My Children succeed in spite of me!

Tonight, the kids had AWANA, and at the beginning of the year I was quite clear that, given all our other activities (cub scouts, girl scouts, 4-H, precept, church, etc.), if they were going to do AWANA, it was entirely their thing-I would not be responsible for helping them remember their books, bags, Bibles, verses, etc. (Okay, that sounds harsh, but I wanted them to OWN this if they wanted to do it.) I even said to my closest friends that AWANA for me represented a chance for my husband and I to have a "free" date night with only the youngest child in tow. Nope, our kids would definitely not be going out for Clubber of the month, this was just a safe Christian environment for them to have fun and us to have 2 hours a week to remember what it means to be a couple.
Mimi in particular has really embraced AWANA and learned at least a verse a week-sometimes two or three. TJ also has worked on his own to learn verses, as has Scott to a lesser degree (he has scouts and piano to keep him busy). I have been proud of them all and how they have really risen to the occasion and taken ownership of their success. Well tonight, Mimi and TJ got their reward. Yes, in spite of me, they were both voted Clubber of the Month. I'm so happy for them as they have really worked at it.
(AWANA must have shopped the "after Halloween" sales for gifts! Yep, now we have 132 little containers of playdoh!)
It is more than a little reassuring to me that they can succeed without me if they really want to. It makes me feel like they will turn out okay even with our laid back homeschool style :-). I've "suspended" them from school for the week, and we have continued our work on restoring the house to some semblance of order. The boys' room was today's project. Tomorrow we will finish up more of the detail work.
obm