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