Woyal Ambassador

It has been a real kick to begin the school year teaching Kade and Konner. The older kids do their work almost entirely independently, so I can concentrate on Kade and Konner. Since they're so close in age, I can pit them against each other competitively as they learn sounds, blends, counting, etc. Konner is a smart little cookie but Kade is a hard worker, so they are pretty much on par.

This morning, I was working with Kade to help him memorize the Royal Ambassador Pledge for his missions group on Wednesday night. It goes like this:

As a Royal Ambassador, I will do my best:

To become a well-informed, responsible follower of Christ;

To have a Christlike concern for all people;

To learn how to carry the message of Christ around the world;

To work with others in sharing Christ;

And to keep myself clean and healthy in mind and body.

Kade is a male version of Kathleen -- both are really into drama. When they tell a story, they are fully engaged in making sure that the listener is getting every juicy detail. So in the car on Wednesday night after choir/missions, Kade told me that he really needed to learn his pledge for RAs (Royal Ambassadors -- the boys' group from first to fifth grade -- and when he learned his pledge AND attended three times, he'd get his vest. So, at his prompting, we went to work on this worthy pledge. But he has a little bit of a speech impediment, because he's not a Royal Ambassador, but a Woyal Ambassador. It was really heard for me to help him through just the first line without laughing outright, and I wanted to work on just the first few lines today. He insisted that we do the whole thing, but I convinced him that a little at a time was much better!

I ended up not getting my Upper GI test today because I got a call yesterday informing me that it we still needed to meet the total family deductible before getting the test done. This has been a bit challenging money-wise for all the medical stuff we've been getting taken care of lately, so I'll wait a bit longer for this test. I'm so sad. Really.

Anyway, I've been feeling hugely convicted about how much time I must have been giving the computer lately because since it's crashed, it seems like I have A LOT of extra time on my hand. Add to this that Keith is not home on weeknights because he's at his other job, and suddenly I also have full control of the remote! Which means I can also turn the TV off, if I so choose. I've been seriously enjoying the quiet of the evening when all of the kids are down.

Since Kathleen has taken off reading, she's been more than happy to go to bed to read her latest American Girl Book. And now Kylie, even though she's not as good of a reader, has decided that she likes American Girls, too. I would like to extend big thank you's to the Nesbitts. Cheryl, when you talked about how much Anastasia loved those Addy books, my girls were listening in! Kylie was curled up on the couch earlier today reading her book and it was a very sweet sight.

I'm going to have to dig up my reading list somewhere in my boxes, because it's getting harder and harder to find appropriate books for the kids. I always leave the library with TONS of books. They like me there, for the most part, and the librarians are mostly pretty nice. A good ratio of nice vs. mean. : )

I'll feel a little more of a crunch in my time when Women's Bible Study starts up again in September. I'm going to start going to the Wednesday morning study on Revelation. It should be interesting as it's been a few years since I've done a study on one of my favorite books. It will be good, though, to get into a more formal study of God's Word.