Family Update

This is an edited version of a post I (Larry) put on my own blog, but Deb and I thought an update on the family here would be appropriate. It might be boring, so I promise I'll stick a baby picture in here to make up for it.

We're still home schooling. I've taken over most of the actual teaching. Why do we do home school? A co-worker asked me that recently. Then she seemed really, really startled when my answer was that we think it's best for our kids. Why else would we do it?

Something funny happened on the way to the library the other day. A trip to the library (or the Perth Zoo, or the Maritime Museum in Fremantle, or the Art Gallery) is school for my kids. It's educational, just as much as their math work or reading or handwriting practice. But as I was walking my kids to the library during school hours, some presumptuous person yelled out her car window as she drove past us, "Get those kids in school!"


We've picked up a lot of speed in our garden lately. We have four fruit trees, four chickens, composting bins, a worm farm, and a dozen or so boxes and old tyres in which we've planted radishes, beans, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, several herbs, spinach, etc. We've got plans for expanding this little backyard garden into a true suburban farm. Our aim is to provide as much of our family's food as we can from our own yard.


We feel this is the kind of thing humankind was made to do. It's the kind of relationship with nature for which we and nature both were created. It's a responsible and harmonious exercise of authority over creation. We care for the land and it cares for us. A restored relationship between humankind and nature is part of the new life Jesus offers us. It's what we're headed toward in the new creation.


We've become vegan recently. You don't have to worry about our nutrition or the kids' nutrition. Yesteryear's dietary superstitions say you can't be healthy without meat products. But nutritional science is proving that to be nonsense. We get plenty of all the amino acids our bodies need for building our proteins. We get plenty of calcium and iron. We also get enough vitamin B12, and we get it from exactly the same source meat-eaters do: bacteria.

But why have we made this change? There are a few reasons. We think it's healthier. Human beings are designed for it. We think the meat industry is unnecessarily cruel to animals. We'd have far less objection to eating animal products if the animals were treated humanely. Veganism is a sustainable diet. If the whole world ate vegan, the whole world could eat. If everyone ate like the average Aussie (or American), we'd need several more planet Earths. God's only given us one. In fact, we already need several more planet Earths to feed the human race the way it's currently eating, even with the multitudes who are starving to death.

So veganism is better for us, better for other people, better for the animals, better for the whole environment. It's a win-win-win-win situation, and it's better stewardship over the creation God put under our care. The short answer to why we're vegan is: because we're Christian.

Another major change happening in our life is bicycle transportation. I bought a bike to ride to work instead of driving. I bought a trailer bike so I can take Jonathan to karate by bike instead of by car. I bought a folding bike so I can ride to places where I might not be able to lock up, or ride to a bus stop and take my bike with me. I bought a kids' trailer so I can take one or two of the little ones with me somewhere. Or I can put it behind Jonathan's trailer bike and haul three of my kids with me. Or I can put zero or one kid in it and use the extra space for cargo, like produce from the markets.


We have lots of other plans for bike transport. It's costing some money to buy bikes, trailers, tools, equipment, but it's costing FAR, FAR less than car payments, registration, insurance, petrol, repairs, and the general headache of driving. I hate driving.


And it really doesn't cost more time. Although it takes a little longer to get some places (e.g., getting to work is a 17 minute ride instead of a 10 minute drive), I'm multitasking. I'm commuting and exercising at the same time. Instead of (10 minute commute by car) + (20 minute exercise) = 30 minutes, I get (20 minute commute by bike) + (20 minute exercise) = 20 minutes. It actually saves time.

It's also costing the environment less. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, ditching the cars is a stewardship issue. A bike ride consumes zero non-renewable resources, and produces zero pollution. Multiply that by ten trips to and from work, a trip to and from the markets, two trips to Jonathan's karate class and two trips back, two trips to my Muay Thai and two trips back, and miscellaneous trips to shops and other places through the week. We're saving ourselves a lot of money, and Earth a lot of damage.


Bicycle commuting is better for the environment, better for us (saving money and getting exercise), better for people around us (bicycle accidents are less common and less dangerous than car accidents!), and in all these ways we consider it part of our obedience to God. It's a win all around.

Alright, here's the promised baby picture. She's five months old now.


And here's a shot of all the kids.


- Larry

There and about

Today we took the kids to the museum. It is the first time I've ever been to the Perth museum, unbelievably (only unbelievable because I personally have lived in Perth for a total of --a lot-- of years). Considering we took a bus and train to get there, and then a bus home, with a fair bit of walking from hither to thither as well, with 6 young children, only four of whom can walk reliably, and an esky-full of vegan tofu sushi that I woke up at 7am to make, and the fact that about 35% of us have a mild head cold...it was fun. Ish. My favorite part of the museum, however, was the building itself. I like architecture (looking at, not participating in). The museum has a lot of it, and it's old. Happy. :)

I can't wait until the Pompeii Exhibition opens up. I am strangely enthralled by the story of Pompeii and I'm pretty much deathly jealous of my sister who got to go see the ruins of this ancient Roman city during a trip to Europe. I'm excited about the exhibition, being probably as close to visiting the actual site as I'll ever get. And, I'm going ALONE. :-D

We didn't get many photos of our trip today because I'm absolutely terrible at remembering to take photos of stuff. This is just one problem with having dual personalities who are at odds with one another. One doesn't think that taking photos of moments are as important as living the moments, and the other wants to kick the first one's butt for thinking that. *sigh* I managed to get myselves to agree on at least taking photos of the children, since they are The Things That Really Matter anyway. :-) So I give you a Travis Family Exhibition:


Miss Evelyn, 11 weeks old. She's going through a pain-in-the-butt phase. Thankfully, her cuteness does quite a bit to make up for her less-than-easygoing nature. I'm assured that fussiness peaks at 12 weeks...I'm holding my breath, is my face turning blue?

You wouldn't know she's a demanding little grizzlepot by looking at these photos, though, would you? :-) (Incidentally, you probably wouldn't guess that she's sitting on a diaper that will, minutes later, mess up her pants, her shirt, and the seat of the stroller, nor would you suppose that she will shortly spend 15 minutes screaming her head off inside the *otherwise almost silent* museum while her frantic mother tries to breastfeed her without providing another display -- I'm not a museum exhibit, people, move along!).


This is Seth, who just turned two. He was a very, very good boy today. He even ate sushi (and this child doesn't eat!). Other than being a bit hot-and-cold, and understandably territorial, he's an awesomely behaved little kid. If you give him what he wants, he's happy all the time. Love him. :)

Only downside of Seth that I can see, at this moment, is the fact that he's not exactly easy to take a photo of. ;)


Still pretty dang cute though!


Benjamin, 3.5 years of age, is spectacular. However, his behaviour is a little lacking in general, which I put down to his age, increasing sense of self, and need for independence vs. dependence conflict issues. That'd be enough to make anyone a little iffy. He handles it all pretty well, and will usually behave himself, eventually, but with a wee twinkle in his eye. :-)


These girls are something else. Mae is a 6.5yo, witty (smart-mouthed?), funny, pouty, ratty little thing who likes to take control of the situation at hand (especially when it involves taking control of her siblings). Although sometimes she is blatantly insensitive, she can be moved to tears at times when others are hurting. Grace, who once had a quick, hot temper, has mellowed considerably, and is now (mostly) a soft and sensitive girl who seems to think rather abstractly. I think she might be a fair bit like me. Both girls can do the splits. I tell you this because I'm 100% sure they would want me to.


Jonathan turned 8 in February. This is a solid, steady young man with a very sensitive and empathic personality (he is the first to ask me if I'm okay if I seem upset, etc.). He often doubts his strengths and abilities, and he is not comfortable with making mistakes, so one of my biggest prayers for him is that the Lord let him see what he is capable of, without allowing him to become conceited. This child...he could become conceited, justifiably.


Larry. My husband is almost 35, a strong and capable man who is also gentle and nurturing. Although we, as a family, mostly conform to traditional roles, with me taking on more of the household duties and him bringing in the money, he is very supportive of me in my other outside endeavours. He also prides himself on and enjoys learning, growing, and improving. This makes him an inspiration to me. I love him.

FYI, this entry was cross-posted on both of my blogs. Yes, I am really that boring.

More random photos and other tidbits.

For those of you who might care about such things, my other blog at http://www.homesteadblogger.com/tryhardhomemaker/, which had been sorely neglected for almost a year, is now active again. It's more craft-and food-related, and less family- and kid-related, than this one. Larry also has a blog at http://going-to-the-ant.blogspot.com/, although he has trouble finding time to post on it. I know he has things in mind to post though, and as soon as I give him some time to do it, he will.

In other news, Larry's garden outside is coming along. He's been planting boxes of lettuce, beans, marigolds, peas, and perhaps other things that I can't remember right now. I'm loving this; growing some of our own food is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but a) I don't know how and b) I am scared. LOL. Well he's not scared, and he's doing great.

I was supposed to have surgery yesterday, but the surgery was postponed by the hospital at the last minute. Now it's scheduled for next Tuesday, so if you could pray for me that would be appreciated. Even without surgery, yesterday was eventful as we had to take Evelyn to the ER. She had a hair wrapped around her toe so tightly that we couldn't tell, after we'd tried to remove it, whether we'd been successful or not. We took her in to be on the safe side. She is fine now, after a bit of a rough night. I'm guessing her toe is kinda sore, and she was sad about that and looking for reassurance. Poor lil baby. :(

My work with the pregnancy support center is going well. I have finished rewriting and editing the main part of the curriculum -- that was the largest and most intense part of my work, I think. Now I have a bunch of admin stuff to do to wrap that up, and then I can work on expanding the curriculum to cover more topics. It's been interesting so far, and I've learned a fair bit about a few different things, so although it's voluntary work, there are definitely benefits for me as well.

The children are doing really well, except for Evelyn's little toe issue yesterday. They are generally very healthy, although we have a few skin-related issues with Seth and Evelyn. No surprise given the sensitivity of both parents' skin...

Jonathan and Mae continue to excel in homeschool. They are each at the head of their grade. :P They are also taking piano lessons, thanks to their beloved Mammam. We have yet to succeed in practicing regularly but we'll get there. The other kids are quite a handful, but only because there are so many of them. Separately, they are quiet and well-behaved children. LOL. We were stopped twice in one shopping trip recently by mothers telling us how they don't know how we do it; they each only had two children and couldn't control them, and our six kids were so well-behaved. We get that a lot -- it's not really because we're awesome parents but we do have some awesome kids!! Plus we have an awesome God and He certainly helps us every step of the way.

Anyway, here are some photos, as promised. I don't have one of Jonathan from the last week or so but I'll try to remember to snap one soon. :) Also, I can't remember why Mae was so cranky in her photo but it's a genuine representation of who she is right now so I'm gonna post it anyway. :P

I can't remember what this video is about....

Oh yeah, that's right. Nothing. :)

Sharing the love...

This is what we hear from our precious girl about 70% of the time that she's awake -- she is a wonderful blessing and this time will pass, but I didn't want anyone to miss out on the experience of this six-week-old's crankies. ;-)

Ack. I'm such a blog slacker. :(

I sincerely apologize. Time goes by so quickly! Yikes.

At this point there's nothing much to report so I'll mostly just post some photos, since that's probably what you really want anyway. :)





At some point I'm pretty sure Evelyn was 4 or 5 days old...and then, all of a sudden she was 4 or 5 weeks old. I don't know how it happens. All I know is you blink, and it's here. She's not a newborn any more, she's an infant. There are some ways in which this is happy, and others in which it is not. I am sure that most of you can relate.








My girls and I had a girls' day out at the markets...nothing exciting, but it was lovely. I love having little girls in my family. They already seem to "get it"...not going to say anything else because those who get it will get it. :-P

My two "big girls" ended our girls' day out like this (above) which made me feel a little less doubt about us having had "so many" children, as I'm pretty sure my children will have lifelong friends in each other, and that is priceless (believe me, I know this. I would do anything for my siblings. They are my best friends.)




Today, Evelyn is 5 weeks old. Her face is growing up. She does smile a bit, but she's had the snuffles and hasn't been as smiley for the past couple of days. :(


Jonathan is about the sweetest kid I've ever met. He loves Evelyn. :)


Seth will be two next month!! He's got all kinds of words and phrases now, it's easy to figure out exactly what he wants, and unless you tick him off, he's as sweet as pie. :-P


Okay, these are radishes. Not just any radishes, though. These are the first ever ever ever vegetables successfully grown by either Larry or myself. They seemed photo-worthy to me. :) Hopefully more photos of garden-related efforts will be forthcoming in the near future.

Homeschooling is going well. Jonathan and Mae are both now enrolled with the distance ed. school (based a few hours south of here) and they're doing a great job. We had a teacher from the school visit us about a week ago, and she was really happy with our family's program and where our kids are at academically. This was very encouraging to Larry and I both, although we're also aware of areas in which we'd like to improve and develop our teaching methods, etc. I don't think we're ever going to feel like we've got it down, and I think that's a good thing.

If anyone has any input, I'm interested in feedback/thoughts relating to homeschooling and a vegetarian/vegan diet specifically (current areas of research in our household)...so leave your thoughts in my comments if you feel up to it. Thanks.

--Love, Deb xox

Just some photos :)

Evelyn Pearl, 4 days old. I'm so in love.

I'm still getting used to what this looks like! :-)

Evelyn Pearl

Our beautiful girl is finally here! I guess she got scared out by the thought of the looming induction and she decided she'd rather come on her own. :-) It was an interesting labor experience but I'll spare you the details, since it's probably less interesting to you than it is to me. Suffice it to say, officially the labor was two hours and 16 minutes long with about 5 minutes of pushing and it was what I'd consider to be my easiest labor of the six. That doesn't mean I want to do it again though. :-P

Evelyn and I are both doing well. I lost a lot of blood, which is fairly typical for someone having their sixth baby. Initially I also had issues with very low blood pressure and couldn't get up without passing out, which was a bit of a concern. I don't feel too bad now, but we'll see what the next few days hold. I'd appreciate prayers for me over the next two weeks as historically the first two weeks postpartum have been very difficult for me.

Evelyn is a sweet, sweet baby. She's still very sleepy, of course, so it's hard to tell you much about her personality just yet. Did you see the hair?? What a surprise that was. We've never had a baby with so much, and such dark, hair. She's gorgeous though, I'm so proud of her. :-)

The other kiddos are doing really well. They had a lot of fun at their friends' house and with various cousins and their Mammam while we were away. In fact, at first I think they were more excited about visiting their friends than they were the new baby. :-) Now that we're home, they are all in love with Evelyn. Our next youngest, Seth, is coping well with the transition from baby to older brother. He has shown very little evidence of jealousy and he's warming up to Evelyn very well.

Now let me tell you about Larry. You all should be so proud of him. He's been really wonderful to me throughout this whole pregnancy, birth and recovery thing. He takes really good care of me and is always aware of how I'm doing emotionally and physically. I feel very safe and secure knowing that he is keeping a close eye on me. I'm so grateful for him. He's also a really great Dad and it makes me so happy to see the joy in his eyes when he holds his newborn daughter. It's really a beautiful thing.

I'll leave you with just a couple of pics, although you've probably seen these ones already. We're just not that good at the photo-taking thing. I'll try harder though, I promise. ;-)




We love you all and thank you for your prayers and thoughts. :-)

Still waiting...

Of course if anything does happen, we'll let you all know. Just thought I'd record the fact that I am STILL waiting and now a full week "overdue" and quite proud of myself because so far all of my children, husband and myself are still alive. :-P

Everybody needs good neighbours

I can't let the below whiny post go without this one to balance it. Today was a difficult day, but I'm reminded of how blessed our family is as well. First, we have friends around the corner who have four young children of their own, who have joyfully placed themselves on call to come and watch our children for us when we do finally have this baby. They were here today at a moment's notice, although I know they most likely had a full day planned (they were at Sizzler having lunch when Larry called them), and they were nothing but happy and generous in giving their time to us instead. I am very thankful for them all.

Second, we have a relatively new next-door neighbour who, today, came over and cleaned up our front yard, and moved our van into the carport that he cleared out for us. A few days ago he cut our grass. He has also offered to help fix our van (he is or was a mechanic). I haven't even met him. This generosity boggles my mind and I'm very thankful for it. I'm gonna bake him a pie. :)

Third, my mama has been driving me to my appointments for the past several weeks to save me from traveling in the summer heat. I know it's not always convenient for her but she's always really awesome about it (and under normal circumstances even takes me shopping afterwards). So thank you mom. :)

Adventures in pregnancy

So today I'm 40 weeks and 3 days and had a routine appointment at my birth centre. I was not feeling well at all, the family's been fighting off a virus and in typical fashion it is taking me a bit longer to kick than average. At my appointment the baby's heart rate decelerated to 90bpm while the midwife was listening to it (an acceptable range is somewhere between about 120-150bpm for my baby's gestation) so she sent me up to the hospital for monitoring, commenting that they'd probably want to induce me because I wasn't looking too good anyway, and she thought the baby might just need to come out.

Okay then. I've had a really rough couple of weeks with two separate rounds of yuckiness going through the family, and I was (am) ready to be done with the whole pregnancy thing anyway and begin the task of recovering from pregnancy and from this stupid virus, so I was, let's say, very accepting of what seemed to be a strong possibility of meeting my baby today or tomorrow. Evelyn, however, seemed fine during monitoring. In fact she seemed better than fine. She was having a grand old time. That decel must have been pretty much just a fluke. I'm thankful for that, and that she is healthy and happy in there.

BUT.

I'm still pregnant. I have an appointment next Friday at which time they will discuss an induction date with me in FEBRUARY. This baby was due on January 19 and now we're talking February? Somebody help me.

Please pray for me and Evelyn, that she will decide on her own (and SOON) to get herself born, and that the timing would be convenient (sounds like a luxurious request but it's important given the need to find care for 5 children in a quick hurry, since my labors are short). Prolonged pregnancy really isn't good for anyone in this family at this juncture and I'm personally reaching the end of my ability to cope.

Thanks guys. xox

Somewhere to write stuff down

I haven't blogged anywhere in a long time, let alone here. I don't really have the time to do blogging justice, and I really don't like feeling like I *should* blog when I don't feel like it. It becomes just another thing hanging over my head. However, there are people who would benefit from more updates about our family, and this is as good a place as any to do that. And so, allow me to proceed with the updating.

Since my last post on this blog, we have had another baby boy who is now nearly 2 years old (!!). In addition, I'm due with our 6th baby (a girl) tomorrow. We're in the same house, but maybe crammed in just a little more...more about that later, maybe.

We had a brief foray into pastoral ministry after my husband finished Bible College. The experience didn't really turn out too well, but many lessons were learned nonetheless. We're still kinda figuring out what to do next, but in the meantime my husband has a decent job with a great boss and we are feeling blessed.

I started some work earlier this year with a crisis pregnancy centre, a bit before finding myself pregnant with the baby we're waiting on now. Although I'm currently on "maternity leave", when baby is born I intend to go back to work at least one day a week, and probably work from home one day a week. My husband's current job arrangement allows for this, since he works evenings and can be home with the kids during the day. It's been good for everyone involved I think -- I often take one of the kids with me as well which allows for an extra-curricular experience for them and also some one-on-one time with me.

I've been re-writing a curriculum for the crisis pregnancy centre's "Earn While You Learn" program -- transitioning it from Americanese into more Aussie-friendly language, and making the information more relevant to our Australian clients. This endeavour has been going well and I'm about two-thirds of the way through the main portion of the curriculum, however I've hit a bit of a wall because my brain feels like it's going to fall out at any moment (third trimester brain-melt). I really feel strongly about getting it finished, though...and I will...later.......

We are homeschooling -- kind of. What we actually do is technically distance education. My kids are enrolled in a government approved school but they do their work from home. We were really pleased to happen upon this relatively new (to this area) option because we feel it offers the best of both worlds: we have a strong, approved framework from which to build, we know all our bases are covered academically, yet we still have our kids with us every day and have the freedom to give their education the emphases that we find necessary and good. Works for us. :)

These are the major changes that have occurred since last posting here. Many, many minor changes and events have happened as well, of course. I may or may not mention some of those if I choose to continue blogging (which I may or may not -- I just can't commit to it right now, you understand). But I'll bring you up to date on today. :-)

Today, I have 2 sick little boys and 2 recovering girls. My oldest doesn't appear to be ill -- yet. I'm not gonna hold my breath though. {Update: his appetite is shaky and I'm suspicious} The girls got sick about 5 days ago, with fevers and headaches and lethargy and a little bit of barf. They *seem* better at this point but their appetites aren't quite recovered yet and they keep surprising me with MORE BARF. Then they'll get up and run around like nothing ever happened. It's confusing me, and believe me, I'm already confused (in general). Little boys so far have had fevers, aches, and crankiness, but so far no barf. I am guessing that will happen after they've been asleep for a while.

I hate it when the kids are sick and I really struggle with it. It's very difficult, too, when I'm nine months pregnant. I mean, EVERYTHING is difficult when I'm nine months pregnant. Add this to the fact that they were just sick, like, last week or something, with a tummy bug. I have to remind myself that I'm so blessed to have these children to nurse back to health, and so blessed that I can be reasonably sure they will in fact recover and be none-the-worse for the wear. There are so many mothers in this world of ours that must be terribly scared when their children become ill, because they very well may not survive it. :(

As I mentioned, I'm one day (well, less than three hours now) from my due date. I'm anticipating a late arrival, though, and have been since the beginning, so I'm not freaking out too much about the possibility of my due date coming and going without Evelyn's arrival. At any rate, I think that I most likely have about 11 days left of this pregnancy -- I can handle that, right? Honestly, compared to my most recent pregnancies with bigger-sized babies than this little girl seems to be, I'm still pretty comfortable. I have my moments and I sure complain sometimes but it's been a pretty smooth pregnancy (well, sorta kinda -- we have had some issues but all is well now).

Our budget right now is shot. With being hugely pregnant, and it being so so hot (43C yesterday, or 109F), we've been eating what's easy and not necessarily what's cheap. With the kids being ill recently, I've personally needed more comfort foods as well. :P Right now we're in a whatever-works pattern. We also hired some domestic help, a lovely lady who comes to help me clean once a week. She is very genuine, very caring about our little family, and we are becoming good friends. Probably not good enough that she'll clean my house for free though. :P (I'd never want her to.) Anyway it really helps to know that she'll be here on a Monday to help us get caught up, and it makes it easier to stay caught up for the rest of the week. :)

I'm looking forward to tightening down the budget again once we settle in with the baby and all. There's always been a bit of an adjustment period for us financially when we have a new baby, and this is mainly due to a lack of organisation (of what we're going to eat, etc.) and just trying to get a handle on the new normal. I'd love to have the motivation to put meals into the freezer but for several reasons (did I mention the temperature today?) I just can't get it done. Once baby is here and we're used to her, I can start nailing things down again. I used to have a good system going, once upon a time...

Okay so I'm sure this is all very exciting. Next time I post (?) I will try to break things up with some photos. Posts I'd like to make in the future:

• Things I have made for the new baby
  
• Pictures and stories of the kids doing various things
• Details of some of the activities we're involved in (various martial arts and dance classes, for example)
• Food we like to make and eat
• Budget rescue plans
  
• Meh. I dunno. I'll think of something. Maybe if I'm really cranky one day I'll take it out on someone on my blog. :P
  

If you don't feel like checking back here to see if I've (finally) updated, there should be a way to receive notifications of my posts in your email inbox. I don't know *how* this is done but I'm pretty sure it's done. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

To all of our geographically distant relatives and friends, we love you all and miss you. Grandma and Grandpa T, Grandma C., Grandma R., Mom and Dad T., Chris and Lindsay, Greg, Moey and family, and so many others, we think of you often and miss you terribly.

Much love,
Deb, Larry and kids xox