Within half an hour we were in theatre, and David announced "it's a boy", Christian responded with: "His name is Enoch Matheson Fandrich." We both cried to see and hold our wonderful little boy. David then sung "Happy Birthday" to our little man.

We named our Tiger after Enoch in the Bible, the seventh from Adam, who walked with God, and didn't die, because God took him, and who (according to Jude) prophesied about the coming of Jesus. We continue to pray that our delightful young man continues to walk with God his Heavenly Father.

Going South Before Heading North

This year we plan to holiday somewhere where we can go out and experience the Great Barrier Reef.

We left on our family holiday for this year on Tuesday, last week, and headed south. If you know your Australian geography, south is not the smartest route or even the scenic route to get to the Great Barrier Reef from Toowoomba. We should've headed North East. But we went to visit with my folks at their farm/building site outside Inverell, New South Wales.

The kids had great fun. Fires, fires and more fires! It's burn off season, and at one stage we worked out we had six fires going (including the one in the house and the one in the shed). Tank said he wanted to stay and have his holiday where he could light fires. He loves Granny and Grandfather's farm and is constantly enquiring after it (begging to go back). I offered to leave him with Granny and Grandfather if he wanted and he instantly said he wanted to stay with Mummy and Daddy (we love our Tank).


It was lovely to start heading North, we were hoping to finally get some warmer nights (freezing at the farm). But we didn't get very far, and we stopped back at home to get some of the things that we really needed, but mostly because the washing load just got too much. It was good for us though, as Christian got the chance to do some much needed maintenance on the camper.

So far we have camped at Inverell (Geebung Flat), Ashford NSW, Hervey Bay QLD, and we are stopped in 1770, QLD. We hope to visit Gladstone QLD, and that will be the highest we get, but we intend to make that a day trip.

Oh, and we have a "new" car...we call it "Chugga" (I think that's a reference to the children's programme "Chuggington" on ABC). Unlike the Kia we used to have (really you can't compare a Merc to a Kia!) this one can tow without missing a beat. The Mercedes Vito is an excellent family vehicle, really does tow what it says it does (the Kia struggled), has plenty of space and it was cheaper to buy second hand than a Tarago or VW Caravelle of similar kilometres. And the best feature? It has vinyl floors, so easy clean up, really easy clean up.

"Making Princesses" Retreat

We went to a place where we stayed at a cabin called "Applegum". That night we had a spa and ate chocolates. Mummy read a book to me about girls. That night we watched "Nim's Island".

The next day we had hot chocolates with Tim Tams and Bacon and Tomato with spinach leaves. Mummy gave a book for girls to learn more about Jesus. We went for a bush walk before lunch and walked mostly downhill. That afternoon we watched "Nim's Island" again. It's a good film about a girl named Nim who lived on a Island and had lots of adventures.

Half way through, I found a tick in my hair. We went to the office and got the tick out of my hair. Then we went back to the cabin and got dressed to go out. We went to a Chinese restaurant and had a good dinner and some dessert.

The next day we packed up all of our things and had a massage. We drove back home.

Written by Princess

Psalm 144:12
May our sons in their youth
  be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
  cut for the structure of a palace

Dressed up for our special dinner together. We girls have
decided not to go tenting on our retreat. We think we
need something a bit special!

Otherwise known as "Big Girls Camp", or "Big Boys Camp", both Christian and I take our children away by themselves for two nights every year once they turn 8. Christian takes the boys, and I take the girls. 

The purpose of our camp is for us as parents to develop our personal relationship with each of our children, to give specific discipleship and encouragement in their relationship with Jesus, to teach them about their changing body and give them a godly perspective on sexuality and how to relate appropriately to the opposite sex. We do this well before they are teenagers because we want to imprint God's standards in their lives before the world gets it's chance. 

The idea comes from many sources that talk about our culture having a lack of "coming of age" or "initiation"event, as traditional cultures have. We did this in my family when we each turned 18. But we decided that it was important to develop our personal relationship with our children earlier because of the sexualisation of our world. Currently, I use Concordia Press: Learning about Sex series to teach our children about their body. This year both Tiger and Princess received a devotional book that we taught them how to use. Another good resource, particularly for girls would be Dannah Gresh's book on Mother Daughter dates.

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Lady Musgrave Island

All the coral here is beautiful.

On our recent holiday, we took a day cruise to Lady Musgrave Island. We were warned, people get really sick on the way out. So I insisted that the children could only have a piece of toast for breakfast (knowing full well that this would not fill their tummies), I also insisted that everyone except Joybug had to take a ginger tablet to help with possible seasickness well before we went.

Our three happy snorkelers.

Pretty purple brain coral in the centre,
next to golden plate coral.

In his journal, The Man described the journey as "up and down, up and down". Truly, it was the sort of down like you get when you go fast over certain dips in the road, where your tummy jumps, except this was every ten seconds or so. One of the crew commented to me how still the sea was today, particularly compared to the last few weeks. It was fun at first, but within 20 minutes I was NOT enjoying it. So I focused on the horizon, and on breathing deeply, all while trying to help Tiger, Princess and Joybug who were struggling too. I stood to try and get water for Joybug and could barely find my feet! The crew suggested those who felt ill should try the back of the boat, but when I tried that all I could smell was the diesel, and that made me feel worse! I barely downed another ginger tablet, and Christian noticed I wasn't coping. He came and worked on pressure points in my wrists and immediately I felt significantly better. I kept working these for the rest of the trip and managed to keep it at just nausea (no vomiting).

Christian however didn't fair so well. We had half an hour to go in our hour and a half journey, when he couldn't hold it in any more. Poor man! I had no idea how I would handle it if one of the kids got sick too. I was regularly checking on them, even though turning my head made me feel sick all over. One of the two things I don't do well as a parent (or teacher) is vomit! As soon as we were 10 minutes from the pontoon we were all feeling fine, and ready to start the morning tea that had just been put out, although Christian was not so sure.

The water was five to ten metres deep, but we felt safe.

The purple coral here is plate coral.

On arrival at the island we all (right down to Joybug) donned wetsuits. Then all of us got into the water, but Joybug and Tank were too nervous to get off the ledge. It was AMAZING! The children were so amazed by everything they saw. Tiger was off naming the fish and creatures he saw. He recognised the sea cucumber, parrot fish and numerous other fish. I didn't know he knew so much! Princess and The Man kept trying to talk excitedly through their snorkel. The water was deep, but extraordinarily clear. The colours of the fish were incredible. Our camera is one we can use underwater and we all enjoyed taking these pictures. The children were disappointed when we had to stop for lunch.

Professional photographer who also was crook on the boat.
The floating white things is the coral's sunscreen from when
it was out of the water during low tide.

After lunch we went on a glass bottom boat and spied lots of different things, including big sea turtles. The boat then dropped us off on Lady Musgrave Island, where we had a bush walk. It's an amazing island made from coral. Walking through the bush growing there was incredible. We would love to go back there to camp and have the island all to ourselves!

We managed a bit more snorkeling before we headed back to the mainland. The return trip was wonderfully enjoyable for everyone. We were even able to enjoy the whales frolicking as we passed them by (couldn't look on the way to the island).

We topped the day off with quick baths and dinner in an Indian restaurant in a setting that reminded me and Christian of a restaurant we went to on our honeymoon in Vanuatu. Truly delightful!!

Pretty blue fish with staghorn coral.

The pink coral is finger and the long
golden coral is staghorn.

Snorkeling Tiger...you don't see that every day!

The golden coral is plate coral 

In the bush on the island.

Our family on Lady Musgrave Island.

Story by SJ. Captions by Tiger

The black lines are sausage sea cucumbers,
they are the vacuum cleaners of the seas.