Heeeerrrre'sss Jonny!!!

Actually, it's Jonathan, or Jon, or Jo-Nathan, but NEVER Jonny. Now, how do I describe Jonathan to you? Well, do you see the picture above? That's Jonathan...some of the time. The rest of the time he's, well...shy, angry, or LOUD...REALLY, REALLY, LOUD! I tried to find some other pictures on my computer to illustrate the many personalities of Jonathan, but I just don't have any on my hard drive at the moment. Now believe me when I tell you that Jonathan could read this, (although he wouldn't because Jonathan must be coerced, bribed, or otherwise tricked into reading ANYTHING that is not about pirates, animals, or was written by Dr. Seuss!) and he would not be offended by it in the least. Jonathan is a very self-aware child. If you ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do, he'll simply say, "No, I'm too shy."

Now shall we discuss work ethic? Again, Jonathan has more than one belief system on the value of hard work to go along with the multiple personalities mentioned above. Work Ethic #1) Daily chores are useless and should only be accomplished if food, or outside playtime is being held hostage until they are finished, and THEN one should ONLY do the absolute minimum amount of work one can get by with. Work Ethic #2) Schoolwork should be finished as quickly as possible so that it is over and done with as soon as is humanly possible, but again, with the minimum effort required to complete the task. Which in this case often translates into doing it correctly the first time because our curriculum is set up to MAKE you go back and correct anything you got wrong before you can continue. So, not always a bad thing in this situation. Work Ethic #3) Any task that has to be accomplished, but carries no reward at it's conclusion MUST be done as s-l-o-w-l-y-a-s-i-s-h-u-m-a-n-l-y-p-o-s-s-i-b-l-e... Now, keep that in mind as I relate to you the following story...

Jonathan, who has wanted to be a policeman, a NASCAR driver, a member of a NASCAR pit team, and, of course, a pirate (thank you Johnny Depp), announced to me last week that he now KNEW what he wanted to be when he grows up...a janitor. Now, this announcement has met with many different responses from other friends and family, but to this busy mom, it meant only one thing..... an apprentice of my VERY own! So... I was mopping the kitchen floor in a MASSIVE hurry because you know that the FLYLADY says that housework done incorrectly still blesses your family, so it doesn't ALWAYS have to be done perfectly, it just has to be DONE! But I digress...anyway, I'm mopping and my sweet curly-haired boy says to me, "Mom, can I do that?" Translation, "I am the most perfect child any mother has ever known." To which I lovingly replied, "That's okay sweetie, you go on outside and play, this is Mama's job"...NOT!!! I handed the mop over, showed him how to mop correctly, (because the Flylady's rule doesn't apply to kids doing chores. LOL.) and turned him loose. When I returned to check on him, the side that he had mopped was so much better than my side, that I made him redo my half! (Keep in mind, he was ENJOYING himself and was looking for other things to mop.) Now before you get too excited and decide I'm totally spoiled rotten...the next day I asked him to sweep up the kitchen floor, and showed him how to use my fancy new "One Sweep" broom, to which he replied, "No thanks, that's too hard for me." Like I said, Jonathan has multiple personalities and apparently they don't ALL want to be a janitor when they grow up!

Now, a post about Jonathan would not be complete without a funny story because Jonathan is, above all else, hilarious. He also KNOWS he's funny which just makes him even funnier to me. If any of you have ever watched "American Chopper" you can just look at Mikey and see what life is like living with Jonathan. You won't get a whole lot of work out of him, but you will laugh your head off.

Okay, so Jonathan has this habit of NEEDING to tell me something EVERY time I go into the bathroom. He yells at me through the door and expects me to answer. Well, to me this is my 2 minutes ALONE during the day, and I'd like to keep it that way, so when Jonathan came to the bathroom door while I was putting on my makeup one morning, and announced to me that David (who was barely a year old at the time), had accidentally closed the laundry room door... with Jon's head in it, I knew he couldn't be hurt too badly, so I simply replied, "I'm sorry Jon, are you okay?" but I did not open the door and let him in. So he tried again..."And it REALLY hurt!" Again, I did not take the bait, "I'm REALLY sorry Jon. Who's watching David right now?" To which he pulled out the big guns..."AND MY HEAD ACTUALLY FELL OFF AND I'M HOLDING IT IN MY HAND!!!"

And NOW, you have had a small peek at the joy that is Jonathan!

Thanks for stopping by,
Melody