Sprung

Just gotta love those huggy moments!

Bad blogger

The bad, bad blogger is back! I seem to avoid the computer at the moment with renovations and jobs around the house to put extra effort into. Either that, or I just colapse in bed at 8pm as soon as the kids are in bed. Big, round and tired at the moment but very thankful for my little tribe.

Well here are a few snippets:

It is mulberry season again at the Campbells.

Daddy made mulberry icecream. I think we have decided the only safe way for children to eat mulberry icecream is outside in an old tub of water with an rag to scrub them over afterwards:) Or maybe a fire hose:)

Considering it is just straight, frozen mulberries put through our ice-cream fitting on our juicer, I guess the stain factor is at its peak!

Invited friends from church to join us for lunch before convoying together for a wedding in the city. Here's the happy couple

Enjoyed a day at the beach with our new pastor, his wife and their grandkids who they were minding for a few days in school holidays. Joshua made great friends with their grandson so the two of them enjoyed playing and digging in mud!

Were invited to celebrate a friend's joy at her husband finally arriving in Australia after waiting 2 1/2 years. Her hubby was finally able to come face to face with his little boy whom he had never seen before.

Any guess which child is not theirs?

Here is the cutie, himself on his 2nd birthday!

We also recently received news that a friend of ours passed away in much the same way David's father did, from skin cancer. He was a Godly man and so we rejoice though we feel the loneliness and sorrow his wife faces as she continues the journey alone.... but yet, not alone!

It seems there are many more things we did during the holidays - Joshua had spent time with his friends, time catching up as well as days were we did very little, but just pottered, visited the library or ran wild outside.

I do feel my posts have been somewhat boring for outsiders, just factual and lots of unfamiliar faces... have always felt a little vulnerable getting into deeper subjects on my blog, though I know that those type of posts are the ones I enjoy the most when reading friend's blogs. A spiritual challenge, a call to think more seriously about life/parenting, etc. and personal struggles that have helped me to grow...

Bubsies

What a joy a little life can bring. This is my friend's latest addition. After five boys a little girl was quite a surprise! We have been praying as a family that little Fiona will grow to know and love the Lord.

Not sure of Sudanese traditions but it seemed this poor Mum had quite a full house

after Fiona was born - she looked especially tired and sore being up half the night and having had a C section.

I rekon' Fiona will be one tough lil' cookie with four big brothers (eldest overseas) to keep her in line:)

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Plunge into Science

You just have to love experiments and boys. We were discussing air pressure, and reading through a Science book which suggested we try using a plunger on various surfaces to see which ones it would stick to...

A few surfaces worked.... a few didn't...


But trust Josh to come up with this one!

Tenderness

Awwwhhh - don't you just wish you could take away the runny nose and dizzy head and put a
smile on her face?

My Mamma used to grate up apple and orange for us when we were sick - perhaps it was easy for us to eat, had some vitamin C - I only remember that it was yummy and helped to lighten up my sniffles by a few degrees! I tried this trick with Rosa at lunch (Mum I haven't worked out the nack of grating orange) and sure enough she managed to gobble it down.

She then reluctantly agreed to read some books in bed - took one look inside the cover and then her head was down.

Can we even begin to know just how tenderly our Heavenly Father cares for us?

Church BBQ

One of the down sides to being a part of a small church is having no one show up for the church BBQ except for the new pastor and his wife and our family:)

Quite disappointing but you know we enjoyed ourselves anyway - had a chance to get to know
this dedicated couple more.

David and I have been quite encouraged at his enthusiasm for reaching out to our community. As well as the dedicated time he gives to preparing his messages, he has been working on his TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course and is hoping to start English lessons locally. I think that once the word gets around this will be a fantastic opportunity! We personally know of a number of families who would greatly benefit... David has been helping a teenager from Ghana to understand his homework, I've had a little opportunity to help a friend prepare for her citizenship test and we have seen how so many in our neighbourhood have such a tough time fitting into Australian society because they simply need more English/need a friend or need to understand the way our funny Aussie society works.


So while the turn up wasn't great (later the pastor's daughter and her family joined in much to Joshua's absolute delight as they have a boy Joshua's age) we were encouraged that the Lord cares for our suburb, the needy neighbours around us, those who come to church and can only understand a few words here and there as well as the 'seasoned saints' who are no longer able to contribute due to ill health. We also thank the Lord for bringing along a pastor who cares deeply for his flock...

Thankyou, Lord, for your continued work right here in our humble suburb!

Oh, and you wouldn't know there were only a few of us with this spread of meat!

Father's Day

I like to make something special for the Mums on Mother's Day and so it was time for something for the Dads this time.

I had some gold, unused coffee bags sitting in my cupboard. So I decided to fill them with some goodies...

I made some Rocky Road (which was very hard to keep the family from nibbling as I made just enough)



Then I pinched an idea from little sister's gift to me (a little sticky-note cover) a while ago..

and made a masculine version:

Here's the inside...(white sticky-notes are nicer but I couldn't find them so I stuck with the option of avoiding running around town...)


Then I packed the sticky-note pads, pen and decadent smelling (no I didn't covet - but was very tempting!) Rocky road into the bag, decorated the outside a little (convieniently covering the coffee bag fresh seal with a Father's Day tag...

... multiply all that by 12 (some real benefits to being in a small church;)

and had just the right amount (phew! - thought I was making extra...)

for the Dads at church


And this is how poor Daddy looked when awoken for Father's Day surprises this morning!

Then it was off to church - Daddy was preaching from 1 John 2:28 through 3:10- challenging us to know if we are in Christ - and if we are in Christ to be reminded that His seed is in us - and it grows and we will ultimately be perfected in Him in glory...

Later when we had gormet pizzas with Daddy - Daddy's choice was this unusual one with cashews, mango chutney and snow pea sprouts!

Now Daddy and Josh are pumping up bike tyres and are off for a cycle down nearby streets... Josh is oozing enthusiasm - just loves these Sunday arvo. rides...

Thanks David, for being a wonderful Daddy - for explaining all those electrial device gimicks to Josh, for sharing your heart with the children during evening devotions, for encouraging hospitality in the home, for showing your diligence for God's Word and never taking the lazy way out in sermon prep!, for letting the kids bounce hard on your belly (and actually enjoying it) for letting our little ones get underfoot and remaining in a fun, playful spirit! They always find outings and times alone with Daddy so much fun! Most of all, thanks for loving each one in a way that makes them feel treasured and helps them to get a taste of the love the Father has for them!


XOX - We love Daddy!

Happy Birthday Matthias!

Cousin Matthias turned 3 this weekend so we enjoyed some family time together with our very handsome lil' nephews...

The cute lil' party boy himself...

Benjamin looked a little suspicious of this event...

What could it mean?

In case you were wondering

In case you're wondering....

This is what our daughter looks like in Middle Eastern Dress (genuine national dress our missionary friends and Daddy brought back from his trip last year)

This is what my daughter gets up to while Joshua is doing fractions...

And this is what you find on your camera after your son decides to be goofy...

Just in case you were wondering!

Dogs Breakfast

Here's another dog's breakfast approach to what has been happening in our lives

My belly grows bigger (will spare you this photo this time;) and am beginning to feel a few little butterfly kicks. Rosa constantly reminding me that Baby will come near her Birthday in "Feb-oo-airy'

Enjoyed homestay Korean student -taught him how to bake choc-chip cookies (he loved cooking) as well as muffins and showing him how he could stretch his money this way rather than buying very few for this price pre-made at the shop;)

we showed him how to do a Tim Tam slam (incidentally there are some humourous versions out there on Youtube including the Australian and American version ;) He just loved watching these and asked to see it over and over again before trying it himself.

Josh and Jae engaged in many card games, games of battleships, a traditional Korean game with wooden sticks Jae brought (worked something like heads/tails).. basically they loved all things competative on the game front... two very serious players who had to learn to trust their opponent wasn't cheating ;)

We enjoyed a lovely family day along the river on Ekka holiday - just georgeous quiet spot with some very unique houses nearby... hope this house doesn't belong to anyone I know :)

Spent a lovely day at park with missionary family back in Australia briefly. Most the content on my camera from our day is in video format - kids on little car rolling down grassy slopes - they had a blast ! Nice to catch up with missionaries one -to -one and hear how the Lord is working in their lives.

Dealt with a bit of a burn when Rosa decided to take a sticky beak at some hot stew on the dining table then tip it on her leg. Thankfully the Doctors think there should be no/minimal scarring... just a few trips back and forward to hospital to change dressings... She was very brave.

Jae went back to Korea and was reunited with his family and some familiar Korean food - can just hear him squealing in delight "Korean steak! YAY!"

David's job situation changing dramatically - from what looked a very promising amount of work to a sprinkling... am once again enjoying help with a few jobs around the house;) now he has a few spare moments.

Just beginning to emerge from the first phase of pregnancy - and am thinking I might have hit the energy packed second phase - YAY! Bring on the energy - have a lot of housework to do!! Might even chop down a tree or two (just kidding)...

Have thoroughly enjoyed Ladies Bible study 'Lies Women Believe and the Truth that sets them free' and now need to go back and do the chapters that I missed while doing a different study... Am once again challenged to handle life situations in light of His promises... I know that is very general but I think I would end up posting a whole page if I was to go into that right now... maybe another post;)