Spellbound

Please permit this beaming parent to brag on his kids for just a moment.

We, as a family are striving toward - and hoping to maintain - a simple lifestyle.

I have referred before to what Dave Ramsey calls keeping life in "big chunks" so it is more easily managed.

Because of this, our kids are busy but they are not involved in a bunch of things at one time (over the past couple of months it seems that this activity/involvement level has been ratcheted up a couple of notches too high but we are working on reducing it back down again).

AA missed little league this year and I feel sufficiently guilty, however I did not think it wise to carve out two to three more nights during the week that we would be obligated to be some place.

Now I say all that in order to tell you about something in which they both are involved.

This Friday, we drove to Kennesaw, Georgia for the ACSI (the accreditation association for our school) Spelling Bee. It was AA's first time to be in the Spelling Bee and he worked pretty hard at representing (along with 3 others) his first grade class.

Ab, on the other hand, is something of a veteran, having participated in Spelling Bees in the 2nd and 3rd grade and having won both the local Independent Schools spelling bee and the ACSI Bee last year.

We didn't get to watch this competition. The parents just sit in another room ... waiting until it's over. . . then watching for some sign on the face of your child as they re-enter the room.

AA was back in the room with us first. He had survived 8 rounds but had gotten busted on a word he knew... pint. Apparently he strayed from the "say it- spell it - say it" format and as the judges waited for him to say it after spelling it - AA assumed they were waiting for more letters. So he added the obligatory "e".

He was fairly devastated. I think because his sister has been so successful in this arena - he set his sights too high. I also hear in him a desire to just be recognized... maybe he senses that he is in the shadow of his big sister.

Ab, again, won for her age group. We were very proud. If you read this blog much, you know something of this girl's diligence. She literally amazes me.

She and her Mom have worked on these words on a regular basis since around Christmas. She excels because she is intelligent, but also because she works hard and I am very proud of her.

So how do you properly celebrate the success of one child, while at the same time, being sufficiently conciliatory toward the other child that did not win?

On our way home we stopped to eat lunch at a restaurant and something happened that was so perfect in it's timing that it had to have originated in the heart of a kind God. . . and it had to be played out in the obedience of a very considerate person.

As we sat at lunch, a woman stopped by our table and told us she had seen us at the Spelling Bee where she had been one of the judges. She singled out AA and said the he was in the group she adjudicated and she pointed out what a nice job he had done. But then she went on to tell him, and us how that he had just brought joy to the judges.

That's what my boy does. He brings joy and a smile. He loves to make people laugh and many times without even trying - he just evokes joy.

I couldn't tell for sure if her words had any immediate effect on that boy; but since I believe they originated with God and His words do not return void - I must believe that they did some good.

The woman then spent a moment or two congratulating Ab as well.

Let me tell you - I am so proud to be my children's Dad!
I hope you feel the same way about your kids!