I went from being angry to being giddy. In seconds.
I’ve been reading the book, One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. I have been reading her blog daily for a year or more. She is VERY poetic in her writing, and sometimes that is hard for me… I am very black and white. I like things clearly spelled out 
But time after time I can relate to her mistakes, and I am so encouraged by her perspective - to keep going, to trust God is in control and loving us through all of this, to just go back and try again.
So I ordered a copy of her first book as a Christmas present to myself last month. I just got it in the mail a couple days ago… it was just released. It is just wonderful.
In the first chapter I grow so close to her. I cry with her. I know her struggles. I know her fear. I know her feeling stuck – then, her friend dares her.
I don’t do dares. Never did. Don’t ever want to.
But this one is different.
I’m not even half way through the book and I’m diving in with my whole heart. The dare – put simply is something like this… Pay attention and keep a list of things you love, or are thankful for. See if you can get to 1,000. Just try it.
OK, I will after I finish the book. After I find a nice new journal to write in… oh, I think I have some extra upstairs in the closet. That will be even better.
But then that night, I cannot sleep. It happens often. Usually I dwell on the things I need to get done, or I can’t figure out, or are really bothering me.
So I remembered how angry I was earlier in the day with 5 of the 6 kids for ALWAYS losing their gloves. Just one of each pair. We have more than 15 lone gloves – no match – no one has any idea where they could be. REALLY??? Not one match? (Well, our 12 year old did have his pair together, they were just soaking wet! So not one of the six had a matching pair of gloves to wear in the very very bitter cold.) Grrrrrrrrrr, that makes me angry.
And then I remember Ann and One Thousdand Gifts.
Pay attention, look and try to see the good all around.
And God showed me the precious little chubby (some not so little or chubby hands that fit into the gloves, paired or not. I get to be the Mom of 12 super cute little hands! And I smile. And goodness literally bubbles up inside me.
And so number 1 on my list of 1,000 is tiny cute little hands squishing into gloves.
And my heart heals just a bit. And my expectation of the potential in this exercise explodes!
Number 2 is Ann Voskamp and her love of God and words.
Thank you Ann.
Thank you God.
Can’t wait to see the next 998!
We the Campbells are not currently members of the Home School Legal Defense Association, but we do think they have some great resources for home schooling families. Today I re-discovered the link below, from their website, and I think it’s worth sharing here.
It’s a clickable map of all the states and links to their home schooling regulations, state by state. We happen to live in a “red” state (meaning high regulation) but certainly have considered relocation to any of the “green” states, should any problems arise with our local school district. (Thankfully, that hasn’t even come close to happening.)
Visit that link, bookmark it, and perhaps becoming an HSLDA member might be right for your family. They definitely are champions for families and home education. Those are good things!
Tags: Education, Home Schooling, Legislation, Resources
Just so there is content on the home page… here’s the first post at the new WeTheCampbells.net. There will still be stories from the Campbell family here, but there will also be tons and tons of great links to household and family and education resources discovered by Jen. She’s really good at that!
So bookmark the page, subscribe to the RSS feed… however you want to do it… plan to visit WeTheCampbells.net at least once a day! :)
“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” I (Dad) let out a mock yell at something that was mildly frustrating. It was a sudden, loud outburst.
“That was loud!” said two-year-old Julia. She followed up with, “Not like lightning…”
“Not like lightning?” I inquired?
“No, not lightning. It’s that loud thingie… your mouth!”
At that point, I was on the floor laughing.
A long time ago we decided to live life differently. The definition of “differently” continually changes, but along the way has included raising support from friends and family who helped financially free us to work in campus ministry here in New York, and accepting any invitation to come and sing and never ask for money from any of those engagements.
The current version looks a bit different, as I do certainly charge (a specific amount) for what I do, but I am still quite flexible and generous with my time. (Which is perhaps a very different thing?)
Bottom line is, we are happy to trust God to provide for us, instead of trying to do that for ourselves.
Many things have come together recently, however, to help us realize that we are not truly living a life of trusting God to provide for us.
True, we do trust him. Implicitly. We credit him for all provisions we receive. And even when we do not receive what we wish we would have received, we know that He loves us, and that He sees more than we see. And so we trust Him.
But what Jen and I have both seen—and Jen wisely alerted me to—is that we have been living with a foot in both worlds for some time now.
We have been on the one hand, trusting God to provide whatever he sees fit to provide, but on the other hand – while exercising frugal spending – going ahead of God and his provision, mostly in the form of paying for things we needed (or maybe didn’t?) with credit cards and other loans.
And now, the weight of that burden has caught up with us.
We are at least a month behind on most every monthly bill. We were warned by our mortgage holder that we were in danger of losing our house (though that has been corrected) and there really is a great, heavy financial burden on both of us at the moment. Seemingly more than we can work out from under.
We are taking steps to remedy this – including me working extra hours, Jen doing a little work for my dad, I applied for another job, etc – but I think perhaps the biggest step is really choosing what we believe. And how we want to live.
And that “way” is trusting God to provide for everything we need. Everything.
So we have decided from here forward to not use credit cards (barring perhaps a life-threatening emergency?) and see where that takes us. So far, so good. We have seen God provide tiny bits of cash when we need it, and we are much happier (when we are not thinking about the looming debt that is close behind us) spending the money that we actually have, rather than continuing to go ahead of God and pay bills or buy food or whatever we thought we needed on a credit card.
“What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these [what they will eat, what they will wear], but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
That’s from the end of Matthew 6. That’s a section of scripture that has always been very close to me, and I think maybe because that’s how God has always wanted me to live. And the amazing this is, that’s what he wants from Jen, and what we want together.
So, we are embarking on a journey that I know will take us deeper… and actually, other than that we have no idea where it will take us. Yes, it is frightening in a way… but, not when we remember whom we are trusting, and remember how He loves us, and has taken care of us so far… we know that he always will.
[PS... I do not write any of this to elicit some sort of financial response from anyone who might read this - which includes almost exclusively family and close friends. Only wanting to share this decision/shift in thinking that seems very important - milestone-ish - in our lives right now.]
Tonight we had to eat tuna sandwiches. We have sworn off credit cards here in the Campbell house and are really trusting that God will give us what we need. If we don’t have it… we don’t need it.
So, we have tuna. That makes it tonight’s dinner.
The kids are all cooperating differently. Ian ate it. Kirstie ate it and talked about how she didn’t like it, but she was going to eat it anyway (with a smile!) Julia ate it with mom’s help. Alex is not. (Par for the course with him.)
Should be interesting learning to live on what God gives us. Tuna is only one manifestation of that choice.
So far, so good
Today while Julia was telling me a story about Kirsten, she was using the pronoun, “She” when referring to her. I actually understood her, but for some reason she didn’t think I did. She kept saying it, and she was not pronouncing the “h”, so it came out, “See.” I figured she must mean something else, so I kept trying to guess.
Finally, in exasperation, she said, “THAT ONE!!!” pointing emphatically to Kirsten.
I cracked up, as usual. What a fun age!
I (Greg) made a feast for dinner tonight… just for fun. I baked some salmon with butter and dill, then made some home made mashed potatoes, and added some fresh cooked veggies. And, at the last minute, added some fresh brewed sweet tea!
Surprisingly, Julia loved the Salmon. A LOT! So she ate and ate, and when it was all gone, she discovered two pieces of the skin I had peeled off for her. Her eyes lit up, and she grabbed them in her tiny little hands and stuffed the WHOLE giant piece in her mouth! I expected it would come right back out, but she chewed, swallowed, and reached for the next one!! Hilarious! What kid WANTS to eat fish skin??
But the best part was a couple minutes later. I had gotten down to get something off the floor, and then stayed next to her for a moment longer. While I was there, she looked at me with her most sincere face, and said, “I eat bark.”
It took a second to understand what she meant, but once I figured out she was talking about the fish skin, I got quite a good belly laugh out of it.
She IS a cutie! A little gross… but a cutie!
Our Julia started potty training this past week. She is doing fantastically! Really! Better than the rest of the kids combined! She just gets it, and she is doing so great!
Her little friend Julia V also started potty training in earnest last week. She, too, is doing great! They both get rewards when they remember to go (and are successful!) and they both are getting many rewards!
Well, little Julia V came to visit the other night. She had to go potty. I forget, really, who had to go first… but once one had to go, so did the other. They took turns pulling their pants down and squatting on the tiny plastic potty in our living room while we all tried to watch an episode of the Knight Rider (yes, the show from the 80s…). It was quite a spectacle!
They would argue back and forth, “No, ME first potty!!” And they were serious! There has never been so much potty-sitting by two (very cute) tiny people in a 45-minute span… in the history of the world!!
It was really cute… and certainly a memory! A little strange… But very cute.
Tags: Friends, Julia, Potty Training, Stories
We were sitting at the table doing what I like to call “Table Time” and Julia had a little calculator she was playing with. She offered it to Alex and said, “Here you go.” But as soon as he would reach for it, she would pull it back to herself… teasing her big brother. Alex was sad. She did it again.
Some people like teasing and that’s ok, but I am not a fan of teasing others.
First I told Alex that she learned that from him. (He thinks teasing is pretty fun Then I told Julia, “Julia, that is not nice. Teasing Alex is not nice. When you say ‘Here you go’ and then take it back for yourself… that’s not nice.” So immediately she extended the calculator back to Alex and said, “Here you go!” This time she gave it to him… happily
And not 5 seconds later she said, “Almost done?”
I think she might have gotten that from Alex too
