Sep. 4, 2007 - AWANA

3 of my children have their second week of AWANA tomorrow.  They are all so excited about it.  I'm glad.  I grew up in AWANA and am such a fan.  I went to scholarship camp 3 years and came back while I was in college to be with some 5th & 6th grade girls at AWANA camp.  The church I currently go to doesn't have AWANA, but the one I used to go to and my husband's uncle currently attends has AWANA so we take our children over there.  My son has been in this program since he was 3 and now he's 8.  Just when our youngest gets old enough to go to Cubbies, we had another baby and so we still don't have any nights out for just the two of us.  This year, though, I'm helping.  I waited until my son was in 3rd grade and I'm helping with the boys in TNT.  (Preschoolers and little kids aren't as much fun as the older ones, I feel.)  When I was in AWANA, the girls were called the Chums/Guards and the boys were the Pals/Pioneers.  I don't know much at all about this new group.  My first impression of the starting book was a little confusing about what the boys were supposed to memorize.  I haven't seen the "real" book yet.  I guess we'll see.  I am glad to be helping with them.  I feel guilty for waiting so long to help, but I just wasn't very excited to be around little kids after having to be around them at home.  You'd think I'd like little kids more than I do since I have 4 of them running around, but then again did I mention my high blood pressure problems :)  I would have helped with the older ones sans having any that age, but since I don't go to that church, it has always been difficult for me to keep up with when they start and their plans for the year and  what-not, so I hesitated joining.  Besides, my husband and I would take the littlest one out for ice cream and we had good talks and walks around town.  We were working on our marriage while the children were working on memorizing Scripture.
  Well, one note of irritation--I'm not sure where it comes from, but my in-laws' church has AWANA and when we visited there this weekend, I noticed their announcement.  It said "Next week AWANAs starts."  Do  you notice what I noticed?  AHHH.  How can AWANA be plural?   I really need to get over it.  Folks say it all the time, and I notice every time, and it really bugs me.  I even got on to my daughter who says "AWANAs" b/c she hears the leaders say it at that church.  I guess I should just not worry about it--I know I have lots of irritating habits.  Did I mention I have blood pressure problems? and run-on sentence problems too.
  Now that I've stood on my soapbox, it's time for me to put up the soap I took out.
Have a happy day :)