Tag / Parenting

by Greg

Imitation: The Highest Form of Flattery

Tonight at the dinner table, our youngest boy—who bears a good deal of physical resemblance to his Daddy—was particularly tuned in to my every move. He was watching (and mimicking) everything that I did. When I leaned forward onto my elbows to rest my head in my hands and wipe the tired of the recent past from my face, so did Cam. Whichever way I moved, just about any posture I assumed, Cam followed to near perfection.

It didn’t take me long to notice, and when I did, well, I was certainly heartened by his quite evident love for his me, his Dad.

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, and I guess maybe “they” are right.

Paul also said that the people whom he introduced to Jesus should “imitate [him] as [he] imitate[s] Christ”. That thought came to my mind, and I hope that’s just as easy for them to see and to follow as my physical motions at the table.

The best part was when, once he knew that I knew he was imitating me—though for this moment, I had momentarily forgotten—I moved my dish aside, being done with my food. Moments later, Cameron moved his dish in front of me. Typically, when this happens it means he’s refusing to eat more (even though he probably still should). However, once I saw where he had placed it, it was exactly the same amount to his right as I had placed my dish! 🙂

Still makes my face and heart smile as I recall and type the story here. Such a sweet boy.

In truth, it happens quite often, the imitating. More than I’d like. Often I’m quite glad for it, and I hope that it continues. But other times it’s too revealing. It can be unpleasant to hear the way your tone returns to your ears through the mouth of your biggest 2-year-old fan. But, a mirror can also be your best friend. I am thankful for the mirror that my kids can be for me.

Firstborn son, Ian, is more like me than I admit at times. He is creative, talented, gregarious, frequently charming, and also stubborn, confident to the point of arrogance, and often unteachable. At times, I am like all of that, too—the good and the bad.

During a recent clash of our similar personalities, where I felt (maybe incorrectly) that I needed to press Ian on his apparently unteachable/rebellious position or attitude toward me at that moment, I asked, “Ian, what is going on? Why are you being like this right now? Why do you have no humility at all?” He quickly responded, “I really have a hard time being humble!”

Slightly taken aback by his astute observation and open admission, I paused, but only slightly.

Though there was only a slight moment in which Ian’s words were allowed to resonate, his sister, Kirsten—more than five years his younger—managed to slip in the kindest, and perhaps most profound words of encouragement recently spoken in our home.

“That was humble, Ian.”

The kindness and pure, caring heart revealed both by her choice of words and her delivery of them, as well as the depth of understanding of the concept of humility that was evidenced by her quick assessment is overwhelming to me. In the midst of what had been a very draining, tense, frustrating series of moments for me (and everyone else, I think) she spoke such words of life that I had to encourage her, “Kirstie, I think those were the wisest, kindest words I’ve heard spoken here today. Thank you.”

There is beauty in our brokenness. In the moments where we are weak we can be lifted up. Either by someone else who is somehow less weak for that moment, or by God himself whose grace makes us strong, even—especially?—when we are weak. Sometimes the truth of that is revealed in the words, from the heart, of a seven year old girl, or by the actions of a two year old boy.

I hope that I am mostly characterized by a love and grace—toward my kids (and wife) directly, as well as toward every person that I might interact with—that overflows from the Life I have in me in Jesus. I am not him, and I can not be perfect. I will choose poorly, I will fail. But even in my brokenness, I hope that my kids will get to follow my example as I follow Jesus. Even in the way that I handle the images I see in the mirror: be they glass, or flesh.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Perhaps children are the highest form of imitation.

This day, I am so thankful for the mirrors God has given me.

Bible references above are from 1 Corinthians 11, and 2 Corinthians 12.

by Greg

Hugs

Alex Campbell

I am a hugger. It’s one of the main ways I express love, especially to my kids. (I think it has rubbed off on them, too, as I must get a hundred hugs a day! I love it! And I always welcome it, even if I don’t feel like I have the time.)

One time we definitely don’t miss the chance to give hugs is right before bed. Whether it’s after they are already in their beds and I am about to leave the room, or as they are heading up to get ready for bed, or after we finished reading under the low incandescent light in my office.

We don’t miss the good night hugs!

Tonight as Alex was hugging me good night following another very interesting chapter from the Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R.Tolkein (love his extra initial!) I had a brief realization that this nightly ritual was definitely only for a season. As I patted Alex on the back and got in one more squeeze, I slid back and gently grasped his arms and said, “You know Alex, there will come a time when you are living in your own home, with your own family, where we won’t get to do this hug every night.” (Alex is particularly good at remembering to get the good night hugs in… and sometimes he’s also good at forgetting that he already did get his good night hug in) 🙂

He looked at me and a look of understanding and realization swept quickly across his face. His words followed not too long after, “Yeah,” he admitted, “But… we’ll have sleepovers.”

My heart smiled at the quick remedy that Alex devised for the future reality he hadn’t ever really considered. What do you mean I won’t get to hug my Dad good night every night??

Like most things in life, we easily take such small (but meaningful) things for granted. Until they are gone, or in this case, until we realize we won’t have them forever.

I think Alex continued to elaborate on his plan, mentioning “playing Madden” in there somewhere. 🙂 I was honestly losing myself in my own realizations of that time that will someday come. Thinking of the quietness of the home … and the much fewer hugs.

I did manage to respond that I’m sure we’ll find some ways to get together for some “boys” time. And I’m sure we will.

Thankfully, these few hours later, I’ve also remembered that I do still get nightly hugs. I do have Alex here in my house, every night, and every day. And, if God has numbered my days so, I hope that though I may not have them as readily available, I should be the recipient and giver of many more hugs as time moves forward and this family increases. What a joy that will be, too.

But for now, I will take every chance I get to accept hugs and give hugs to these precious people God has given me. I’m so glad to be their Dad. 🙂

by Greg

Transitions

We’re definitely in a season of transition here. I am beginning to understand that life itself is a season of transition. But there is a more specific area of transition I’m talking about.

We have a teenager. (Da-da-dum…)

And so, things are different. I don’t just mean that our food bills are (MUCH) higher, or that we seem to have to repeat ourselves even more these days, or that the Teenager sleeps too much. All of that it true, but only of a very secondary or tertiary concern.

There are more complex matters that arise as one moves from childhood to adulthood. Most of us who have passed through those years remember what it was like as you began to think more and more of yourself, becoming more independent, “spreading your wings”.

(And many of us also remember a decade or more later realizing how little we really knew and understood then… and now!)

Heavy on my mind and heart have been moments, thoughts, questions about freedoms that Ian deserves as he makes this transition. It is, after all, much more his than mine.

What a strange transition it was thirteen years ago when we went from being responsible for our own actions and choices, to being fully responsible for another’s life, their entire being. Ian relied on us for everything. It starts with simple sustenance and taking care of his physical needs. Then it progresses to introducing him to the world around him, starting with relationships: Mom, Dad, Grandmas & Grandpas, eventually siblings. Even that is in a way “simple”.

But there are moments when I realize now that I may be overstepping my role as a parent. Perhaps that’s the wrong word, as it implies a set role. I do believe there is a transition that must happen from the full responsibility we have for the very life of our infant children to their later training, disciplining, and eventually… their releasing.

We’re certainly not there yet, but I see glimpses of it.

In a few conversations with friends recently I’ve been reminded that the struggle to parent through this stage is definitely not just my own. Talking with a friend recently who also have a teenager in the home, I was reminded of the careful (perhaps blurry) line we walk as we guide them, walk with them toward adulthood. She was thinking of some events she wasn’t that thrilled for her daughter to be part of (not because they were a bad thing for her daughter, but presumably that her participation was another sign of her too quickly growing up.) Then she said something about remembering how it was when she was that age, and it wasn’t that bad.

And the way she worded it struck me. It reminded me vividly of the fact that our kids are really very much not ours. They do not belong to us. For a time, perhaps shorter than most of us realize, there is an appearance of that “belonging” but it’s a great privilege that we could fulfill that role for another Image Bearer. Parents, the Creator has made our children just as he has made us: fully responsible to him alone.

Don’t get me wrong here. One, you may have already figured this out way before me. I know I’m not sharing any great revelation that I have had or God has given first to me. Second, I really don’t have any rock-solid conclusions on any of this yet. I think that’s an amazing thing about parenting: we really don’t know what we’re doing, at any stage of the game! (Am I right, Mom & Dad?)

And so we love. And we learn to step back (extremely difficult though that may be) and view our older children as the individuals that they are. Yes, they live “under our roof, by our rules” … sure. But the greatest thing we can give to our children is an example of grace and freedom akin to the way Jesus treats us.

I’m currently working through what things actually have value, and at what cost for Ian. At this point I am beginning to feel much more like a mentor to him than the Rule Giver that I have been, and still am for his younger siblings. I think I even notice chances to be that mentor for our ten-year-old son, Alex. Much more so for Ian though. It still seems very prudent to have clear boundaries for what is good and what is just not good for his heart. But there are very clearly evidences of yearnings for greater freedom.

At some point, my boundaries will be gone. This current season of transition is the time where I begin to love Ian more and more as an individual with likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, and with a freedom granted him by his very existence.

Oh boy. I just had no idea the journey alongside my kids could be this challenging … and we have a long way to go!

It’s such a beautiful thing. I look forward to God gently showing me ways that I can lift up Ian and his freedoms, and point him more to Father than to me. Eventually to walk alongside him as a brother, rather than a father. I know I will always be his Dad, and I cherish that. But I also know that he is not mine to hold on to. I’m just the hired help, for a season.

And the seasons are pretty quickly changing.

I’m thankful that they aren’t ever too quick. If I’m tuned into him, and to Jesus, they are just right. (And even when I’m not, Jesus has grace enough for me in that.)

So we move forward, transitioning. I would be untruthful if I didn’t admit to some anxiety of the unknown years ahead, and how they will turn out. But I do know for sure that those feelings are my own overstepping of my role. While I can pour all my heart, love, knowledge, wisdom, caring into my kids … eventually, and even now, they get to choose. It’s that built-in freedom that we all have. I can do a bit more about it while they are younger, but in reality, I am never “in control” of them. Only they are. Their actions and choices are their own. That’s scary when I think I’m responsible for them. Or even, if I think their actions reflect badly on me, and my parenting.

But I want my mark to be the way that I love them, not how well they comply. I want my measuring stick to be my relationship with them, how much they trust my love for them. They are going to fall, to fail. Definitely. They are just as much a slave to our sinful nature as I am.

What I want them to know, through all the transitions we will traverse in this life, is that they are loved: by both of their Dads.

That’s one thing that will never change.

by Greg

Tradition, Tradition!

Traditional New Year's Day meal, pork, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, corn bread

As far back as I can remember, my family has always celebrated New Year’s Day with a big meal featuring pork, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, and corn bread. My dad enjoys throwing in some baked clams, but I’ve chosen to leave those out of our version of the family tradition… 🙂

This year was no different. Even though we’d been packing a bunch in between Christmas and Ian’s 13th birthday celebrations, and despite the fact that I had been feeling pretty sick the night before, I still managed to get the pork loin in the oven to slow roast overnight and we had a delicious meal for a late lunch the next day.

It’s said that having this meal on New Year’s Day leads to a prosperous year, but I’m really just glad for the fun of making it and the tastiness of eating it! Plus it’s a favorite of just about everyone in our family (and friends we’ve gotten to share the meal with, too!)

A slightly more odd tradition that we keep in the Campbell household is celebrating Three Kings Day, which we’ll be doing tomorrow morning! This is because of the few years of my childhood that were spent in Caracas, Venezuela. Three Kings Day is celebrated in many hispanic countries, including Venezuela! Our version may be a bit modified, but it suits us, and is mostly in the same spirit, I’d say.

Every January 5th, we leave our shoes out by the front door, ready to be filled by the three wise men. They leave us gifts, just like they did for Jesus. We can leave straw for their camels to eat, but usually don’t do that. 🙂 In the morning, we come down to find a small gift and usually some candy left in everyone’s shoes. Fun!

And, every once in a while, we’ll bake an oven-safe trinket into a cake and then whoever gets the piece of cake with that item in it gets to be KING for the day! We’ve modified this a bit, too, in that we know the King of kings, we try to be a king in the way he was: serving, not being served. (And yes, the kids still want to do it!)

Speaking of knowing the King of kings…

After reading many of her favorite mom/big-family blogs this Christmas season, Jen thought it might finally be the year to “do Christmas differently”. We’ve had a pretty typical Christmas tradition of lots of gifts, and the big family Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa’s, and so on. This year she thought we could focus more on the reason we’re celebrating: it’s Jesus’ birthday! (At least, the day that is celebrated.)

We’ve tossed some of these ideas around for the past several years, but we decided to really do it this year. First, we each drew a name of someone else in the family, and got just one meaningful gift for that person. (So, still gifts, but much less about gifts for us.) We spent as much or more money giving gifts to Jesus. How, you ask? Matthew 25 says, “Whatever you do for the least of these, you are doing for me” (my paraphrase), so we did that! We bought (via World Vision this time) 13 small farm animals for people who could use them for daily sustenance. It was really cool to see the kids excited to do it! And it was so nice to have the focus much less on the gifts (and the getting) and much more on Jesus, and the incredible Gift of his becoming a man that “…all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)

We also made a birthday cake, of course, and had a great time celebrating Jesus’ birthday! (We’re pretty good at celebrating birthdays around here!) Hoping that this becomes our family tradition as the years go on. And I’m sure there will be some great modifications along the way.

Born 4 BC? 2015 in 2011!

Note: we based the “age” upon a birth year of 4 BC… thus the 2015. (Though, if you count the year 0, wouldn’t he be 2016?) 🙂

Do you have family traditions from your childhood that you have continued with your family? Any new ones you’ve begun with your own family? Comment below!

by Greg

Will You Let Me Love You?

Sometimes babies do dumb things. OK, a lot of the time. But usually (really almost always) they are really cute doing them, so, you tend to pretty easily forgive. (That and, they’re all fairly new on the job, so, you cut them some slack.)

Well, today, Emma (who is 2, almost 3) decided she would live up to that.

After her baby brother’s nap (he is 1), she joined him in his crib for a little bouncy fun. Well, the bouncing turned stale I guess, and she thought it would be fun to involve the curtains in the play. It might have been fun at first, but then she jumped a little too high, and pulled a little too hard… and…

The curtain rod is no more.

I came down from my office to get them and noticed that the window did not look right. A quick glance downward revealed the nature of the change in appearance, and I just shook my head in frustration. I surveyed their faces and surmised that Emma was the culprit. (She admitted as much within a few seconds of my assessment.) I scolded her, and removed them from the crib and examined the damage to see if it was reparable. It was not.

So I left the room frustrated and, was also frustrated with Jen that they had somehow escaped her custody. I was just frustrated.

Skip ahead through dinner (steaks!), and bath (fun!), to Emma’s bedtime. She is once again in her brother’s crib (how else can you say good night to him??) and that brings back to her mind the events of the early evening.

“The curtain is broken,” says a sad-voiced Emma.

“Yeah, it is,” says Dad, matching her tone. “But it’s OK, I can fix it.” I even began sort of propping it up to hopefully block some of the morning sunlight.

“Will you let me love you, Dad?” came the sheepish, sullen request.

It took a few seconds to register. I am not sure I’ve ever heard those words strung together, or spoken like that. In our family, we learned that when we wrong each other, rather than saying, “I’m sorry,” which is nice, but leaves the offender still very much “in control”, we feel it’s more appropriate and meaningful to approach the offended, and humbly ask their forgiveness: “Will you please forgive me (for [insert offense here])?”

That is what Emma was asking. She may have been mimicking the tone and phrasing (her own interpretation) of what she’s seen, but I think it was also coming from her heart. And her two-year-old brain actually revealed something amazing to me.

“Will you let me love you” is, in effect, what we’re asking when we ask for forgiveness. Yes, that we’d be forgiven, and receive love from the offended, but also that we’d be allowed to freely give love, too! How could Emma know that? But that’s the great thing! She does!. Jesus said we should be like little children… and that is why. To Emma, life is very simple. Very relational.

(It’s also about candy. And rubber chickens. And frequent screaming. But that’s for another blog post…)

Tonight, Emma got it right. And she got a great big hug and kiss.

And I definitely let her love me. 🙂

by Greg

I’m Such A Baby

Tonight I was noticing just how much I am like our one- and two-year-old children. Now, for the most part I’ve learned to control my responses a bit more (not to mention my excellent potty-trained record) but watching them tonight—and in particular, the way I, their father, interacted with them—I realized just how much I am being the whiny, impatient, uninformed, short-sighted baby.

That’s exactly what you’d expect from a baby, right? The poor creatures can’t talk… they can’t do most things for themselves… they’re at our mercy! So, pretty often then are frustrated to the point of tears (along with kicking and screaming sometimes) and, well, that’s kinda how I felt tonight.

As I was bathing our 1-year-old son, he kept resisting me in various ways. He wanted to hold a toy a certain way at a certain time, but I need to bathe him and so he just had to wait for a bit till he could have it again. But, in his impatient short-sightedness … he cried. Then, once that was over, all was fine. Then while rinsing him off he was crying because the water was going over his face … but again, if he could just think of the bigger picture … he’d save himself the trouble of crying and all that fussing about his (very) temporary discomfort, since he’d be thinking of the great clean, warm, comfy feeling he was about to have in about 3-5 minutes.

After that, the same pattern ensued when we were drying off. He was cold, he was wet … and in the process of trying to fix that, he had cried as I dried him off and dressed him. Again, all was better in the end, but he didn’t like the “getting there” part. And then when we waited for his cup of milk to warm in the microwave—a routine he is quite familiar with—he only whimpered and complained about the wait. I want my milk now!!!

Aren’t we like that? I am. I was tonight. (Maybe am?) I reconciled our finances tonight and we are so far behind at the moment, and besides that we’re excitedly pursuing another opportunity it seems God is leading us toward … but it’s still out of our reach. And our bills are piling up, while income seems to only be trickling in. Ugh. All I can see is that I’m cold, wet, and there’s soap in my eyes. I’m missing the part where my Dad loves me, and he’s taking care of me.

There’s a lot to the idea of living in the moment. It’s important to be where you are, or you might miss it. But sometimes, I admit, just like my two babies … I am way too in the moment. I forget how God has been with us through everything along the way up till now, and I forget that he moves much slower than me. Just like Cameron wants me to get his milk ready in an instant … it doesn’t work that way! It takes time.

God moves like that. He sees the whole picture, and he’s working all things for our good. I do forget that sometimes…

I guess I can be such a baby.

By the way, the photo above is from the end of a photo shoot with all our kids (credit Lindsay Karl), and Cam was very done! We weren’t ramming his head into that tree branch or anything like that… 🙂

by Greg

American Values

At the ReValue America lecture we hosted last weekend, one of the themes was of course, “Values”.

During the presentation, the speaker—Dr. Shanon Brooks—took a moment to ask everyone there what some “American values” were. Various words were quickly offered: Honor. Courage. Bravery. Love. Friendship. Hard work/work ethic. Faith. Charity/Generosity. Probably about 20 or 30 were mentioned within a 30 second span. It was a fairly easy exercise for the 130 or so in attendance.

After a good number had been spoken, Dr. Brooks said, “Those are all great, and I think we’re all in agreement that those are all values that we hold as Americans. But—and this never fails, anywhere I ask this—there were a few that we did not mention. Why didn’t anyone mention mathematics, or grammar, or physics, or anything like that? We focus so much of our attention in our education systems to such things, but they aren’t mentioned as our core values?”

It was a fantastic illustration (in my opinion) of our educational focus being quite askew. We have an enormous system in place to train up generations of Americans in the “fundamentals”, but we are not passing along our values. Values are, well, what we value. So according to our education system, we value skills rather than the things we say are our “values” (as above).

Don’t get me wrong… I don’t think the public education system really can pass along values very well, so I don’t think we should all of a sudden change to a more character-based education system in the government schools. It won’t work. (Simply because of the setting, the environment.) Character and values should be passed along to children by their parents. Clearly there are problems with that in our society as there are so many homes without parents in the plural … it gets very confused and confusing.

I guess that’s why Dr. Brooks feels we really need to “ReValue” America.

At the very least, we need to figure out what it means to get an education, and what sort of education we want. Do we just want to learn skills (that we don’t even consider American values) or do we want a more well-rounded, full education, including the “why” of what we learn. And what to do with what we’ve learned. Based on our values.

Which is it?

That was one of the questions/challenges presented in the ReValue America lecture … if you can get out to any of the remaining ones here in NY State this week, please do. It will be well worth your time. If not, visit their website for information on other opportunities across the US.

by Greg

A Few Things I Love

Tonight I was noticing several things I love about our family, and I just wanted to write them down.

I love that our family reads. I mean really reads. We took our customary Monday walk to the library this afternoon (with MOM this time, since Grammy & Grandpa were here to stay home with the sleeping babies!) and each time we go to the library we can’t get less than a dozen books! (To be fair, there are MANY of us in this house…) And, when we get home, each kid finds a seat in the living room and begins devouring their new literary treasures. So great.

And then tonight, after giving the babies a bath, I asked Emma to pick out a book and read while I helped her older sisters get cleaned up themselves. I found her a very thick story book (with pictures) and once I showed her what a neat book it was she got very excited and ran to her bed to start reading it. Five or ten minutes later, she was still sitting on her bed, happily “reading” her book. She’s two!

All day long we are reading. Separately, together, doesn’t matter. And often we are telling one or more of the others something we’ve found interesting from one of those books. I love that our family reads.

I love that our family loves music. Tonight after the reading fun, we were finishing up getting ready for bed and I just decided to sing a couple songs with the girls. I didn’t think anyone was picking up on it, so I stopped after a verse of one song. A few moments after I was done, a tiny voice expectantly asked from her bed, “Sing more, Dad?” I looked over to see Emma, face and eyes beaming, slightly tilting her head… how could I say no? I sang another verse and she just giggled when I finished. She loved it!

So, I grabbed my guitar and we sang a few songs together in our extended bedtime routine. As soon as I grabbed my guitar, Emma found her little clay flute (from Argentina) and started playing that. Next thing I knew, she was out of her bed, standing in front of me waving her arms and dancing “ballet” with me. 🙂 She invited her sisters, and without much hesitation, the other two girls were doing the same!

We belted out the chorus, “How great is our God, sing with me, how great is our God!” until it was really time to be done. I put the guitar down and hugged each girl good night. As Emma was waiting her turn she continued to belt out, “How greaaaaaat….. is Goooooooooood!” And of course, always with a giant smile on her face.

Just beautiful.

And, just a day or two ago, we decided it was time to enjoy some other people’s music. And to enjoy it loudly. (I think I have passed along a great love for very loud music to my children from their Grammy, whom I believe still enjoys feeling her music!) We were boogying to some Michael Jackson (from his album Off The Wall.) Even Cam, our now one-year-old little guy was smiling, laughing, and dancing!

I love that our family loves music.

I also really love that our family knows God. Really knows him. Not just about him, or the concept of God. But that they think of him as a person, as I have come to know him in my adult life. I mean no slight to my parents (I am especially thankful for them today, too, as we’ve gotten to spend the last two days with them) but I do not recall growing up knowing the reality of God in our everyday life. Where he is part of our everyday thoughts, and speech, and actions. Not just doing “God” things either—like going to church, reading the Bible, and praying—but that he’s just part of who we are; we, the Campbells. I hope that will be a great foundation for all of our kids to have full and rich lives lived with and through him.

It’s been fun to watch it developing already. My morning reading with the boys involves reading some scripture (varying amounts) and then talking about it as we go. I love hearing their reactions, and thoughts, and questions… and then just working through them together. Me not necessarily teaching… more facilitating, and learning just as much as they are as we go.

There’s more, but this is already getting long. No way I could present an exhaustive list here. Perhaps I’ll pick up this thread again later, but suffice it to say… I just plain love my family. 🙂

by Greg

Do A Great Job, Not Just An ‘OK’ Job

This afternoon, what started out as some outside playing time, turned into the great deforestation project of 2010. While the boys and I were tossing the football around, Grandpa decided to climb up on top of their fifth-wheel camper and clear off some things. Well, that reminded me of a few low-hanging tree branches I had wanted to cut down. One thing led to another and before we knew it, all five of us were deep into an hour or two of some pretty intense yard work!

First, I cut down the branches I wanted to bring down. The boys thought that was fun and helped remove the limbs I brought down. I spied a few more that I wanted to cut, so I did that. My dad suggested a few more that could use trimming… and then while our neighbor was outside with us, I saw/remembered a dead tree that needed to be cut down with a chainsaw. It just so happens our neighbor has a chainsaw! 🙂 (And it just so happens my Dad is quite experienced with such implements, having his own tree cutting business a few decades ago.)

So… it was on.

We even got the neighbor on the other side of our property involved. It was a deforestation party! We brought that tree down, and a couple other fairly large branches that were hanging over the house next to our property (from a tree on our property). It was definitely a good bit of work, but quite fun.

I was pretty impressed that all three of the oldest kids were not just being helpful, but even happy to be helping, enjoying themselves. Once the cutting was done the yard was pretty full of felled limbs, branches, twigs, walnuts, leaves, and other clutter. There was a good deal more work to do.

I spotted a bunch of smaller branches strewn across our driveway that had fallen from the branches being dragged to the big pile, and decided to offer some encouragement to the helpful young workers.

“Now be sure to get all of these smaller branches, too guys. It’s a bit more work, but let’s make sure we do it. Let’s make sure we do a great job, not just an ‘OK’ job.”

As I said it I thought, Hey… that’s what I always try to say to them, in many more words! I remember my Dad saying, “Do it right the first time,” and so I have repeated that a time or two. Or ten. Or fifty. But really the heart of what I’m wanting to say is to just always do your best. Never cut corners. Never settle for less.

Do a great job, not just an ‘OK’ job.

I don’t think that’s common. At least, not in our current American culture. Do you? Do you see people around you doing everything with excellence. Trying to do their job (or really, anything they do) with greatness, not just the minimum effort and results? Perhaps it’s our educational system that passes “satisfactory” as the standard, or just a natural cycle of a society. Not sure, but I am hoping that such an attitude toward anything we undertake will be how we Campbells are known.

Today that worked pretty well. 🙂

What things are part of your family identity? We have a few others. And there are some that we are still working on passing along/training into our kids. It will be interesting to see what our efforts—and maybe even more so, the unintentional stuff we are passing along—looks like in our kids and their families down the road. Till then we’ll keep reaching for the great, not just the OK.

by Greg

The Family That Reads Together…

Time Pirate by Ted BellI absolutely love reading with my kids. Love it. I think I especially love reading stories that stretch out over days and weeks (even months in the case of some longer books the boys and I have read together, like Oliver Twist, and Nick of Time). The pure joy of entering new worlds every time you crack open the book and smell the fantastic aroma of time worn pages, or brand new pages for that matter.

I love reading, period.

The boys and I are currently reading Time Pirate by Ted Bell. It’s an historical adventure (a fictional adventure story set in an historically accurate setting) so it brings up plenty of questions about true stories from the past. The two “Nick McIver adventures” books have been set near World War II, as well as some time in the 18th century (he’s a time traveler, so… that helps for exploring several historical eras). We’ve also touched on WWI since the people Nick looks up to (his Dad, and his older friend, Gunner) served in that war. Nick rebuilt and learned to fly a Sopwith Camel bi-plane from WWI, which means we also are learning about flying (and sailing in the previous book).

There’s so much to learn, and it’s fun doing it!

Here’s a list of books (not comprehensive) that are currently in progress in the Campbell home (Dad & kids reading … Mom has a whole list of her own to add – maybe she’ll comment?) 🙂

  • Time Pirate by Ted Bell
  • The Story of Winston Churchill by Alida Sims Maklus
  • Voyager: an adventure to the edge of the solar system by Sally Ride
  • The Sun and Other Stars (from World Book’s Solar System & Space Exploration Library)
  • Galaxies and the Universe (from World Book’s Solar System & Space Exploration Library)
  • The book of Acts (Today’s English Version) by Luke (and God…)
  • Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (I read this with only the girls)
  • Anything and everything by Mo Willems! (He’s great!)

As I said, that’s not comprehensive… perhaps it would be fun to share a more comprehensive list? If you’ve not noticed it yet, there is a list of books that I am currently reading (and sometimes I’ll share videos/movies/TV that I am watching there as well) linked at the very top of this site. (Or just click here.) You can also see (when I’m feeling ambitious and keep it up to date) a few of the current reads along the right sidebar. But those don’t always include books that I’m reading with the kids. Perhaps I’ll share some of our favorites as a new page there: Books I’m Reading With the Kids.

One thing is for certain: BOOKS are definitely part of the Campbell family identity!