Conference

Conference was fantastic!  I did come up with a question, but just like Tistan said in response to my last post, it was answered before conference, so I had to pick another one.  The first half of conference answered that question so I picked yet another one for the second half.  I don't always get answers that fast.  In fact most of the time they come real slow.  This has been a very different experience.  


This evening, as we were eating dinner, I asked each of the kids what they remembered, or if they had a favorite talk, etc.  Each of the kids took a turn sharing their thoughts.  I was surprised at how much they remembered.  Even my little ones.  David really shocked us.  He went last.  Instead of reciting something that one of the other kids had said, or just being goofy, he told me, in quite a bit of detail, about a story that was told during the first 2 hour session.  We all just stared at him, amazed.  I think all my girls jaws hit the table.  It's amazing what they are learning when you don't think they are listening.  


My favorite talk, though I liked them ALL so much, was Henry B Eyring's.  He talked about the things we can do to lay a foundation of faith that will carry us through any trial.  He said that personal integrity was the solid ground under our faith: the small, constant right choices we make.  The gospel of Jesus Christ was the framework.  Serving others is also an important component.  He said that there is always a blessing available through adversity that more than compensates for the loss.  I LOVED that!  I have found that to be soooo true in my life.  We don't get to choose the things that happen to us in life, often, but we do get to choose how we respond to them.    


Well, I'm going to wrap it up.  It's my baby girl's birthday tomorrow (Charity's) and I am getting up early to make a few things.  She is 11 tomorrow.  A year until young womens!  (She gets to join the big girls at church) She is making a chart to mark down the days.  What a cutie.  

Conference!

I am blogging late tonight.  It has been a busy day!  School, organizing, cleaning, time with my kids, trip to the pond with Daddy (Charity caught a big bass) and a few other miscellaneous things.  We ended it watching one of Hope's Harry Potter movies.  What a great day!

I am sooo excited!  It is conference weekend again; we get to hear the prophet and apostles speak to us.  I love it.  When Elder Bednar was here he told us that we should take a question or two into conference with the faith that we will get an answer, and if we did that, we would.  He gave an example of a woman who had a question about marriage.  She left conference amazed at how almost every single one of the speakers seemed to be talking straight to her, answering her question.  I know that I have experienced that as well, though I haven't always gone in with a question in mind.  I'm excited to do that this time.  I have been thinking about what that will be.  What is the question that I will take to conference?  I'm not sure yet.  I have something in mind, but I am still thinking about it.  It's a wonderful opportunity so I really want to make it count.  We have encouraged our children to do the same thing as well. 

I am so excited to hear my Heavenly Father's voice through His servants.  What a privilege that is!!!!  I'm sure I will have a lot to say afterwards.  I am usually bursting at the seams.  I am off to bed now.  I will write again tomorrow, probably in the evening after I have listened to all the talks.  Goodnight.        

Office and Errands

School, paperwork, bills and errands....that's my day today, with very little time to post anything.  I am getting a ton done though.  Feels good.  I found out that my license is expired, so that's on my list too. I got a reminder card in the mail.  It would be nice if they sent that before it expired.  I'm a couple short months from having to retake my driving test.  Boy wouldn't that be fun.  Talk about taking me back in time.  Here is a quick picture of one of David's coloring pages he did today.  Doesn't he do a good job staying in the lines?  Oh, and Hope dressed him this morning.  I don't think the tie will last long.

Hope and Harry Potter

Today was a monumental day in the Campbell household.  Hope got her Harry Potter bed cover!  She took all her birthday money this year and purchased the whole movie set and a duvet.  She got her movies a few days ago, and has been asking every day for her cover.  It finally came, all the way from Poland!  

Hope is such a HUGE fan!!!  She has read the series multiple times.  I finally told her I was not going to allow her to read it again until she put a few other books under her belt.  She wasn't happy about that.  So what did she pick?  Lord of the Rings.  A little bit challenging at her age, but I have read the whole thing to her and she really enjoyed it, so she dove right in.  Hope asked Faith if she could read Harry Potter to her.  Faith liked the idea, so Hope still gets her fix in occasionally.  If she wants to read to her sister, that's fine with me.  Here are a few pictures of her duvet and Hope with her movies.  I have one happy girl!

"Immersion"

I am late blogging today.  Not because of distractions, but because I decided to spend extra time on school.  Charity was learning about pronouns (nominative case, objective case, and  possessive) and she wasn't quite getting it.  So we spent some extra time going over sentences together. (I love that I have the flexibility to do that) She hasn't mastered it yet, but it's a lot more clear.

By lunch Charity was complaining that her body hurt.  One minute she was great, the next on the couch with a fever.  Poor thing.  She isn't even fully over her poison ivy yet.  Faith felt really bad and went right in and made her a card.

Faith is our card queen (as well as our fashion queen).  There is hardly a day that goes by where someone hasn't received a surprise note/card from Faith. What a sweetheart!

One more thought before I sign off.  At the breakfast table this morning David said "Mom, what do you call it under water?" I told him I didn't know.  I expected him to say some random thing (we tell a lot of jokes in our family) but instead he said, "immersion", looking very satisfied with himself. (they had a lesson on baptism at church on Sunday)  "My teacher taught me that."  I was really impressed he remembered the word and understood it enough to share the concept with me two days later.  I swear he gets smarter every day. 

Well I'm off to clean up my kitchen and see what else I am going to fit into my day.  Too many things and not enough time to do them all.  Story of my life!

Back On Schedule

We are finally back on schedule.  My house is clean, I'm all caught up on laundry, and school is in full session.  It feels good.  I still need to get my sleep schedule turned back around.  I have been blogging late at night.  I don't like to be up late! If I am, I have to sleep later to make up for it and that screws up my whole schedule!  I drag all day when I don't start early and I never feel as rested.  The hours before midnight are magic hours.  You get way more bang for your buck!  If I get up early after going to bed late I find that the consequences for cutting my sleep are much more severe now that I'm older.  So back to my 10pm bed time! 

I realized I don't have a time set aside in my schedule to blog (hence the late night posts) so I thought I would make a time.  Here I am in my scheduled blogging time, blogging.  Acutally I'm a little late, truth be told, but the day offers many distractions...sigh!

This morning Bryan headed to work with three guys.  After watching him work 15 hour days by himself, last week, coming home so tired he could hardly move, it was nice to see him head off this morning with so much help.  As grateful as I was for that, I feel even more appreciative that we have the opportunity to provide work for people that are really needing it right now.  It's one of the things I love about having our own business!

Here is a picture of what I did with Faith's hair this morning.  I did some fun things with the girls hair for church yesterday and Bryan asked me to start getting pictures of what I do and blog them so we can remember them.  I did simple ponytails for the other girls.  I got this idea from Amy for my hair and I thought I would adapt it for Faith.  It turned out cute.  

  

Miracles

I talked with a friend of mine this evening.  We have been friends for about 5 years.  For most of that time she has really been through the ringer.  It has been one trial after another.  It seemed like there was never going to be an end to it.  She didn't know how much more she could take.  I kept telling her she just needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other.  (Much easier said than done!)  She did, even though solutions to her problems seemed impossible.  Then one day, everything changed!  The impossible happened!  (It is amazing to me that the whole time she was battling to stay a float, Heavenly Father was working out the details of her miracle and preparing her to be ready for it.)

It was an amazing experience to walk that road with her.  I feel it an honor and a privilege to have witnessed that miracle in her life.  I am still reeling from it all.  I keep telling her how very excited I am for her....and I keep repeating myself because it continues to get better and better!  I watched (and am watching) the impossible happen in her life. 

God is a God of miracles, yesterday, today and forever!  And yet no matter how many times I witness them in mine or other's lives, I find myself with the same level of awe.

Dinner Time Conversation

During lunch today, Charity was telling me that she was making up names for all of our fruit trees.  I asked her about the names.  She listed off a bunch of names and then told me she was calling my cherry tree Ruthy.  I told her "No, my tree is not a Ruthy!"  She laughed.  David piped in and told me he knew what we should call it.  I asked him what?  He said "Foodist, cause trees give us food."  Then he proceeded to throw out other ideas for the other trees....Branchest and Stem were a few.  I laughed so hard.  Where does he come up with this stuff?  Then a couple sentences later Hope made the comment that she adores herself, "that's part of the reason I look in the mirror so long. I don't understand why other people don't like there faces!"  That got me going again.  Hope has often told me she loves the body she was given and wouldn't want it to be any different!  I think we could all take a lesson from Hope.  Ahh...dinner time conversation!

Date Night

Bryan and I went to see the Hunger Games this evening.  It was good.  I hated the videography at the beginning of the movie.  It made me sick to my stomach.  I wanted them to hold still and quick dancing around.  I don't remember having that be something that has bothered me with other movies, but with this movie, it was a real distraction at times.  Other than that, they did a good job recreating what I imagined in my mind.  It was nice to go out with Bryan as well.  He worked so hard this week and has been really buried.  He really needs some employees.  He's having to turn work away.  It's nice to have more work than we can do, but Bryan can't keep this up forever.  We have had part time help here and there, and will this year as well, but it's time to take it to the next level.  It's a nice problem to have.  I love our business and I'm really proud of all the hard work Bryan has done to get it to where it is!  It's ours and I love that.  Well, I'm off to bed!  I am so tired and curling up in bed sounds sooo good.  Until next time...

My Day

Just a quick thought before I cash in for the night.  I spent all day taking care of my kids.  Hope and Faith have fevers and feel miserable.  Charity is covered in poison ivy, bad! (poor thing!)  I did all I could to help them feel better, but there is only so much that can be done.   

Our Friend magazine came in the mail today.  I always read all the main stories to my kids.  We were in the middle of a story and Faith stopped me and asked if I would help her to be prepared for baptism.  I told her yes, of course.  Then she preceded to tell me how important that was to her and how she really wanted to be ready for that.  It was one of the most spiritual conversations I have ever had with Faith.  As I put her to bed she asked me to listen to her prayers.  I did and was amazed at how she seemed to grow up over night.  She pleaded with her Father in Heaven about things that were important to her in a way I have never heard her do before.  There was a greater level of maturity she just seemed to wake up with today. 

I tucked my kids in and David asked me to sing him a couple of songs.  He picked a couple of his favorites and then Faith picked a couple. (I am still washing sheets, so I let them do a sleeping bag party in our upstairs family room)  As I was singing, David started singing right along with me.  Up till this point I have not been aware of him knowing any songs, though I sing to him nightly.  Every song that Faith picked, including ones they sing at church that I usually don't sing to him at home, he was singing right along with me.  He knew so many of them.  It was amazing!  When I left, Charity, at her siblings request, sang a few more songs to them.

As I walked down the stairs I thought back over my day and thought, there is nothing that makes me sadder than when my kids are hurting!  There is nothing that brings me greater joy than seeing the joy of my kids, whether it's by watching them grow closer to their Heavenly Father, by developing new abilities, or by simply finding joy in being a family!  I love being a Mom.  I love my children!  They bring so much joy to my life!  My heart is so full! 

Spring is Here

  

Our peach tree exploded with tons of blossoms today. If we don't get a nasty cold night after these freakishly warm days we will have a ton of very yummy peaches! I am praying for warm weather. There is nothing like a fresh piece of fruit off of your very own tree. Last years weather left us with no peaches. It was such a bummer! If the weather stays nice, we will have to be thinning the fruit instead. I really hope!

   

This is my baby!

I grew up taking tips to Utah to see my grandparents during the summer. They had a huge cherry tree in their backyard that we would climb and pick cherries for my grandma to make pies with. It was usually a couple years in between trips, but it didn't take long for us to get reacquainted with our cousins, playing tag, climbing the cherry tree, and playing in grandpa's boat. My grandparents are gone now. When we decided to order fruit trees, a full grown cherry was at the top of my list. When I first got it, it was small and Bryan didn't think it would make it. Here our cherry is double its original size, and doing wonderfully. I find myself drawing a lot of strength from looking out back and seeing it there! During my growing up years with many moves and a lot of changes, my grandparents were always there, the same house, my same cousins, the same cherry tree to climb every summer. This tree reminds me of them and all that they represented to me. I look forward to when it's full grown and loaded with cherries for my kids and grand kids to climb and pick!  (me too!)  It still has a long way to go, but like everything else, one blink and we will be there.  It's fun to watch it in the mean time.

Public School

We have decided to put Charity in public school next year.  She will be in 6th grade, already starting middle school.  Could I have a daughter that old?  I feel like a broken record with how many times I refer to time going by so fast!  I still cannot grasp that idea.  I never get use to it. 

She will be attending 3/4 time.  I will still homeschool math and history.  I don't want to let go of these.  At least not for middle school.  Our math program is fantastic!  I LOVE it, and Charity really does well with it.  We are studying history sequentially and she is doing really well with that too.  But everything else she will take at school.  She is really excited, which is such a change from even a month ago.  She told me that she wanted to be home schooled all the way through high school.  She was really set on that.  After we went over what all her options would be for middle school and high school and the fact that she can still do a few things at home, she was sold.  

So my baby is off to school again. 

We are working hard to be finished with this years curriculum by the end of April, before the state testing that she will take.  Charity told me that her brain hurts from all the work.  Saturday's are a much better proposition now.  My kids don't like too much time away from school.  (We don't take the summers off for that reason)  Saturdays have never been a really big thing.  They are now!  I'm grateful my kids are really being stretched!  It's good for them.  

We will finish this school year by the end of April, take a few weeks off and then start next year's curriculum.  We don't do as much during the summer, but it will give us a nice head start for the upcoming school year.  Then we will start a whole new schedule with Charity in school.  That is how it always seems to work.  You just get settled in to a new routine and then you get to change it up once again.  Keeps us on our toes.  I'm looking forward to it though.  Charity's going to have some amazing experiences I could not provide her at home.  She will do wonderful!    

Tidbits

It's amazing how hard it is for me to get on here and blog.  I go through my day witnessing the cutest things with my kids and I want to capture them so they don't get lost, but then I never get on here and do it.  I decided that I would write down my thoughts when I have them and then blog them later, then I'm not losing everything.  I haven't gotten it all but here are a few:


Faith was complaining about her chili burrito that she was told to finish.  (she served herself too much, which happens frequently, so we saved it for her to finish later...  it was later)  She told me she was not going to eat it,  she would never eat it and so she would just die.  David looked at her and said "Are you going to die, Faith...No!", said with such exasperation.  Thanks David, that was so helpful.  


Faith and her saved food!  We were teasing her about that the other day.  She often has the same meal two meals in a row.  Dinner for dinner, and then again for breakfast.  Lunch for lunch and then again for dinner.  You think she would learn and just serve herself a little bit less.  Maybe after gross leftovers too many days in a row she'll get it.  Either way she gets to exercise her independence to make that choice and it's fun to watch as she works through that.


David dropped his pen and asked Faith to pick it up.  Faith said no.  David responded with "but I'm in the depths of despair".  What was funny about it was that he said it so casually.  He pops out with the most random things sometimes! 

I asked David to leave these wood pieces alone we had sitting on the dining room floor.  I looked down and he was still breaking them apart.  I told him to take them all down to the basement, firmly.  He told me  "I'm not proud of you because you yelled at me."  That brought me up short.  I have never been told that before and I certainly never tell him that I'm not proud of him.  I thought it was an amazing way of grasping an idea and using words to express himself.  I also felt like dog meat!  I now try to be a bit more gentle in my approach, while still getting the same message across.

Well, I have a very dirty house calling my name.  It's amazing how quickly things go from totally organized and clean to a total mess, an embarrassing mess.  How does that happen?  I got a nasty virus and consequently have had no energy.  My delicately balanced spinning plates have all crashed and now I have the mess to pick up and the job of getting them all going again.  I'm still not a hundred percent so it feels overwhelming.  

A few days ago, while I was looking at stuff scattered all over our floor, I told my husband, I can look at this one of two ways: Number one, I am the worst wife/mother in the world and how can I let it get so bad, look at all that I am not doing, it's horrible in here!  Or two, wow, look at what I do on a regular basis, that when I stop, this is how bad it gets.  He just laughed!   


Hopefully you will hear from me again soon.  I'm off to tackle my house. 

Stake Conference

This weekend our family had the opportunity to go to stake conference.  We had Leyna watch the kids so Bryan and I could go to the adult session Saturday night, and then we all went for Sunday's session. 


We were told that one of the twelve apostles, Elder Bednar, would be there speaking.  The apostles do not come to stake conferences very often.  Besides seeing them speak via the Internet or TV, for General Conference, this was a first.  We knew it would be packed so we got the kids up at 5:40am to be there three hours early.  It was so worth it!  We were some of the first people there and got seats on the nice comfy benches in the second row.  There was such a sweet spirit as we sat there conversing quietly, reading our scriptures or talking about the messages we heard the night before.   I would like to be at all of my church meetings early enough to partake of that same spirit.  I felt much more prepared to hear the things my Heavenly Father would have me hear.
 

As the time neared for the session to start we all took turns going to the bathroom.  When I was in the bathroom I said a little prayer in my heart that it would be nice to meet Elder Bednar in person (he had other meetings to get to right after our meeting, so meeting him in person was highly unlikely!), then I thought for a minute and asked that if He could make that happen, rather than me, I would want my girls to have that opportunity.  I went to the bathroom and then returned to my seat.  The girls were just getting back (they had gone to a different bathroom) and were so excited.  They had met Elder Bednar in the hall.  He shook each of their hands and asked their names and ages.  He asked Faith which princess she liked the best.  He told them he had 9 granddaughters and they were teaching him all about princesses.  The girls were just glowing.  They had the opportunity to shake hands and spend a couple of minutes with one of the twelve apostles who represents our Savior Jesus Christ, and I got an answer to my prayers!

We got together with Bryan's family and swapped notes on what we all learned this weekend.  It was unlike any experience I have ever had.  If the Savior himself were there teaching us, I don't imagine it would have been much different.  As a representative of the Savior, Elder Bednar testified of Him, of His mission and how we can be more like Him.  I came away with a huge desire to really study my scriptures.  He spent the majority of the time teaching us from them.


Elder Bednar said that with the growth of the church, this experience will probably not happen again in my lifetime.  I'm so grateful we were there! 

Faith's Birthday

It's Faith's birthday today.  She is in the bathtub trying out her new snorkel gear as we speak.  You should have seen her face when she opened it up!  She was so excited.  That girl lives under water anytime we go swimming.  It will be nice that she doesn't have to come up gasping for air every few seconds.  She couldn't wait to try it out. 


I can't believe she is 7!  In one more year she is baptized and going to Achievement Day.  That seems impossible!  She can't be that old.  Did I miss a few years somewhere?  I told her I might not let her get any older.  She laughed.  Yeah right.

New Blog

This is my second attempt at a blog. My first one I used more as a scrapbook and consequently ran out of picture space, at least the space they offer for free. I don't mind paying for more space, but I thought I would go about this differently. I think I'm going to focus on doing a bit more writing and plan on putting the bulk of my pictures into a digital scrapbook.

I was thinking about the title for my new blog on the way to the grocery store yesterday. I started thinking about the many times I have heard that it's not the destination but the journey that counts, or life is a journey not a destination. Our family has a destination, we know where we are going and we have a plan to get there. That is important, vital to the success of our family and for the accomplishment of our goals. We have to know where we are going and what we want if we are ever going to make it.  However, the destination would be empty and undesirable wihout the experiences, trials and joys that happen along the way... the journey! I LOVE the journey! We hope by sharing our journey we will add something of value to yours!