Walking & Righteousness

I went for a walk with 6 of the kids today in pairs, 3 walks, so I got my exercise in. It was fun to spend some (somewhat) individualized time with them. I geared each length of walk and our discussions based on the age group. With Joshua and Joel, the oldest kids, it was certainly the longest walk and along the busiest route and we talked about school, how to walk properly and about me going back to America. When I went out with Annet and Cocus, kids in the middle, I told them they could hold my hand, but they didn't have to, as long as they walked with me and followed any commands on the busier roads, Cocus always wants to hold my hand. We talked about bricks and how not to react when they smell something horrible, we went past a feed market, but I don't want them reacting like they did if someone is smelling badly. Then after rest time Emma, Carol and I headed out, unfortunately we stopped at one point and Emma was standing in the middle of those terrible biting ants I blogged about on my safari, I had to pull his pants down and take them out of his underwear, suprisingly he didn't cry, and he walked the entire time, he's really growing up!!

And then I got through working on using scissors properly with 7 of them; the funniest thing was that Esther could not cut wihtout sticking her tongue out! I felt successful in really spending quality time with the kids. I'm trying hard not to punish them so that it is all happy time, but Joel was struggling in a lot of ways today with not only making bad choices but lying about it, so he definitely got served some time-outs. I guess I wouldn't be the kind of parent to spoil my child and let them get away with everything, that's good to know about myself!

Here's a great quote from my Bible about righteousness that I love, but for some reason haven't shared yet: "Righteous things do not earn us acceptance by God, rather they are a natural response from people who have experienced God's forgiveness and love."

I feel like 3 months of blog-writing is starting to catch up to me, sorry if the content is boring. Don't worry only a few days left, hang in there, there's bound to be a fruitful one about all I've learned, or how I've grown, or something like that. 11.27.12