Five holidays in one

Over the last two weeks Jeff and I have enjoyed five mini-holidays:

1. We had a friend Ros come to visit.

2. Jeff took the kids to Granny & Gramps's farm while I went to Perth for a weekend to scrapbook.

3. We met up in Perth and drove to Southern Cross for a holiday staying three nights with another friend, Naomi. While there, we explored the site where gold was first found in WA.

And clambered all over Baladjie Rock.

On the way back we stopped off at Merredin to visit the historical water tower.

4. After a brief spell at home for a sleepover birthday party for Anna,

we drove via the Tin Horse Highway

to Wave Rock and Hyden.

"Where a man can see for miles
Still get lost, still be free.
At home in the bush
Where the heart wants to be."

Then it was on to Kalgoorlie for another three-night holiday, this time with my brother and his family.

We returned home via Perth again, this time spending a night in a caravan park where Granny and Gramps were also, purely by coincidence, staying.

5. We had more friends visit, Tim & Helen and their baby Nathanael, so their music team could bless our church with a Sunday morning special.

Now we are back home, without visitors, and the kids are back at school. Loving life.

Anna's new desk and the Waldseemüller map

We gave Anna a new desk, complete with hutch bookshelf and chair, for her birthday. It's already getting lots of use.

(It's the fruit of the first time I've enjoyed a visit to yIKesEA ever: we were in and out in 10 minutes, thanks to checking the product availability section of their website before we arrived, avoiding the display floor area entirely, heading straight to the correct warehouse shelves to pick and then pay for the goods before leaving immediately. "Do not pass GO, do not collect $200": But we did get to enjoy a couple's night out together afterwards with the time we'd saved.)

This evening we had a family DVD night and watched the first episode of The Map Makers series, on the Waldseemüller Map, now named after its cartographer, Martin Waldseemüller. Originally called the Universalis Cosmographica, it was the first map to illustrate a fourth continent with an ocean separating it from Asia. Its publication was the first time the name "America" was used in printed form. 1000 copies of the map were produced in 1507, but there is now only one extant copy known. Found in 1901 and purchased in 2003 from a German prince's family library for a cool US$10 million, the Waldseemüller Map now resides in the US Library of Congress.

[Image source: http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/waldseemuller-loc-big.jpg]

An accompanying book, the Cosmographiae Introductio, written by Waldseemüller's co-worker Matthias Ringmann, states that the fourth continent has been named after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci:

"from Amerigo the discoverer ... as if it were the land of Americus, thus America"

"There is a fourth quarter of the world which Amerigo Vespucci has discovered and which for this reason we can call 'America' or the land of Americo. We do not see why the name of the man of genius, Amerigo, who has discovered them, should not be given to these lands, as Europa and Asia have adopted the names of women."

This last part shows why America wasn't named Amerigo: Waldseemüller and Ringmann feminised the explorer's name in line with the names of the three previously known continents, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Amerigo Vespucci originally worked with Christopher Columbus, who discovered the West Indies, islands off the coast of the American continents. Columbus thought he had reached the eastern expanses of Asia. Vespucci later sailed in his own ship, reporting in letters his discoveries of a continent-sized land mass which he determined and demonstrated not to be the same Asia as earlier described by Claudius Ptolemy and Marco Polo. Vespucci's letters indicate he realised the true nature of the newly-discovered lands, but they may not even have been written by Vespucci himself. Some were possibly partially or even wholly fabricated by their publishers. After Vespucci's death, his name was besmirched by Columbus's supporters, who wanted Columbus proclaimed as the discoverer of the newly-identified continent. However, the name "America" stuck.

This is Anna's take on the episode, which she drew/wrote on her desk's magnetic whiteboard immediately after watching it.

"CC [Captain Columbus] discovered islands that were part of America but didn't really discover America.
FOCC [Friend of Captain Columbus] discovered America for real unlike CC but didn't get the credit he deserved."

Quarter Time weigh in

A few days into the new year, I wrote that Jeff and I had begun juicing again and I was also exercising daily. This is all in aid of achieving a goal I set myself six months to reach: to lose at least 5.5kg each month over six months, to bring my weight down to within my healthy BMI range.

Today marks the first quarter point to meeting my six month goal. So how have I been doing?

Jeff and I were initially planning to do a juice-only fast but we realised it is better for the kids to see us making sustainable healthy eating choices, rather than doing a fairly radical diet. So we have 3-4 juices each day and eat a large salad for dinner each night. Jeff's salads include cheese, which is absent from most of mine, and we both include smoked salmon, tinned tuna, or an egg from our backyard chickens a few times each week. If I feel the need or desire for an extra snack in the afternoon I eat nuts or have a piece of the wonderful summer stone fruit that is available at the moment.

My typical breakfast juice consists of:
2 oranges
2 large carrots
1 yellow capsicum
1/2 pumpkin or 1 med sweet potato or 1 grapefruit
4 stalks of celery

My typical morning tea and lunch juices consist of half the following recipe, which does both meals:
2 granny smith apples
1 small or 1/2 large cucumber
1 green capsicum
1 plant coriander
1 lime or 1/2 lemon
1/2 inch ginger
6 leaves kale or 1 bag baby spinach on stems or 4 bok choy or 4 stems English spinach

My typical afternoon tea juice consists of:
2 oranges
1 beetroot, peeled
2 large carrots (purple carrots if available)
1 red capsicum
4 stalks of celery

Exercise-wise, during January I was awarded my Bronze Medallion swimming/lifesaving award, and I completed Jillian Michael's "30 Day Shred" DVD, with ten days of exercise at each of the three levels on the DVD. I have now moved on to Jillian Michael's "Burn Fat Boost Metabolism" DVD, which contains a longer workout as well as longer warm up and cool down circuits. I am improving already with this DVD. While I could only complete 6 of the 7 circuits (each 6min) initially, I can now do the entire workout of 7x6min circuits each morning.

My fitness has greatly improved. Here is a list of some of the things I can do now that I could not do at the beginning of January:
I can now do full sit ups (flat back, arms straight behind/above my head, knees bent, feet stay still on the floor without assistance as I do a complete sit up, not a crunch). I can do 10+ of these at a time, where previously I struggled to do one sit up with straight arms pointing forward to my knees.
I can now do 38 full (male) push ups in 60 sec. Previously, I couldn't do as many push ups on my knees (female-style) as I can now do with my legs straight.
I can now touch my forehead to my knees in a wide legs (almost) splits position, with my hands wrapped around my foot. Before, I could only just touch my toes in this position.
I can now run 1km without stopping, having cut about 1 min off my time from the beginning of January.

As for my weight, in January I met my monthly target of 5.5kg and a smidgen extra, losing 5.8kg (12.8lbs). At my quarter time weigh in this morning, I had lost a total of 10.1kg (22.3lbs), which is a drop of 3.5BMI points. So I am now 30% of the way to my target!!

My handsome husband

Ender's Game the movie!!!

Of all the books I read as a teen, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card has to be my favourite for so many reasons, not least the kick-ass twist to the ending. And now it's being made into a movie starring Harrison Ford as Lieutenant Graff and Asa Butterfield as Andrew Wiggin aka saviour-of-the-world-as-they-know-it Ender.

For more on the making of Ender's Game the movie, see the official blog.

I know where I'll be on 1/11/13.
(Umm, unless that other Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, comes back first.)

Sam Juices Up

Sam Juices Up

Samuel asked if he could make some of his own juice, so we worked together and he prepared - and enjoyed - juice from his own recipe:
1 red apple
1 green apple
1 carrot
It made just enough juice for one Sam-size cup.

(That's our juicer in the background, a Breville Juice Fountain.)

First Taste

My afternoon juice: Grape, Beetroot, Purple and Orange Carrots, Ginger, Kale & Capsicum

Anna reclines to read

Anna reclines to read

I swear she was lying just like this when I came to check up on how her Quiet Time was going!

Abigail from Tree to Trampoline

Abigail from tree to trampoline

Abigail loves to play in our back yard, especially when she can jump on the trampoline, or jump onto the trampoline as the case may be!

Preparing to make the leap

Airborne!

Gravity takes effect

Da-da!

"How'd I do, Mummy?"

This final photo is the one I chose for Grandma's perpetual birthday calendar:

Joshua the Chicken Whisperer

Joshua the Chicken Whisperer

Left to right (above) we have: Joshua, Snowy, Lily, Sharp Toes, Lizzy Blizzard and Mr Eggsplorer.

Our chicks have grown feathers and are starting to grow combs as well. They are looking like real Sussex now!

They are spoiled with beautiful Agapanthus flowers right in their chicken coop. The chicks loved hiding under the leaves when they were small, but they can't blend in there now.

I took several photos of Joshua with the chickens trying to get just the right moment to include in a photo calendar I am making for my Grandma.

Surprise

Shock

Sensible

Serious

Silly

Smile

(If you're wondering about the scratches on Joshua's face, they are war wounds from tree climbing at the local park yesterday.)

Someone's been playing with my camera

Peekaboo!