Spiritual Activities

"Dad, I know a short cut - you only know a long cut."

At the convention Sunday, "Dad, can I have a piece of gum?... so I can sit next to Caley."  Caley is a 13 year old girl, the big sister of Jesse (the girl he has claimed to be a little sweet on), and also the girl Kevin is interested in. All of Sunday he decided to chase after Caley. I asked 'what happened to Jesse?' He said, "I want them both."
At lunch he asked Caley if he could sit with her. She said to ask parents. Then he asked if she could sit with him and she said she had a cleaning assignment later. So he asked if he could sit with her Thursday at the meeting and she replied, "you know what? why don't I sit with you Thursday."  So he has a date for the meeting. lol  *eyeroll*

Monday June 29th, in the evening Andrew came in from outside and asked if he could have a spray bottle of water to spray himself with because he was hot.  While I was making dinner I looked out the window and saw him drawing pictures with water on the fence. Such a neat idea! 

It's been a wild few weeks - I had kidney stones during the convention and then ill from the meds the next four weeks, cousin Colt was here for a month and wasn't the kindest person to Andrew but did make for us having three teenagers sleeping on our couch several days which Andrew liked, we were house hunting and also finishing the wall we'd built in this house and packing up to get it on the market. I'm sure Andrew did a lot of great things - but I sure haven't remembered it all.

Tuesday July 21st - we joined the Fox family (this time she had 7 kids with her) at the park for a couple of hours and then brought the most difficult one home with us to give the mom a break. He does best one on one with people and he did pretty well for me most of the time. He did argue with me a few times, have to get reprimanded for punching/kicking while dressed as Ironman, and was caught lying once - but we managed. I was definitely ready for him to go home, as was Andrew - but he told his mom that it was awesome!

Wednesday morning we were trying to get ourselves ready and out the door to go to Elitch Gardens since we hadn't done much fun in a while other than going to the park briefly here and there. I told Andrew to put on a short sleeved shirt that he doesn't care about. He came back with a long sleeved swim shirt.  I told him "even if you don't understand WHY I'm telling you - please listen to my words.." and repeated my request. He finally did but then came back and said, "But mom, I just don't understand why I have to pick a shirt I don't like!"  I was already running behind schedule and would have preferred to discuss it in the car, but oh well. I explained that he would be hot in the long sleeve shirt because he's not going to be getting wet all day. And the reason for a non-favorite shirt is so that it doesn't matter if it gets dirty, torn, or lost.  "Oooohhh" he said.   I love that he thinks about everything and I can even appreciate that he challenges what I say because he doesn't understand and is trying to - but it's frustrating when you're in a hurry or in the middle of your own things and have to stop and explain because he can't stand waiting for an explanation. It bothers him so much not knowing the answers.

Thursday July 24th - he had another part on the meeting. Reviewing the comics/teaching illustrations on JW.org, Andrew got to read the part of Pharoah not listening to Moses and Aaron when Jehovah wanted him to free the Israelites.  When it was Andrew's turn, he tried to make his voice big and deep but ended up with some strange accent. It was hilarious.  Then he and two other boys were invited to the stage to answer some review questions about the story. Before they could answer, the brother read the scriptures that gave hints to the answer. Andrew realized what the brother was doing and decided on his own he would whisper to the brother what scriptures needed to be read. The brother was very gracious and said, "Andrew's such a great helper, thank you!" and kept right on going which of course made Andrew feel pretty proud of himself. lol.
  Earlier in the evening, after I'd given my first talk in this congregation, we were listening to the next part talking about Fathers/Husbands and the role the have. At one point he talked about disciplining children mildly and Andrew leaned over to us and said, "did you hear that? MILD discipline!!" 

Friday morning I gave Andrew the choice of going out in service or not. At first he wasn't interested but then asked where we meet. I said Maria Lopez.  He scrambled to get ready.  He told me in the car he was coming because he's never seen her house and he wants to study people's houses because one day he is going to build houses for people and he needs to study their structure first.  Then once we arrived, he decided he wanted to be out in service because it is pleasing to Jehovah and a way to save people.   I had a presentation in mind but really wasn't excited about it, so I appreciated the brother sharing a much more simple one with us during the meeting. Andrew decided he wanted to do that presentation too but he condensed it a little bit, but still had trouble remembering so he covered his ears in the car so he could concentrate. He was able to get it out once, but forgot again by the first door. So I suggested he just introduce himself and offer to read a scripture and then I'd take care of the rest. So that is what we did. We placed three "Good News" brochures with nice people who let him read Matthew 24:14.  Andrew was very much confused by the ones who said they weren't interested.
   I let him pick a place for break and ended up treating him to a chocolate sprinkled donut and some juice, and bought the two older brothers a drink and chocolate muffin as a thanks for driving and helping us through the morning. It was a lovely morning and Andrew was great. He's been such a helpful sweetie pie lately.

Saturday morning we worked with three other older sisters, but they were doing calls all morning. Andrew went to the door with them a couple of times, and chimed right in to tell one householder who is on the computer a lot to check out jw.org and jw broadcasting to learn more. Near the end of the morning we tried out another donut place. He was so good all morning.