All three of you blog readers might like to know that yesterday, Josiah beat Scott at ping pong SEVEN TIMES IN A ROW! I think there were some handicaps involved, but let me assure you that there was much rejoicing on the part of my son.
Archive for the 'Josiah' Category
So dad and the kids are swimming down at the creek, and Scott is talking about a proposed family trip. Discussing possible details, he says, “I’m thinking about borrowing the K family’s camper.” Josiah replies, “Isn’t that a little prepositionous? I mean, prepositional?”
So, I walked into the kitchen midmorning-ish, planning to eat a bit of breakfast and then do my assigned breakfast cleanup task, and what was waiting for me on the kitchen counter, but a block of Colby Jack cheese that someone had left sitting out, unwrapped. Lovely.
Frankly, food left out isn’t all that unusual around here, but this particular hunk of cheese was unique in that it was studded with tiny silver balls. Hmmm. . . ? Curious, I picked it up and realized that it was covered with – you guessed it – BBs!
Yes, my fifteen-year-old son had been using his BB gun that morning to scare squirrels off the bird feeder, and while watching squirrels leap in terror, I guess he thought of an experiment: “I wonder how far into the cheese a BB would go on one pump?”
So he pumped, aimed, and fired, but the poor BB merely imbedded itself in the surface of the cheese. However, it had been a satisfying sequence of events, so he continued to pump, boom-thunk. . . pump, boom-thunk. . . pump, boom-thunk, until there were some 20 BBs neatly lodged in the cheese.
This was certainly fun, and more power would surely be even more fun! “I wonder how far in one would go with TWO pumps?” Pump, pump, boom-thunk, and the projectile went in a very impressive inch-and-a-half. Wow. And, then, being the one who does not (yet) pay for the groceries, he left the cheese there for me to find.
At which point I called for him to come take a picture of the BB-studded cheese, remove the BBs, and put the cheese away. He obeyed, partially. He took no picture (so sad), picked the BBs off the surface, and then realized that he couldn’t extricate the embedded BB without ripping open the block of cheese. Therefore he did what any 15-year-old male would do: he wrapped it up and put it in the fridge.
Which is why at lunch, Andrew reportedly bit into a BB in his sandwich.
Addendum:
My friend DC emailed me, “I am just curious… Did Josiah pellet the cheese while it was in the kitchen?”
To which I replied, “Yes. He says the cheese was on the counter in the kitchen. He did not have the tip of the gun against the cheese, but claims it was back about 14 inches. I’d say that would still be considered point blank range… “
I just walked into Josiah’s room and was hit with a tidal wave of shock.
Josiah has a very large shelf unit into which he alternately shoves, tosses, or kicks his stuff. This stuff includes but is not limited to clothing (socks and underwear that theoretically won’t fit into his drawers), toys (which he never uses and which mean little, if anything, to him), souvenirs (probably ditto), Boy Scout stuff (hat? scarf? book? badges? sash? etc.) money in both its paper and metal forms (sometimes in a wallet or zipper bag, but most often not), school books, papers, notebooks, and workbooks (to his mother’s unending frustration), library books (some of which I have probably paid for as they were deemed “lost”), pieces and parts of miscellaneous items (could be electronic, broken, or and/or misplaced), lego creations from his childhood (which will evidently not be dismantled till his wife gets a hold of them), and approximately 2 gross of scattered pencils of various lengths (which explains why he and Andrew each have to get a brand new pencil and sharpen it every two days).
I used to do things like periodically wade in there with Josiah and sort all the junk, and put it in plastic bins, and label the bins and shelves so that everything had a place and the shelf could stay neat. Sometimes, Jessica and I would do it when Josiah was gone and then make him pay us for our time. We’d even take before and after pictures, and Josiah (who freely admits to being severely organizationally challenged) would laugh at himself and thank us.
But for the past year or so, I have given up on Josiah’s room. Dr. Dobson taught me that I must choose my battles and win decisively, and the goal of Josiah’s room ever being neat for more than 36 hours is a battle I simply cannot win. I have chosen to spend my time and effort where I have at least a minute possibility chance of success.
So, you can imagine what I was thinking when I opened Josiah’s closed bedroom door a few minutes ago and saw him and Andrew in there, with almost everything off the shelf and scattered on the floor. And they both looked happy! What did that mean?!?!? I told Josiah that I was shocked. He grinned at me. I asked if his dad had told him to clean it up. He said no and kept on grinning.
Then he reminded me that he had a deal. With Ms. Sherry. And then my light bulb of a brain finally turned on. Sherry is Jim’s wife. Jim for whom Josiah has been working part time. Jim and Sherry in whose home Josiah has been living for three nights every other week. On his last tour of duty there, Josiah was using Ms. Sherry’s computer. I won’t mention that he changed some settings on it that messed her up, or that I told him he should NEVER mess with someone else’s computer – even though he tries to mess with mine and messes with his own so often that it rarely works. (Some people have a hard time leaving well enough alone.) And not only did he mess with her computer, the guy had enough nerve to tell her – the lady who is at no charge and of her own volition feeding and housing him! - that she really needed to clean up her desk! Good night, Josiah! I really thought we’d raised him better than THAT!
So Sherry, being nobody’s fool, told him that if he’d clean up his room, she’d clean up her desk.
Now it’s 48 hours until Josiah goes back to their house, and I guess he knows she’s going to confront him, so ENTIRELY ON HIS OWN, the young man is cleaning is room, ON HIS OFF DAY!!!!
It’s a sure thing that God still does miracles. Or at least Ms. Sherry does.
It’s been almost 11 years since we learned that we have a sleepwalker in the family. On average, he does this about once every two or three months.
We have amassed all kinds of true stories, ranging from the VERY SCARY (going outside after midnight at age 4 and walking down the dirt road looking for us) to the rather messy (going up to the 3rd floor and thinking a child’s upholstered rocking chair was a toilet!) to the extremely humorous (carrying on very intense mostly gibberish “conversations” with us, while staring through us as if we don’t exist) – but what Josiah told me today takes the cake.
He related his “adventure” of a few nights ago.
“Well, I woke up in the shower. Only I didn’t really wake all the way up. I had carried my towel into the bathroom, gotten undressed, got in the shower and turned on the water. I was partway through my shower when I sort of realized where I was. By then, I decided that since I had started my shower, I might as well finish it. So I did. I still wasn’t really all the way awake, but I got back to my room and it was 2:00 AM.”
Josiah had taken his usual evening shower at about 9:00 PM, so after the sleep shower, I guess he was really clean!
Josiah is staying with Jim and Sherry tonight, and Monday night, and Tuesday night. This is the second time for him to work for Jim for three days (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). We handed him off at church this morning, and we’ll get him back Wednesday night at church.
This is really a blessing of a deal. Jim lays brick and stone for a living and he has several guys working for him. He OFFERED to let Josiah work for him and OFFERED for him to stay with them for several days to do it! Jim and Sherry live about an hour from us (less as the crow flies, but the roads that go like crows are really curvy and slow), and that way Josiah can just go to work with Jim each day.
Josiah did this a couple weeks ago and earned minimum wage for three full days. He mostly hauled bricks and did other go-fer stuff for the guys who were actually laying the brick. It was hot and boring, and it wore him out – all good things, if you ask me.
So Josiah is gone, and that has both good and not-so-good ramifications. Good in that he and Andrew can’t fight very efficiently. Not-so-good in that others of us have to do his chores. = ) Mostly I think it’s great that Josiah has an opportunity to do real, physical work – for pay – at age fourteen, and for a man of impeccable integrity whom we know well.
Josiah is one blessed young man!
Josiah: Mom, I have a problem.
Me: Only one?
Josiah: Well, I have several problems, but I need to tell you about this one in particular.
Me: Yes???
Josiah: I got a toilet plunger stuck in the top of a tree!
Yes, you read that correctly. It seems that Jessica was babysitting next door, and they needed a toilet plunged but had not a plunger. She telephoned Josiah-the-Plumber to come help, and he did. On the way back home, as he walked across the neighbor’s yard, he wondered if he could throw the plunger up over the power line. (I think the logic is something like, “Why does a boy throw a plunger over a power line? Because it’s THERE!”) He tried a firm underhand throw, the plunger spun end over end in a really neat arc, and it did indeed clear the power line. Nice!
With this success under his belt, he wondered if he could also throw it over the row of trees at our property line. He tried the same action, but this time his toss was not straight and the plunger came to rest some thirty feet up in a tree, right along Coffee Road.
These are the kinds of things that fourteen-year-old boys in semi-rural areas do in the summer. . . (sigh)
We did have a good laugh over it, though, and tomorrow, I’ll see if it’s still out there and try to take a picture. How many folks do YOU know who have a toilet plunger stuck in their tree?
Many young people go through a phase when they seek to “find” themselves, whatever that means. Josiah passed through that phase rather quickly last night. He awoke around 11:30 to find himself on the couch in the (first floor) living room. He had gone to sleep in his bed in his (second floor) room.
Josiah doesn’t think real clearly when he sleepwalks. It was cold here last night – below freezing outdoors – and it was probably at least five degrees colder down there than in his bedroom. There were two afghans on the couch: the big blue and yellow one, and the tiny brown one. Josiah is a big tall guy, but instead of using the big one to cover up, his sleeping brain instructed him to use the tiny one. It doesn’t cover him, and he woke up cold. I guess that motivated him to go back to bed. However, he woke up again at 3:00 AM, and found himself in his own bed, but with his feet on his pillow and his head at the foot of the bed.
I am glad he found himself.
The guys left yesterday for the slopes at Loveland via air to Denver and rental car to Fairfield Inn in Aurora. We have been watching the weather in those parts carefully, and over the past week the forecasts for this three-day window have been dreary – snow (nice beneath your skis, but not so nice blowing in your face), high winds, and bitterly low temps (highs sometimes below zero).
The other night at bedtime, Josiah and I were praying, and I prayed for the snowfall to be bearable, and the windchills to not be too awful. Josiah said, “MOM! That’s not how I’M praying. I’M praying for blue skies and warm temps! Don’t you have any FAITH?!?” Sheepishly I told him that I did have faith, but that realistically his goals did not seem probable. He just shook his head at me.
A couple hours ago, Scott called me. I asked if he was (or should that be were? – I never can remember that rule) on the slopes and he said yes; that they were actually on the ski lift, had been down once already, and were now heading toward the run with the jumps. He truly sounded jubilant! Then he said, “You should see it! Sunny, clear blue skies, the wind’s not bad, and although it is cold, it’s surely not the 25-degree-below zero windchill that was forecast! This is GREAT!”
Thank you, God, that Josiah has more faith than his mom.
A couple weeks ago (I think), Scott and Jessica attended a church in Branson. As a result, Jessica was invited to their youth group’s Christmas party, to be held that evening. Jessica took Josiah with her, and since it was a costume party of sorts, he went as a mime. In white face. And mime shirt. And he said NOT ONE WORD the whole evening!
There were about 25 kids there, and they were all pretty taken with Josiah the silent one and his translating sidekick. Together, they did some various mime stuff, and Jessica explained that they were part of a team that did mimes to Christian songs. The kids thought that was really neat and said they wished they could learn to do that, too.
When it came time for the judging of the costumes, guess who won first place?!? The prize was a very nice, leather-bound New Century version Bible. The two of them came home very chatty and happy, and it was really neat to see Josiah having the limelight. Usually, he functions in the shadow of his sisters or father (or even his cute and charming brother), so it was a very special evening.
Then there was the issue with Ray. Josiah is a new cameraman at church, and Ray is also on the TV department team. Ray’s probably in his fifties, single, a painter by trade, and more than slightly odd by anyone’s estimation. When the December crew schedule came out, Josiah was scheduled to run camera on December 16th (the day of the kids’ Christmas production) – the day he was scheduled to be skiing in Colorado. I suggested he ask to switch with Ray.
Josiah talked to Ray, who agreed to do it for him. Then the ski trip dates were changed. This meant that Josiah WOULD be in town and COULD run his camera as originally scheduled. However, the weather forecast for that particular day called for a 100% chance of heavy ice in and around Springfield. As late as Saturday night, we hadn’t determined whether or not we’d be able to get to church and back safely. For that reason, I didn’t ask Josiah to call Ray and say that he (Josiah) would be there. After all, maybe he wouldn’t.
We didn’t make the final decision to go until 7:45 AM Sunday. We packed boots, coats, gloves, etc., and headed out. The head of the TV department had asked Josiah and me (I was also to run a camera that day) to come to the early service during which the kids were to do a final dress rehearsal, so that we could see the order of what would be happening. Although we got there shortly after the start of the supposed rehearsal, it never actually occurred, so we basically sat around.
A few minutes before 10:00 AM, in strolled Ray, saying, “I’m here to run the camera!” Josiah said, “well, my trip was postponed, so I can do it.” Before he could even go into why he hadn’t called Ray, Ray went totally off. He was SUPER angry, and he let Josiah know it. He resented having to come, when he “might have had something else to do,” etc. He finally stormed out, and we went on with the service.
Later, Josiah wrote and mailed to Ray an apology, explaining what had happened, telling why he hadn’t called, and asking Ray to forgive him.
So, this past Sunday, I walked into the lobby and there sat Ray. He said he was waiting for Josiah, and when I told him Josiah wouldn’t be there that day (he was involved in an AIM presentation at C of O), he asked me to sit down. I did, and he proceeded to tell me that he tried his best to hear from God and obey God, and he believed God was telling him to “give this to your son.” With that, he pressed a $100 bill into my hand, and walked out the door. He called “Merry Christmas” over his shoulder, and was gone.
That evening at supper, I related the incident to Josiah in front of the family. I passed him the $100 bill, and the look on his face was one of total shock. We were all shocked, and it was fun to see Josiah blessed in such an enormous way.
