Easter Pics

I downloaded these pictures out of order, but I am too tired to fix them and would like to get the pictures up so I'm leaving it.  All the planting happened after Easter.  The kids had so much fun.  The plants have now all come up and are looking beautiful.  I plan on canning a bunch of tomatoes this year.  I am going to try out a few salsa recipes before hand so I can do some salsa as well.  Here the kids are helping me plant the seeds.  They were so gentle and careful about it!

David and a couple of the girls decided to make designs in the driveway and fill them with water.

We got a new batch of chicks the Saturday before Easter.  (they are already so big now, but here they are just a few days old)  Aren't they cute?

They are so sleepy when they are little.  This one didn't even make it to lying down.

Hope had a friend over and my kids got the chicks out to show them off.  When they were done I went over to peak on them and this is what I found.  They were so exhausted from all the playing they didn't even budge when I took their picture.  Down for the count.

I took the kids to the church for the Ward Easter Activity.  After I did the girls hair Bryan asked me to get pictures of them.  I was running out the door late, so I snapped a couple on our way in.

After we got home we colored eggs with the Skaggs.  Bryan wanted me to get a shot of David's rain boots.  He won't be able to wear them very much longer.  Marta gave them to us.  He loves them.

Here is Bryan and my Easter basket.  So me and so him!  
Can you guess what belongs to whom?  He was happy to see his favorite candy waiting for him on Easter morning!

The Hunt!  Bryan hadn't done the trimming in our yard so it made it nice for hiding eggs.  The kids had such a good time.

I found Faith doing target practice with the Nerf guns.  She was really enjoying herself.  My kind of game!  I love it...one minute she's playing Pollys, the next target practice.

I meant to write a few thoughts I had on Easter about the Savior and the whole reason we celebrate the holiday, and got busy and didn't.  I love the family traditions and everything, but it seems wrong to include all of those and not my favorite part of the whole holiday!  

I was asked to teach at church that Sunday, so I spent the entire week previous to Easter studying and pondering over my lesson, which was about the immortality of the soul.  We know that we will live again because the Savior died and was resurrected, providing the way for each of us to be as well. I believe that with all my heart!  But what does that knowledge do for me?  How does it affect my life?  In my lesson it talked about how eternity doesn't start after this life, that mortality is a crucial part of eternity.  When we are at a crossroads and uncertain what we want to do or which way we want to go we need to remember that it is the beginning of eternal happiness or eternal disappointment for us.  We chart a course that not only affects our lives here, but throughout eternity. 

On Easter I spent time thinking about this.  I talked about it in my lesson.  I pondered over it again and again.  I want to live my life in a way that secures the blessings that I so desire in my future!  That is what Easter means to me...the Savior was resurrected...I will be resurrected...I want to live in a way that will gain me the desires of my heart when I cross over the veil and join those that have gone on before me.  I want to take advantage of this earth life.  The savior was the first to be resurrected.  When it is my turn, I want to be ready.  I will have already decided the outcome by the course I am charting today.  If I get off, I will course correct and keep going.  I appreciated the opportunity to think about this and be reminded of what the Savior did for me and the opportunities I now have because of Him!  I am so grateful for Him!  

Mom's Going Back to School!

I just got done getting Faith back to sleep.  She has been sick again and needed another dose of medicine.  Poor thing!  After I got her to sleep, I just laid in bed with my mind going a million miles an hour.  I couldn't go back to sleep so I thought I would blog for a little bit instead.  A lot of new things to share! 

I have decided to go back to school!  It is something I did several years ago, with some online classes.  I stopped because Bryan decided to go back and finish his degree and he didn't want both of us in school at the same time.  So I haven't gone since.  Now that he is out of school we have talked about me going back.  Up till this point it hasn't been something that has really felt right.  I haven't known what I have wanted to do and it is a large financial burden to take on.   Well that has changed now.  I have decided that I want to teach.  It has been coming on slowly for a while, and homeschooling my children as certainly been a part of that.  The final straw was when I took Charity in for her placement tests. (we are seeing if she will be placed in advanced classes next year) I walked into the middle school and felt a surge of joy.  It always happens to me when I walk into a school, but this time it hit me a little stronger.  That coupled with many other things I have been feeling, everything just clicked into place.  I went home and started doing some research. 

There are a couple private colleges that will allow me to get my license with a bachelors only, but they are expensive.  Then there is Ohio State, which is ranked number 10 in the whole nation for their education department, which will license me only by going all the way through to a masters.  I talked with advisors from the local community college, from OSU and from the other two private colleges.  I found that the undergraduate program at OSU is offered at the off campus sites at a fraction of the price as going on campus.  It also brings my education closer to home.  So my plan is to go to Columbus State for as long as I can, transfer to OSU and finish my undergraduate degree at the Newark location and then head on campus to finish my masters and get my license.  That will take me a few years shy of David entering middle school.  Perfect timing!  I will be in school when my kids are and off when they are.

They do things differently now than they use to.  I have the option of being licensed for grades K through 3, 4 through 9 or 7 through 12.  I want to teach middle school, so I will go for the 4 through 9.  I am suppose to pick two areas of focus.  I am going to do Language Arts and History, the two that I find myself the most drawn to while homeschooling and in general!   

I'm going to continuing homeschooling, and plan to put each of my kids in school as they hit 6th grade.  For my school, I will be able to do most classes on line for the first few years, and the ones I can't, I can schedule during the winter when Bryan is home all day.  For the periods of time where I know I will need to go in all day, I can put kids in school if I have to, but I have a feeling things will work out for me to continue to homeschool.  Call it a hunch or whatever, but somehow I think it will work out.  We'll see. 

I am so excited!  It is going to be a lot of work, though!!!!  I start June 18th.  I am going to wrap up the school year with my kids by the end of May and then take a couple weeks off before I dive into my school!  I am really looking forward to it.  It will be a challenge, juggling everything on my plate, but a challenge that I am up for...  I have a picture in my mind of walking across the stage in cap and gown receiving my degree and license to teach!  I'm going to hold that picture in my head and not stop until I get there!  Then to teaching!  I will love that!  It will be a huge blessing to our family as well, filling in a bunch of needs Bryan and I have been wracking our brains trying to figure out how to fill.  I will also be grateful to know that if anything happens to Bryan, I will be in a position to care for my family in a manner that still allows me to be a stay at home mom while doing something I love.  Perfect again! 

What's weird is that instead of cutting back what I'm doing, the impression I had, even before I had the feeling to start school, was to look at taking on a little boy David's age to homeschool with him. (I checked with the laws of Ohio and I'm allowed to do that)  David is so social and really could use a playmate.  At first glance that seemed like the worst idea, but the more I thought about it, I realized it's actually going to be more helpful than anything.  When kids are busy doing school and David is done with his work, I am his playmate.  It would actually be very helpful for him to have someone to play with.  I would be able to get more of my school done while the kids are doing their school work.  My homeschooling schedule is refined enough that adding another kid into the mix would not be that big of a deal.  Plus, David doesn't have any brothers, and I would love for him to have a boy to play with.  The only problem is finding someone his age whose parents are looking for that type of situation.  Not the easiest thing in the world.  Not something I'm going to put an ad in the paper for.  So I'm just passing it along, word of mouth, and see what comes of it.  With so many parents interested in homeschooling now, maybe it will work out. 

Even though I'm going to be crazy busy, I am going to continue to blog, even if it's a little bit here and there.  I would like to be able to look back, at the end of this road, and have a record of what the journey was like. 

Well, I'm going to curl up with my hubby for a little bit (he's snoring next to me) before I'm going to crawl out of bed for the day.  A very little bit, I hear my girls alarm going off.  Maybe I will post a few pictures today, or tomorrow.  We'll see how the day goes and how Faith is doing.

My Weekend

I always feel like I'm going to have all the time in the world on weekends.  The weekend starts...then ends, and I find that about all I have really accomplished is that I have spent time with family.  Some weekends it is more than that...however, I still go in thinking that I'm going to get so much more done than I'm able to.  Oh well!  One of the things that fell off my list was to post our Easter pictures as well as a few others,  like our baby chicks.  I want to include a few pictures of our spring time activities.  Hopefully I can get to that tomorrow, amongst a few other things that fell off my list from this weekend. 

On Friday my studio experience was really neat!  In all my life I would never have imagined myself sitting on a stool with a bunch of lights and a camera on me.  I do not have talents that lend me to being in that situation.  It really took me out of my comfort zone.  Talking on camera does not come natural to me...AT ALL!  They wanted me to just tell my story rather than read it from a teleprompter.  They had me do it a few different times adding different details each time.  They are going to take the best of those.  They seemed really pleased with how it turned out, so I was happy about that.  I will be one of a few videos for the credit union's website, I believe.  They are going to let me know when it's done.  I will add a link when it is so you guys can see it.  I hope it turns out okay. 

Well, I'm off to bed.  I'm really tired and need to be up bright and early tomorrow morning.  I'm looking forward to my routine tomorrow.  I need a break from the weekend.  Hah! 

Postponing Pictures

I have a lot of pictures I wanted to get up today as well as a few neat stories to share, but I'm going to post pone until this weekend.  I took Charity to get some new clothes (she has grown out of everything again and has very little to wear) and then went grocery shopping.  We headed out after school and didn't get back until late.  So my day is gone and now I'm too tired to do much.  Tomorrow is going to be pretty busy as well.  The credit union that refinanced our home asked me to come into the studio tomorrow and repeat the nice words I sent them in an email, on film.  (Not something I have ever done before) I will gather up kids and school work and take them to my in-laws for the morning, go into the studio and get that done, and then head home, picking up one of Faith's friends on the way, to finish whatever home school my kids still need, and squeeze whatever else I can fit into my schedule to finish off the day.  I will pop in some time this weekend with a few pictures and a couple fun stories.  Until then, wish me luck tomorrow.  I hope I'm not a blabbering idiot.

Easter Aftermath

This is going to be a quick post.  I still have a bazillion things to do.  We had family friends come stay with us all day Saturday and then again all day Monday. (they went home for Easter)  I am now playing catch up with everything.  


Easter was fantastic!  I got some pictures of the kids doing their egg hunt.  I will post them later tonight or sometime tomorrow.  They really enjoyed it!  David told me it was better than Christmas, and that is really saying something for him.  (I have heard a whole lot about Christmas since Christmas)  But Easter takes the cake, I guess.  I was thrilled my kids were so pleased.


    

Easter Plans

Every year we do an egg hunt with our kids.  In previous years it has been a chocolate egg hunt, but this year we are doing things a little differently.


The year has brought a few dietary changes in the Campbell household (which truly is a post in and of itself!)  The end result, I do not do ANY refined products!  My two oldest decided they didn't want to either.  (What kid would go without sugar...by choice!  I don't quite understand it.)  For me, it has helped my health to finally get turned around.  For my kids, it's just something they want to do.  My younger two still have treats with Daddy occasionally, but since they are getting those at the church egg hunt, and I have never been a fan of junk food for kids, I didn't mind scratching the candy out of the equation.


We have a ton of plastic eggs so I thought we would fill those with fun things instead.  I called my neighbor/friend Carrie and had a little brainstorming session, thank you Carrie, on what I could fill them with.  (I had also gotten a few ideas from the kids)  I settled on marbles, fake tattoos, erasers (which my kids love...David's are dinosaurs that have limbs that he can move) hair clippies, fruit snacks, and money.  The fruit snacks were a real find.  I wanted something for them to eat and I found a brand without any added sugar.  I was stoked!


I am going to assign each kid a color, or couple of colors.  I will fill their eggs and then write out a hint for where their Easter basket is (we hide them every year) and cut the hint up, putting one word in an egg.  After they find all of their eggs they will have to put the papers in order to see where their basket is.  For their baskets, the kids requested exotic fruit.  So I went to town (Meijer has a huge selection) and got them each a gift as well.  I can't wait for Sunday.  It's going to be a blast.  I am the most excited for this Easter than any one we have had so far.  (As much fun as Holidays were when I was a kid, it's even more fun as an adult, planning for your own kids!)


We will do our Easter hunt in the morning, go to church, head to Bryan's parents house for Easter Dinner (I'm making Rabbit Stew) and then home for a little family time and Daddy teaching us about why we celebrate Easter and about the gift our Savior has given each of us.  I'm so excited!  It's all going to be so great.    

Charity's Jokes

Today at lunch Charity was gracing us with a few more of her jokes.  I reflected back to a time, many years ago, when we were listening to a bunch of Charity's jokes.  She was probably 4.  We were eating Mexican with my family.  Charity was telling joke after joke to a very patient Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jared.  She would start with a question, they would say "what", and she would deliver a totally random punchline and then giggle hysterically.  The game continued until I finally stepped in and rescued them. Over the last several years she has kept up with the jokes and they have gotten FAR better.  We asked her to start writing them down in a little book, her joke book.  I wanted to share a few with you. Though I'm sure you could find some of these jokes somewhere, they are all original in the Campbell household.  


Q. Why don't snakes use utensils?
A. Because they have a forked tongue


Q. What did one bear say to another bear?
A. You have a bare butt


Q. What flower kisses the most?
A. A tulip


Q. If Satan could sing, how would he welcome you to hell?
A. Hell-oh, Hell-oh


Q. What kind of insect runs away from things?
A. A flea


Q. What kind of fish hates water?
A. A catfish


Q. Why didn't the girl want to eat her pea soup?
A. Because it was yellow


Q. What kind of hunt do rats do?
A. A scavenger hunt


Q. What did the shark put on his fish?
A. Sea salt


Q. What brings light to the ocean?
A. A sunfish 

Hope's Story for Grammar

For Hope's grammar assignment yesterday, she was asked to write a story about the picture below.  It was so enjoyable to read I thought I would share it.  I was impressed with how few spelling mistakes she had!  I didn't include those, but I did leave the rest of the story as she wrote it with no other modifications.  She did a wonderful job.  If you read it, leave me a comment and I will make sure she gets it.  Thanks!

The Ink Splatter

"Susy, Anna, why don't you go work on your play!"  "OK Mom!" they called back.  "Alright Anna, I'll go get the costumes from the shed.  And I will get a quill for the script!"  So the girls went off to get the quill and the costumes.  Anna skipped into the room with braids flying and a quill in her hand.  She sighed. "Susy isn't here yet!" she said in sort of a whine.  She hopped around the room waiting for Susan.  Soon Susan came in the room with a basket.  "Finally!" exclaimed Anna.  "Actually, I barely even left, and here I got us some ink."  She set it on the table and started to sort out the costumes.  Anna sat down by the ink.  "Susy do you know-" SPLAT!  Anna knocked the ink bottle over.  Susan quickly grabbed it and put it right side up.  "It's OK Anna, accidents happen."  She grabbed a towel for both of them.  After cleaning, they practiced for a bit then decided to go outside and play tag.  "I'm it!" said Anna.

The End!

Charity's Birthday

Here is a picture of Charity's birthday cake.  It's pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries.  She decorated it; a face you can't see from this angle.  I was going to make her a pie, but spaced getting the ingredients at the store (what a great mom, boo) so she said she wanted to do this instead.  I'm going to make her a pie this week to make up for it.  

Here she is holding up two fingers to represent how old she is. (11 not 2)

When we got home from conference we ate, sang her happy birthday and headed out for a game of Cheese Touch (basically tag) upon her request.  We played until it was too dark to see.  Then we laid on the grass and watched the clouds pass over the moon, giving us quick glances every once in a while.  It was so neat looking.  The kids loved it.  When we came in it was showers and setting up all the sleeping bags in the living room for a sleepover with Mom. (Dad would not be talked out of leaving his bed) We watched an episode of Merlin the girls wanted to see and then crashed. David was up past his bedtime, so here he is sleeping in this morning.  He was very resistant to Daddy getting him up!  

My Favorite Song

It was an amazing session once again. I bawled my little eyes out for the last song. One of my favorites. I don't even know the name of it. I have a CD that has the song on it and I play it again and again! The line "here's my heart, now take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above", yeah that does it every time for me. That puts words to my feelings perfectly! 


My family is packing up in the van as I type, so I'm going to sign off. We are going over to Bryan's parents house for the last session. Usually we like to just watch as a family. Less distractions that way. The pull to be with family, however, is overriding for this evening.