Fourteen is Fine

Josiah was very, very excited for his birthday this week.  He spent the entire day before his birthday trying to control his excitement.  He kept asking everyone if they were excited for his upcoming birthday.  At least twice an hour he relayed his excitement and wanted to make sure our excitement was at or above his same level.  He didn't think he would be able to sleep at all that night.

For his birthday morning, Josiah wanted everyone up by 6:00 a.m. so gift opening could commence before Todd left for work.  He also requested that we hide his gifts.  He never asked for clues, so I was just going to hide them and send him off with a Good Luck!  Todd was nicer and asked if he wanted clues written.  He did.  Now that he was turning 14, we made them a bit harder to solve.  What fun would it be if he knew exactly where to find the next gift?  He solved most of them pretty quickly, except for one which said, "I'm hiding with my empty brothers."  It was an Amazon box with a gift in it, but it was in the middle of the other empty boxes that I save.  

It is always fun to watch Josiah open gifts because he is excited about everything.  This year he got a lot of colored pencils - from his siblings and from us.  

He got lights for his bedroom, animal pens and a sketch pad, Fortnite action figures and V-bucks.  

He also got a karaoke machine.  When he opened it, Henry commented that I must really want it loud around here.  A few days after his birthday, his last gift came which was a microphone stand.  He is now ready to rock and he keeps trying to enlist the rest of us to have a karaoke night.  

Josiah was a fan of Benson's card.  He signed it himself the evening before.  In it, he stuffed packets of Kool-Aid.  Josiah always enjoyed the Kool-Aid cups Great Grandma had.  We were able to bring three back to Texas.  We unpacked them after our Christmas trip and he's been wanting Kool-Aid ever since.  I had never bought Kool-Aid and wasn't even sure they still sold it, but to Josiah's delight, we found some.  

Josiah also showed appreciation for Caroline's revival of her Harry Pooper card.  

Todd dressed up his Froot Loops again.  He had to break out the thesaurus for "-oot" words this year.  He's used Groot Loops, Okra Loops (inside joke), Froot Poops, Foot Loops, a few odd years of mini donuts, and Soot Loops.  

After their bowls of sugar, there was some karaoke singing.  They used up all the power it had, so while the karaoke machine recharged, Josiah sang and danced around in the kitchen.  

For lunch, Josiah chose the ever-nutritious, Lunchables.  And then for dinner, we headed to Cheddar's so we could have their amazing chicken tenders.  The food was good, especially the never ending honey butter croissants!

The biggest thing Josiah looked forward to was a day off from school.  He still had to watch his Logic videos because he has a standing appointment for that, but then he got to play with his friend Bobby for a while, so it was a little work, a little fun.  

Our oven has not been working for a few weeks now.  We had ordered a part for it, but it hadn't come in before Josiah's birthday.  Because we couldn't bake a cake, he picked one out at Costco.  He chose the one with the teddy bear on top because, as he noted, bears are cool.  To make it a bit cooler, Josiah added sunglasses and nicknamed it "Big Boi."   He also chose the candle placement himself.  The group of four red candles were purposefully close together to heighten their flame.  A bit of a pyro we have here.  

All in all, he seemed to have a pretty good birthday.  

A few weeks ago, Caroline helped Todd take the oven apart to see if it was indeed the ignitor that had gone bad.  We tested it and that was definitely a problem.  This weekend, the oven part came in and Todd was able to replace the ignitor.  YouTube showed him how to replace the part and then how to get the door back on!   Once everything was back together, the oven worked so much better.  I kind of liked being forced into making only stovetop meals; it kept expectations nice and low.  It may be an odd combination of food, but it's the best I could do without using the oven.  I'll miss saying that...  The first thing Josiah wants to bake is his original birthday cake idea - a red velvet cake with ice cream on top. 

At CC this week, Josiah gave the devotional.  He started it out by asking his peers to think of their favorite day from last year.  Then he spoke on Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.  We need to live each day as it comes and appreciate each day we have.  Leave tomorrow's worries for tomorrow.  Appreciate the past, plan for the future, but live in the present.  

In the Foundations classes, they've moved from tin whistle to great artists for their fine arts strand.  They started with Rembrandt and how he painted with a lot of light and shadows.  Caroline's class learned how to draw a face while looking at a model (a mom).  After adding the facial features, they tried to shadow it.  (It was also pajama day, hence the outfits...)  They definitely learned that drawing faces was very challenging, which only made us appreciate Rembrandt's work even more.

Josiah's birthday has officially brought birthday season upon us.  It'll be a busy few months.