I told Stewart a week or so ago that I wanted to take him out for a Stew and Mama date.  “Why?” he asked.

”Stewart,” I replied, “I told Dad the other night that if I saw more any more good fruit coming from you I’d be inclined to open a farm market.”

While I may be employing a bit of hyperbole, I in no way want to minimize the J*O*Y we have known in this house the last 6?-8? weeks or so as far as this young man is concerned.  To be sure, he isn’t perfect; his parents bring far too many flaws to the table to even get close to perfect.  But he’s been so stinking GOOD lately it deserved to be acknowledged.  And I’m a big fan of positive reinforcement (I ♥ Michelle Duggar for making me not feel guilty about that, too.)

So, what kind of fruit am I talking about?  Little things.  But little CONSISTENT things.  Like after a meal is done hanging in the kitchen and asking, “Do you need anything, Mom, before I go?” before he returns to his school work.  Or speaking up and saying, “Here, I got her,” as he offers to hold his sister so I can get my coat off.  Or speaking kindly to Tabitha when just a few short weeks ago he’d be plowing over her.  I know, I know… when you type it out, it doesn’t sound like much.  But did you catch the part about the consistency? 

How about him accepting his school assignments without complaining?  Or voluntarily taking notes as I have suggested for the last two years.  And just generally manning-up about responsibilities.  And modeling it for the others.  Did I mention the help in the kitchen?

The miserable excuse for a spring we have had barred us from any outdoor fun.  So he asked if we could do Pizza Hut and bowling. 

He and I agreed no one needs to know which S is which. 

 

I will tell you that bowling is EXPENSIVE!  Yowsers.  Two games and shoes came to $32! 

Oh, and I drove him to Marketplace to the costume shop so he could buy a wig for his next project. 

And it was so nice to have some time with my dear son. 

This is where I’d love to insert a photo from when he was a baby or toddler, but we just got our computer back last week and haven’t hooked it back up to the external hard drives with the old pictures.