Growin' up

Some of my new favourite photos:

My firstborn and last born - aren't they a handsome pair?

No, our baby isn't eating solids yet but he just loves to watch us eat:) He loves seeing more than feet or legs from his usual spot down on the floor...

Rosa with her home made pom pom hat:

Cloning

Joshua has been learning all about penguins recently. He was required to make one out of clay for an art activity, however our clay was very uncooperative and very difficult to shape. We decided to give FIMO a try...

Here's Joshua's penguin:

I kind of got the penguin bug and started cloning a few myself:

I put a little loop/ring in the top so they can be made into keyrings.

I do tend to get a little carried away at times...

As a mother of four I get a little bored you see;)

Haven't forgotten you Owen

Well the sluggish blogger emerges again - haven't forgotten the 7th birthday of my boy in all this time - just caught up in a really nasty flu that has had second and third rounds...

but in all the sluggishness I have had lots of time to reflect on the past, enjoy some extra time of snuggles and take life a little slower (YAY). Why is it that it sometimes takes the influenza season just to go a notch slower?

Happy Birthday Owen...

I just love how when I am feeling crook I can put you in bed beside me and know that if I hold your hand and you watch my eyes close I can be sure you will fall asleep too within a short time. You lie so still and peaceful and are so incredibly cuddly. Just love, love, love it! Definitely one of a kind when it comes to that still, cuddly factor:) Have tried this with your sister/big brother and I am bound to get a leg in my ribs, and very little zzzz factor:)

I love how you love to sing, almost always return a grin with a grin (even when really stubborn and cranky- if I wait long enough you just can't help yourself!) .

I love that you don't always know when others are picking on some of your funny ways - even embarrassing ones (though please don't try running out of the toilet again before I get your nappy back on:)

I love that you never seem to care what someone looks like - you are friendly to them. While stranger danger is an issue - I do love the fact that you will probably never judge someone by appearance, past sins, intellectual capacity or even look strangely at someone with a huge birthmark, or massive hairy wart on the end of their nose:)

I love the way you watch your brothers or sisters interacting with Daddy. I can't help but smile just to see you smile when Daddy blows on their tummy, tickles them or shares a funny joke. You just seem to know how to appreciate (without always understanding) the moment/the pleasure and their laughter makes you smile.

At seven years you love to:

• ask constantly where everyone is - on the way home from school you ask "where is B? or where is Uncle P?"
• Eat bananas (still a favourite), cheese, pick chives to munch on out of the garden (yes we do often have to go and replant them, but we know you just got a little enthusiastic:)
• You love to play anything electronic (what kids don't?) and have memorised quite a number of Leap Pad phrases :)
• run up to me with your arms open when I pick you up from school - I just love the squeal "Mamma's there!" that I get.
• make loads of mess - and I mean loads. You just enjoy everything to the max - eating, playing outdoors, reading books. Mess kind of just happens...

Watching you turn 7 has brought back many memories of watching you undergo heart sugery, watching you learn to walk - back and forward between Dad and Mum over and over and over.... It has brought back memories of many faces of therapists, friends and teachers that have all helped you to speak, to coordinate your movements, take turns, and even how to help your Mum by carrying your back pack all by yourself.

In recent days I have wiped your nose what seems like gazillions of times, or rather your whole face. I just don't make it to your nose quick enough sometimes before it gets smeared. I have enjoyed watching you build with Duplo, plant little seeds into egg cartons, dig holes like Uncle Christopher and crash out in bed at night, grabbing Mummy close for Hickory Dickory Dock song sung in your neck with all the sound effects.

As I sit here, near a box of tissues and trying to catch your runny nose again and to catch you in time to make potty training effective I cannot help but love you, my precious Owen James!

XOX -

May you understand even just a little of Jesus!

Miracle!

Check this out!

That is one amazing miracle.

I hope that child grows to see how gracious the Lord was to him.

Gives me goosebumps just watching

I wonder if the Mum of the boy will be on good terms with the Grandma(poor soul) now...

and another similar miracle here...

Olive shoots

Gotta love moments like these (even Jayden is paying close attention:)

and these...

For those who don't recognise it - this is a Paw Paw (papaya) protective stretchy thing that becomes a favourite plaything in our house...

I must confess that these special moments are to be especially treasured in our house lately. As a Mum I am constantly crying out to the Lord to help our children to love each other more, to show thoughtfulness, to be cheerful and most of all to love the Lord. Often feels as though every moment there is a squabble to be sorted out, an unkind word spoken or someone has just had an injury and enormous bursts of tears and cries of pain are the norm... and maybe they are, for now...

So hard to see the Lord working sometimes, so difficult to deal with yet another battle (the same one we've been dealing with over and over for some time. Some days the battles really do begin from sun up to sun down... at times I believe I have even heard battles happening in sleep talk!

David and I are reminded, over and over again to cry out to the Lord - in our despair, to do a work in our children.

Mother's Day craft

I like to make something little for Mothers on Mother's Day ... just something to let all those Mammas out there (at church) know they are loved and appreciated. Some years the ideas seem to flow other times I think of an idea but it changes 3 or 4 times before I find the right prototype to suit. Well here is this year's craft...

I started with... cork circles... I picked these up at Reverse Garbage (one of my favourite hang outs:) for $12/kg (I cannot remember how much it worked out each but pittance really because cork is quite light weight)

Some other things I used:

Mod podge - a type of decoupage glue - love this stuff

white paint

Tissue paper flowers (I think I could now do them in my sleep after making 30)

Double sided tape

metal screw in eyelets

keyring and small rings to attach to eyelets

Punched out flower pictures

Ribbon to match

Double sided tape

Shiny rhinestone stickers

Cello bags

Firstly I painted the cork circles white. It took quite a few coats to get a finished look as the cork seemed to absorb much of the paint.

I screwed small eyelets into the top (easily done with cork). I then attached my little pre-punched shapes, rhinestone centre, keyring and tied ribbon to the top. I gave the whole thing a lick of Mod Podge. I also turned them over and did another flower on the other side. Ta- dah...

I then roped my Joshua into helping me bag them up with a couple yummy Aldi chocolates in each (the incentive for Joshua was having a choc. sample when finished:) and tied them up with a tissue paper flower on the front:

Then arranged them all in a basket ready for all the beautiful Mums young and old at our church

I had myself a lovely mother's day - a lovely posie of Aussie flowers from hubby and spent the day enjoying my handsome young nephew's dedication service and scrumptious lunch to follow... enjoying lots of cuddles with my young uns'

Plumbing

David's Cousin and his wife (newly weds) have come to stay with us for about a month so he can get some more work in the big smoke. They live remotely and are fixing up an old house, gardening etc. etc. in between a few plumbing jobs. We have managed to keep Uncle C busy with some plumbing jobs at our house for a while, then after a few other local jobs she will be flying down to Melbourne where they will meet up again and she will have their baby in a couple of

months.

The trench diggers hard at work. David dug a big trench along the fence line so we could replace some faulty/old pipes.

Aunty S getting plenty of practise before her little bundle arrives (this was actually taken a month or so ago when they popped in) so her bump is much more ripe now...

The view of the neighborhood is always quite different when you gain height:) David had Uncle C take some pictures when climbing up on our back patio roof:

Rosa and Owen enjoyed some new play equipment:

As for me, I have been enjoying some adult female company - lots of chats about giving birth, parenting, etc. etc. I have been spoilt having Aunty S around - I have recently been running around taking Joshua to his NAPLAN test to come home and find my washing done and folded and my dishes washed and kitchen clean (and I know it is a woman who has done the job because it is definitely done with detail and a woman's touch:) I have been spoilt.

I think that the greatest thing I have enjoyed/been challenged about, however in having Uncle C and Aunty S staying with us is their dedication and devotion to studying God's Word. Even plumbing jobs fit around midday worship. They guard their times of study and diligently study the Bible and it is precious to hear them singing songs of praise as I go about the house.

Water!

Have you ever thanked our Jehovah for water? For rain, maybe? But the fact that we have clean water when we turn on our taps?

Rosa was thrilled when I asked if she wanted a turban on her head after she had a bath. A little hard to balance a towel which is about half your weight on top but she was enjoying it.

This will be her last bath at home for a couple of days because we are having a major plumbing job done. We have some corroded pipes and which are causing drainage problems. David's cousin who is a plumber, and his wife who are staying with us for a while will be tackling the problem. I think we might be bucketting water from our Rain water tank for a couple of days. I am sure it will give us all a new appreciation for water supply (and it's usefulness for potty training :) So it is back to prehistoric living in the Campbell house. May visit our local swimming pool for a swim (and shower:) in the afternoon...

I think I will have a new appreciation for water, water that flows from my taps

after this job is finished....

Anzac Day

I just love getting away with the family. Love the time to sit and chat to my hubby (when I can get a word in:) , or just soak him up a bit outside of the regular four walls we call home. I love driving some place new. So ANZAC day was a lovely out-of-the-ordinary treat for us all. David drove us to Fernvale, to a lovely little creek which comes off the Brisbane River. Josh went there with Dave and Boys Brigade recently and thought they'd show us this gorgeous little tucked away spot.

Most of the time was spent doing this:

... and it got the wifey tick of approval:)

Feeling Cheesed!

Two things that have cheesed me lately (just in case you are interested:)

The first - a reminder of the horrible world we have brought our children into...

Whilst travelling to Owen's school one morning Rosa declared that someone had ' had a finger sticking out'. After a couple more questions I discovered someone on a bus that had passed had decided that they would be obscene to my three year old when she smiled at them through the window. That, along with some words Josh has privately asked me about - as to their meaning only to find that some peers (from church:( have been passing around a few obscene words, too... I know we cannot escape to the hermitage to avoid the world but honestly, to a three year old?

the second:

'Free photo' which (as expected) is really just a way to try and get you to buy a whole pack of photos (cheapest deal being $150). Now, that is not the part that annoys me. I quite expected to pushed and shoved and made to feel like a nasty mother unless I bought them. It was the comment, "surely you wouldn't need to ask your husband to spend only $150!"

Now that cheeses me! I managed to avoid further guilt-trip/marriage wedging type sales techniques but am not sure I will ever get my 'free' photo...

Now to calm down... :)

PS - I didn't double-book after all ! Yay!