Rose is welcomed by the rest of the family

When Lana’s Mum and Dad and the children arrived about an hour later, David received the message that the family had arrived. He went out and couldn’t find them. He came back, and then went back out and asked at the nurse’s station, “Hello. The rest of my family has arrived. Any idea where they are?” From his accent, they knew exactly who he was talking about and answered, “They are in Lana’s room.” “Aha,” replied David, “But we’re not. We’re in the Labour ward.” And went off to collect them. It was great seeing all the nurses stand up and watch as David, the five children and Lana’s Mum and Dad all trooped off to see the new addition.

Five little Australians and a tiny American

Rose is born again!

We had originally planned to have Rose baptized on mid June. However, with her arriving later than expected, we deferred the baptism to the end of June. The Baptism was part of Mass so all the parish could participate. It feels as though Rose now has about 50 new grandparents in addition to the standard four.
As Jesus told Nicodemus, “Believe me, no man can enter the Kingdom of God unless birth comes to him from water, and from the Holy Spirit.” [John 3:5] So now, Rose is part of the community, a Christian, and “de-paganized” as Father Wise quipped.
Despite the importance of the occasion, Rose slept through the whole thing, even when the water was poured on he head, and the christening oils were applied to her forehead, ears and lips. Now, if only she would sleep through the night!

Born Again late June 2004

Baby Shower

We were able to experience a most extraordinary tradition common hereabouts known as the “Baby Shower”. This is where a collection of women organize and attend a party for the expectant mum, and shower her with various gifts to help with the upcoming new baby. There is a cake, some games, and lots of “Oohs” and “Aahs” as the presents are opened.
One of our initial concerns with Rose was that we had not brought ANY baby related things with us. With only a limited number of suitcases, we only brought what we thought we would be using in the short term. The Baby Shower that was organized for Lana was more of a “Baby Flood”; the generosity of those ladies was incredible.
After looking over all the presents, we worked out we need to buy nothing to get ready for Rose. Of course, now the challenge is to make sure Rose is able to wear all the clothes before she grows out of them!

Lana opening the gifts (with lots of help)

Flying Fox

You may remember us mentioning the flying fox that James had built in September last year. Well, with Lana’s father here, we have improved it a bit. The problem with the earlier one is that it used the cubby house and a small tree as the two posts. This meant if Eric used it, both the tree bent and the cubby house wobbled. The new, improved flying fox goes from one huge tree behind the cubby house to another tree diagonally opposite, with the rope going through the cubby house. Also, we found a great pulley that made it roll very well. David and Dad set it up and then had Ariel and Eric test it. Unfortunately, Ariel was too heavy and skidded along the ground and smashed into the tree. Ooof!

So, plan B. They tied the rope higher onto the base tree, which decreased the angle and rate of descent. Also, by the time the rider reached the tree, they would be going up hill and be slowed down. But Ariel wouldn’t try that dangerous thing again! (Wise girl). So David had a great idea. He had a large cushion between him and the tree and another in front. Then Ariel had a go, knowing David would catch her.
Does he look worried to you?

Danger! Danger! Danger! - Would Steve Irwin try this?

Trampoline

To help Lana with the home-schooling, we purchased a trampoline for the children. This allows Lana to tell a fidgety child, “Go outside and jump on the trampoline!” After a bit of exercise, they are ready for some more study!
Unlike the trampolines we had at home, the typical ones here are round and can come with safety netting. We purchased the 15’ diameter trampoline. It came with good quality padding that completely covered the springs. With the net in place, the whole trampoline gets used. A timer allows the children to take 5-minute turns without too much squabbling.

All of the children testing out how the trampoline bounces.

Free Homeschooling Stuff

We have discovered a number of excellent resources that are great value – and they are free.

Homeschool Radio Shows
This weekly email provides a 30-minute radio show from the 50’s. These shows are a wide variety from “Adventures in Research”, “Lassie”, “Family Classics” and others. You just download them and play. You can also order complete MP3 CDs with lots of shows and audio books. The cost for these CDs are USD $19.95 which includes postage to US or Australia. We recently purchased the “Adventures in Listening” CD and have learnt about “The first skyscraper”, “Million Dollar Cabbages”, “Buring Rocks”[How oil shale was discovered], How ice cream was invented, outboard motors, and so on. Check out the latest here.

iTunes
The best MP3 organizer is iTunes for both the Mac and Windows. It doesn’t cost anything, but organizes your music files very well, obtains tracks from CDs and writes your selected tracks to blank CDs. We have converted all of our music to MP3 or AAC (Apple’s music format) from CD, record and cassette. This is then organized by author, genre, album and other attributes, as well as creating multiple play lists – one for each family member.

Weekly Science experiments
Robert Krampf provides a weekly science experiment by email. Each experiment uses typical household items and the scientific principles are explained in layman’s terms and some humour. Amongst the more recent experiments, we have looked at balance, cracking knuckles, floating, caramel colour, weights and scales and lots more.
To join the list, send a blank e-mail to: krampf-subscribe@topica.com

Dover Samplers
Dover publishes and distributes a wide variety of fine books and materials, especially those aimed at children. They have one of the largest collections of topical colouring books I have seen. In order to show people how much they have, they send a weekly sampler which links to a page containing a sample of a selection from each of this week’s books. Each Friday we go to the Sampler page and save a picture of each of the samples into a folder. We now have a great variety of colouring-in pages, mazes, cross words, find-a-words, logic puzzles and more. Ariel was able to create a customized activity book for some of her friends using a collection of the pictures. Also, we bought some of their colouring-in books and were very happy with them. They all had fun using the King Arthur book. This is the most recent sampler.

Rain

We have had rain lately. Lots of Rain. Lots and lots of rain. In fact, I think that since Lana’s parents arrived we have had more rain days than completely clear ones. Father Wise commented last week that there is fine weather just a mile from here – a mile straight up that is. He also commented that if anyone spots a large yellow thing in the sky, they are not to panic. It is not the end of the world, that thing is called “The Sun”.
Meanwhile in Australia, almost every capital city has water restrictions, water catchment areas are closely monitored and the local fire brigades are worried about the coming bush fire season. In fact, they are even worried about the possibility of fires going out of control in zero temperature (32F) from hazard reduction burnings when windy. It is very dry.
So, you can imagine my surprise at the local paper’s headlines, “No Drought. Water Restrictions.” Drought? Apparently there is some sort of “drought” in some part of the State, but not around here. Here the ground squelches underfoot, and the flora grows whilst you watch.

The Mystery Moth of July 2003

In July last year we pictured a moth, and asked what type it was. This time we were prepared. We have a collection of “Peterson First Guides” which are great little insect, bird and flora spotting guides. This time when the huge moth fluttered by, David went outside and caught it. It is a “Polyphemus” moth, named after a one eyed giant in Greek mythology. They grow up to 6 inches, and as you can see this one is close to the largest.

Mystery solved! A Polyphemus Moth

Birds of a feather

It appears that some local small birds like to build nests in the support rafters of our outside decking. The children thought this was all pretty good. They could hear the baby birds chirping and then see the mother bird swoop under the deck and go into the nest, feeding them. But, one Sunday, the birds had grown too big and the nest fell to the ground. But the baby birds were still too small to fly. The children gathered them up and put them in what was left of the nest. We had to go to Mass and we told the children we would see what we could do later.

Upon returning, two of the five birds had waddled off. James and Clare found them and put them back in the nest. David did some research on the Internet and found out that the best way to save the baby birds was to put up another nest near the first. The best we could do was to hang up a brightly coloured Easter basket from a hook screwed into the rafters. The old bird nest plus more stuffing was placed in the basket, and the baby birds placed in it. We then stood back and waited.
Next day we heard the birds chirping and the children saw the mother bird fly into the new nest! Great! The children’s handling of the baby birds did not stop the mother from feeding them.

Three baby birds asking, “Are you my mother?”

Is this a big beetle or what?

Jonathan Floyd visited and showed us his latest prize – a Rhinoceros beetle. In showing us this huge beetle, we also discovered it defense – its odour. Phew!

Big Beetle - big smell.

Brasstown Bald mid April - Spring has been temporarily delayed!

Spring has sprung!

We now realize why poets have written many works in praise of Spring. In Australia, each season is typically only noted by a variation in temperature, especially if surrounded by native Australian bush. Eucalyptus (gum) trees drop leaves, sticks and branches throughout the year, typically creating a nice little tinder box around their base ready for the bush fire season.

However, here Spring is as if God has used a very bright paint-box and changed the whole landscape from almost black and white to colour! In Australia, if asked, most people would consider that Lime Green is a pretty fake colour. Never seen in the real world. But now we know this is not true. All around us, the leaves are a very bright lime green.

In Mid April we had a snowfall that coated all the trees and wires with about an inch of snow. All that landed on the ground melted, but the rest lasted until lunchtime. Lana went back to the suitcases and retrieved the cold weather clothes that had been packed and the children were outside, shaking trees to make it snow!

Dogwood blossoms - confused by this sudden snow.

One of the trees locally is the Dogwood tree. It has very pretty white flowers that are gradually replaced by leaves. There is a legend (unlikely to be true as the dogwood isn’t native to Palestine) surrounding this tree.

Of course, with Spring comes the pollen. The cars (B1 and B2) have been covered with a fine yellow powder each day. When it rains, the air is a lot clearer and all the mountains are much brighter.

We have also lost our view. Leaves have now filled all the gaps made during winter. In two weeks each tree has growth of over an inch per week. You can almost see everything growing whilst you watch. Back home, growth slowed in winter and increased in Spring. Here it stops in Winter and makes up for lost time in the first few weeks of Spring. The war between the lawn mowers and the grass is on. The grass is winning at most places. Weekly mowing is on order to make a fight of it.

Australia is still there.

The end of a wet day after some rain - Yea, Victoria, Aust.

In late March David travelled to Australia to assist a client upgrade to Greentree Accounting software. It was a very busy time trying to fit data conversion, implementation and training into two weeks. However, after initial teething issues all sites have when changing software, it is going to plan.
Prior to the two weeks in Australia, David had a week in Chicago, so David was away from the family for three weeks.

Whilst he was in Australia, he was able to make it to Colette and Tim’s wedding. (More below). Whilst in Melbourne he caught up with the family and some friends. It is still dry in most of Australia, with water restrictions in most state capitals. He took some photos of country Victoria which had some much needed rain on the day he was there. The yellow grass should be green at this time of year.

David had a long list of Australian specialty foods he was to bring back, such as Vegemite, coconut, Violet Crumbles, Allens’ Snakes, Passionfruit pulp, Milo, Custard powder, chocolate (lots of) and other candy (lollies). Even though he took quite a few books for homeschoolers in Australia, his bags were still heavier on the return journey.

David also brought back a bonus surprise for Lana. One of his clients, Dream Angel, distributes a great spring pillow. It is a pillow that has internal springs inside padded pockets inside padding. The pillow stays firm for a very, very long time and is extremely comfortable. They are supplied in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag that makes transport great. Once the plastic is opened, air rushes in and the pillow expands.

Power Points

On a side note, we wanted to mention power points. Australian Power is 240v whilst US is 110v. However, Australian power points all have an on/off switch. Also, power switches are up for OFF, down for ON. In the US it is the reverse – down is OFF, up is ON. Just another habit to consider.

Australian Power Point - Note the on/off switch.
US Power points are always on. Plug in and you're going.

The wedding of Colette and Tim

After about an eight-year courtship, Tim finally asked Colette to be his wife. Despite our promptings, they couldn’t do it before we left, so we had resigned ourselves to the disappointment that we wouldn’t be able to attend. However, the Australian trip all came together very well. David was able to attend. So Colette made sure David wasn’t just a bystander. She got him to do the first reading and responsorial psalm at the wedding, and say the Grace at the reception. He also took quite a few photos.

On the trip to the wedding, David was in the Bridal car with Colette and their parents, looking over the wedding booklet. Curious, he noticed that the wedding vows weren’t detailed in the booklet, so he asked Colette. Colette replied that they had already discussed them with the priest and all concerned knew what was going to be said. David mentioned there were a few options and recalled the ones he remembered from our wedding. He was assured all was fine.

What do you mean we forgot the vows?

At the all important moment when Tim and Colette were ready to convey the Sacrament of Matrimony to each other by pronouncing their vows in front of God, the church and many witnesses, the priest looked in his booklet, then at Tim and Colette and asked, “Where are your vows?” Colette looked at Tim, the priest and then to the church and said aloud, “David! You were right!” The priest quickly searched for his book, couldn’t find it, but mentioned he had done lots of weddings anyway so should know what to say and Tim and Colette were able to get married after all.

At the reception, Tim was able to name all of us who couldn’t be there, in order and correctly, even mentioning Rose. He did suggest that the airline company was upset we couldn’t make it too. He was able to share one memory of David with all those gathered, which happened early into his courtship with Colette.
David had taken Tim aside, with an arm on his shoulder and said, “Tim. What are your intentions with my sister?” He then went on to say, “Tim, you may as well make up your mind and marry the girl.” But Tim wanted to make sure and took a further 8 years. But all's well that ends well.

The new Mr & Mrs Haymes.

Homeschooling in our new home

The homeschooling is going well. We have recently switched our English program to one using the McGuffey readers. Readers familiar with Little House on the Prairie may remember the name. These were published in the late 19th Century and a hardcover boxed set is available for K through year 6 from Amazon for about $46. (US) In a web search, we found that the year 6 level books are equivalent to current year 10 level. They provide a variety of excerpts of many great authors and poets; provide basic phonics and reading for the younger ages and reading and grammar for the older.

James studying his Maths with Lana

James suddenly improved his reading once he was able to read something interesting. In the McGuffey readers, once the basic alphabet is covered, the student is quickly onto interesting stories, with interesting pictures. Anyway, whilst Lana is concentrating on James, the older ones do reading or other work they can do without guidance, Peter plays with Clare, or Eric goes through basic alphabet and phonics with Peter, with Clare opening her book to join in, too.

Eric teaching Peter basic phonics.

Bird Boxes taken over

At Home Depot the children all made “window bird boxes”. These are designed to attach to a window with suction cups, birds are supposed to use them for nests and you can see what is happening in the clear plastic rear panel. Well, these have turned out to be wasp boxes. Wasps have made their homes in a couple of them and have started building a paper nest. A fascinating science study. Another wasp has built a nest on one of the deck railings. Ariel wanted to check it out so David and her went to look. David asked Ariel if a wasp was in there. Ariel looked and said no, so went to see if she could detach it from the railing. Out came the wasp! David and Ariel froze, pretending to be statues. After buzzing around for about a minute, the wasp went back into its nest. Ariel got up from her kneeling position, but used the railing for support and the wasp came out again! Once more they were statues. This time when the wasp went back in, they both – very gently – tiptoed away.

Public School Timetables

The other amazing news was the local public school timetable. Students get picked up between 7:00 and 7:30am. At 8:00 they are taken into the cafeteria for Breakfast. Even if the child has had breakfast, they are required to be there. No talking no running no playing. Then it is into class until lunchtime. 30 minutes - no talking no running no playing. Back to class until school ends at 3:30pm. Then on to the bus back home with up to 2 hours homework. When we explained the timetable to the children, they decided that homeschooling really was the best way to get proper socialization. “When do they get to play?” they asked. We thought that was a good question.

The combined birthday party and bonfire

In April, we had a combined birthday party for the birthdays of Clare, James and David. We had organized for a bonfire, the children wanted to wear costumes, so we invited plenty of families. It was a great day. The children all ran around playing various games of their own inventions. There were spare costumes for those that wanted to try something different or weren’t too sure about wearing any when they arrived. The older and younger children all mingled, whilst the adults all socialized.

The bonfire was more of a mini forest-fire (but controlled). We went through four bags of marshmallows. The children all wanted to try the toasted marshmallows well before the fire had died down, so typically they were burnt on one side, half melted in the middle and cold on the other side.

Tyler was a little bit tied up in the game.