I know, if you have one in the house you experience pretty non-stop sarcasm, eye rolls, laziness beyond belief and bedrooms that would scare a skunk. But sometimes….SOMETIMES….they do show signs of being human.
Por ejemplo….
Last weekend 16 and his dad borrowed my lawn mower to use at a rental property of theirs that had an extremely overgrown yard. After a day of working with his dad (yes, his knee is healing that well!)..they dropped it back off and I asked him if he now knew how to use the mower.
“Yep” he declared. (shock..I figured he would see where I was going with this…)
So then I told him that it sounded like he was ready to take over the lawn mowing duties from his older brother and if that was the case, then could he please plan on doing that Saturday?
“Sure. I can do that.”….(huh? who are you?)
So, Friday rolls around and I reminded him about the yard work and since he had plans to go up to a friend’s house in the evening, then he should plan for yard work time before leaving.
“Yeah, no problem, I’m not heading up there until after 5pm anyway.”…(wow, four days later and he’s still not only open to it, but not even whining about it?!”
Saturday I go for my weekend trail run (moved it away from Easter Sunday to free up the day) and get home around 10am. He’s awake and watching tv on the sofa. I’ve decided that it would be better for me to do my part of the weeding on the hillside while I am still grimy from the run so I grab something to eat and then mention that I’m going to head outside.
“Yeah, good idea, let’s get it done.”…he says without a hint of a grumble and then turns off the TV to go get a shirt…(seriously, who IS this?!!)
Not only does he mow the lawn, but he dumps the cuttings and even helps pull some of the weeds. I really didn’t want him up on the hillside on his knee so I did most of that work but he cleaned up everything after me so all I had to do was pull weeds.
Side note: I take to yard work sort of like I do laundry – I love the PROCESS – but I HATE the cleaning up (or, the folding & putting away). There have been many times when I spent hours trimming bushes and pulling weeds only to leave the debris on the hillside or the sidewalk for the next day because I just COULD NOT face putting it in the trash can.
With 16 doing that dreaded final step, we were done with what I wanted cleared out in less than 90 minutes. In the end, there was a teensy bit of whining whle we were working – of course! There had to be right? But it was pretty equally coming from me as much as him! And considering how cooperative he had been leading into it – who cares??!!
Now if only I could find the magic potion that would KEEP him this way š
Trees & Flowers & Birds! 
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