☀️Issue #1: It Dawned on Me…

to relaunch my newsletter.

Dec 9, 2022

Hello and welcome to the first issue of It Dawned on Me! I’m Dawn Camp, mom of eight, mimi to seven, author, photographer, homeschooling mom, and contributor to DaySpring’s (in)courage website. I’m addicted to movie date nights, steaming cups of Earl Grey, and the Beatles. “It Dawned on Me” is totally tongue-in-cheek: my name is the great irony of my life since I am not a morning person. I was, however, named after the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys (true story).

What will you find here? Desktop wallpapers to decorate your devices. Fun finds I can’t help but share. Essential oil tips & DIYs (my love of EOs inspired me to write It All Began in a Garden and My Essential Oil Companion). Movie and book recommendations. Reflections on our life as we slooowly approach the empty nest (our youngest is a high school senior, but we currently have three living at home). Updates as I try my hand at writing fiction.

You can also expect gratuitous photos of our cavapoo puppy River.

Essential Oil Revolution Podcast Interview!

🌿I recently recorded an episode of The Essential Oil Revolution, the world’s #1 essential oil podcast, with host Samantha Lee Wright and it went live this week! Confession: I kept the tab for scheduling an interview open on my computer for months but I was too scared to book it. I let myself get intimidated by their other guests and convinced they wouldn’t want me on the show (in spite of the invitation). I finally replied and explain my hesitation, why I thought I would be the “wrong” guest, and that I might tell people to approach oils the way the Beatles approached music or Vermeer approached painting. Crazy, right?

They were down for it! In this interview, I share my biggest essential oil testimonial, how it illustrates the connection between strong positive or negative reactions to an oil and your body’s need for it, and yeah—that thing about Vermeer and the Beatles. Click on one of the following links to listen in on my conversation with Sam:

Take a listen and let me know what you think! Share with someone who could use this info. I’d love to hear your #1 question about essential oils.

Desktop Wallpaper and Lockscreen for Your Phone

🌲For over a decade I’ve created desktop calendars that have decorated desktops around the world. Now I’m offering both computer wallpapers and phone lockscreens without a calendar, which gives you more flexibility on when to use them and me more flexibility on when to create them. It’s a win win! This photo is of a beautiful blue spruce from Kinsey Family Farm in Gainesville, GA. Get one or grab both of them here:

The verse comes from John 14:27 KJV: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” My neighborhood Bible study group (technically this makes my 3rd book club) is going through the new (in)courage devotional Create in Me a Heart of Peace. Recently I witnessed a scene that was not peace-inducing and when I started to get anxious, I brought these words and this study to mind and it helped. We would do well to put on peace instead of cloaking ourselves in defensiveness, anger, self-righteousness, and other characteristics that come easier. I know I would.

What I’m Reading, Watching, Listening to, or Otherwise Enjoying

📖 I recently finished reading Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis. What a fascinating story! It left me with a desire to visit England and to read more of their story through C. S. Lewis’s writings. Highly recommended!

(I thought I could advise you to get it on Kindle Unlimited, as I did, but I see it’s no longer available there. I’ve learned this lesson more than once: don’t remove a book from your Kindle Unlimited list to make room for more unless you’re certain you don’t plan to read it. Books often remain in the program for a limited period of time. I don’t think they’ll remove a book from your device unless you check it in, but you may not be able to get it again on KU.)

I contributed a chapter to the newest (in)courage offering, Come Sit with Me. This is the book no one wanted to write but everyone wanted to read: it contains personal stories on navigating difficult relationships.

📺 One of my book clubs (I’m in two!) read Magpie Murders this summer, so I was excited to see the new series. We just finished it and now we’re in the middle of the second seasons of Miss Scarlet and the Duke and All Creatures Great and Small (I read the first book in that series last summer—so good!). All three are on PBS and we’re watching with the PBS Masterpiece channel add-on to Prime Video. My daughters dislike period pieces, but I thought my 17 year old would enjoy Miss Scarlet and the Duke (she does), so my husband and I watched the first season again with her and now we’re watching season 2 together.

Fun fact: All Creatures Great and Small is our dog River’s favorite show—so many animals. It’s been evident since she was just a little puppy that she watches TV. She went out of her mind over Clifford the Big Red Dog in the live action movie or the orcs in Lord of the Rings.

Speaking of River, here’s that gratuitous puppy photo I promised you:

And speaking of books, how do you prefer them? Physical (hardcover or paperback?), ebook, or audio? As much as I love the feel of a real book in my hands, I’m reading ebooks more than ever. I bought my first Kindle, a Paperwhite, at the beginning of Covid and have enjoyed it so much I preordered the new Kindle Scribe. It comes with a pen and the ability to take notes and create notebooks, journals, and lists. It’s been great for reading but I haven’t used the pen yet. The reviews are mixed. I think some people expected it to do more than it does, like translate writing to text (it doesn’t).

I’ve always hated losing underlined text in books that were checked out from the library or Kindle Unlimited, but the Scribe created a separate doc for my highlights. That’s pretty cool. If you bought a Kindle Scribe, let me know what you think!

🎬 We’re in the inevitable period of slim pickings at the theater, post-covid. Earlier this week my husband and I saw Violent Night, the most unusual Christmas flick we’ve seen in ages. Picture a discouraged Santa—the real deal, not the shopping mall variety—coming to the rescue of a wealthy family taken hostage inside their compound. This is a solid R: John Wick-style violence, plus language (no nudity).

We had tickets to see Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, but canceled because we had company. I didn’t realize it was only in theaters for a weekend because it’s coming to Netflix December 23. It gets great reviews, just like the original. We bought a digital copy of the first one for a family movie night during covid and I’m sure we’ll sit down together and watch this sequel. Looking forward to it!

🎶 It’s officially time for Christmas tunes (not that some people, like my youngest daughter, haven’t been listening to them for months). Our family favorite Christmas album is Sixpence None the Richer’s The Dawn of Grace and the song that makes me the most sentimental is “The Little Drummer Boy” by the Harry Simeone Chorale. It reminds me of childhood and my mother, who perfectly trilled the r’s in “rum pum pum pum”—(Did you know that’s called an alveolar trill and there’s a symbol for it? ⟨r⟩ I didn’t.) Is there a Christmas album or song that’s essential to the season for you?

Subscriber Bonus!

Some of you are new subscribers who joined after hearing my interview on The Essential Oil Revolution podcast and some of you have been here for years, but ALL of us are new to this newsletter on Substack. I want to make sure all of you get my subscriber bonus: THREE bonus chapters to my book It All Began in a Garden!

Just click Download or on the image below:

Just for Fun!

Leave a comment sharing one of your favorite things (something you’re reading, watching, or enjoying), or just stop by to say hello. I’ll send a signed copy of one of my books—your choice—to a random commenter!

Here’s a fun Christmas diffuser blend. Enjoy!