Is there any way to stop it?
I dunno.
A 14 going on 15 year old boy and a 16 year old boy, both of them have various stages of attitude going on at any given time, both of them have various forms of frustrations going on their lives that they are going to vent in some way or another, both of them landing some serious accusations against each other.

But last night? Pure, unpolluted and unbelievable anger and rage. I mean, if I hadn't literally jumped in the middle of it, there would have been a fist fight and with that kind of anger? I have no idea how it would have ended, not pretty that's for sure.  I can't be there all the time, I am 99% sure at some point this fight is going to take place and there is going to be bloodshed and there isn't much I can do about it.

I have an idea of sitting them down together, face to face, and having a meeting of the minds with them to have them air out their offenses with - me - sitting there playing defense/interference - to try and get them to keep calm and not start up again.  That is the only thing I can think of to at least try.  But I know if I even try something like that - there will be a problem in actually trying to get things to go the way I would like to steer them because she will undoubtedly start in and take over.  So it kind of defeats the purpose before it ever began.

I dunno, but this situation just cropped up this week as well, with one calling the other's girlfriend a f****** slut and all kinds of obscenities and garbage being hurled from one to the other and back again from the other to the one.  I had no fear last night getting in the middle of that, my fear is when either I or she is gone and hearing the aftermath of a fight that probably will end up with broken bones and God only knows what else.

Well, time to get ready for church.  And praying about this today and attempting to get a God-resolution for it.  One can wish and hope, anyway.

G'day.

ben

So work day Saturday.
I have so many mixed emotions and things running through my mind right now, it's hard to .... process.... all of this. The boy that hated me and expressed his disgust for me to everyone some time ago before I moved out here has had a total change of heart.  He follows me around and - is obviously looking for the kind of attention he doesn't get from a particular person in his life that should be giving it to him. If you want your kids to grow up to be healthy, normal, sane human beings, the male side of the equation better be able to say I love you, show you the love and live it on a daily basis.  If you have kids and you can't do that?  You aren't going to like the eventual outcome.  In fact, it will come back to haunt you.  I gave my son unlimited, unreserved and complete love when he was growing up. That's what I can say.  I love you son, give him hugs, talk with him, have good times.

I was working with him today.  Josiah was fixing a huge portion of fencing down at the bottom of the huge pasture.  Jacob was off with mom and 2 girls getting stuff.  Andrew was supposed to be working but was watching TV.  He's a good kid, really, but having access to TV now has him a bit distracted.  Nathan - his real name is Nathanael but I can't deal with 3 syllable names that I have to say frequently, well I dunno, I can deal with it I just call him Nathan.  No-one there has ever called him that so it took everyone a while to accept it. Except Nathan, lol.  I call him that and everyone still says Nathanael and no-one tries to correct me and I don't care what anyone wants to call him.

We went to cut down dead trees for firewood for the coming winter.  Yes it's a ways off but you want to get it done, because m'lady relies heavily on her fireplace to heat the bottom floor of the house.  Plus you cut down a tree and cut it into logs - you still have to split the wood.  That's one of Josiah's jobs.  Regardless we did three large Oak trees and then found nothing else worth cutting - though those trees and hauling them to the pile for splitting firewood took quite some time anyway.  We walked the entire property looking for anything but Pine trees to cut down.  There is some stuff down but it's rotten.  Too old.  It needs to be hauled to the burn pile.

Uhhh, like the rest of the family, he talks a lot.  Mom talks, they all talk. We sat down on an old log and I just heard him out.  Asked a lot of questions.  Got a lot of answers.  I can't get a full picture of this entire story without getting everyone's input.  I can't take one person out of all of this and say, okay, I have the whole picture. Children often see things in a way that adults cannot and sometimes very revealing.  So it was, it was a good conversation, was glad to have had it with him.  I've pretty much heard out everyone, but there is so much that isn't revealed.  I don't know about stuff, I can't ask questions about things I don't know about and children don't think like that.  If you ask them about something specific, then yes, you will get their version of an answer.

Well at the end of that conversation, funny how things work out in life - we were done and then I get a text. His 19 year old sister not living at the house wants to come take him to the mall.  Okay! Let's get with it.  That sister is very rude to me.  She despises me because I am there.  She hates that her dad and mom got divorced and so I am a disease that needs to be eradicated. She shows up, gets out of her car, completely ignores me and - yeah.  Well, Nathan had asked mom for 5 bucks and she didn't have any cash on her.  So I got distracted by something I don't remember what - if you want to find a universe of things to distract you, just go over there and get involved with all of that going on, your brain is going miles per minute trying to absorb it all, process it and come up with answers and solutions to petty/minor/serious/major things.  I didn't say anything to him because I didn't know if I had any cash on me, I had changed into jeans and my shorts had whatever in it.  You don't work out in the kind of brush that is out there where the trees are that we were cutting down - you just don't.

So I'm talking to Jacob - he has serious issues but anyway - they took off out of the house.  Dang, I said, I had  just  found the 5 I had in my pocket that I thought I had there in my pocket. Jacob goes running to the door: hey, Nathanael, Ben wants to give you some money!  Stopped him in his tracks cause' I wasn't far behind and the way these kids say things, lol.  Well he comes right back and so does the sister, with the .... look ..... on her face.  I'm telling you, someday I'm going to have words with her.  I don't really want to but she's pushing it.  ATTITUDE, serious.  She doesn't like what's going on, I'm sorry, don't take it out on me, m'lady is not going back to the man, I can tell you that.

Let's pass some time here, this is all today, btw.  This is a "typical" day.  It goes on and on and on.  It is never-ending.

It is late, there is much more, but I want to pound out the keys for this particular thing that happened tonight before I leave this entry. My emotions are all over the place.  I can't describe it.  Not been here.  Different land.

So, I'm talking to m'lady and a lot even to go into all of that, the 2 conversations with 2 teenagers with her and them, everything.  We got done with both of them - one at a time in the room one at a time - I'm talking to her and then I start to hear yelling.  Serious yelling coming from downstairs.  I mean, sounding like people about to hurt each other type of screaming yelling that you just don't hear every day.  I run downstairs.  It was - scary.  They were yelling at each other - Josiah and Jacob - and they were going to fight and it was a violent anger that was coming out.  I missed the part of Jacob taking a blind hit to Josiah and sending him to the floor, I jumped in the middle of the rest of it, this is not happening, not when I'm there.
But I wasn't yelling at either of them.  Reason,  They aren't going to throw blows with me int between them, that's guaranteed.  But I didn't come off like that, I just knew in my mind I am big enough to stop them both at  the same time if I have to.  Josiah had his fist and arm up, Jacob speaking foulness to him.  Jacob was not hearing anything, but I know Josiah. Yeah, he has attitude but there is a tender hear in there somewhere, I spoke to that heart in very soft tones and he backed off.

I can't finish this, I wish I could.  It's after midnight, the hours I have been keeping are unreal, for me anyway, not anything like before I moved out here and I need the Lord's strength to keep this up and see this through.

ben

Well it's been a while since I posted on here, I have either not had the time (mostly) or been just too tired (sometimes, I usually can find the energy to click out an entry regardless of how fatigued I am).

So much has happened. So much mental and emotional energy.

The biggest thing this week happened yesterday.  Josiah was talking with mom earlier this week - of what I had no clue and was kept in the dark.  I was informed that he wanted to have a talk with me in his mom's presence.  I asked a lot of questions and got the runaround.  Well what is the purpose of this conversation? What is going on here?

We had some pretty long texting sessions but I never got much of anything out of it. The day before this conversation on Wednesday, feeling uneasy about whatever it was he wanted to dump on me, it was obviously not going to be pleasant and I was wondering if I wanted to be subjected to a 16 year giving me grief.  I reluctantly agreed to it, but asked him to be nice, I have feelings and emotions too, I'm not a machine.  He said yeah, it's not that bad, I just need to get something off my chest.

Okay. So yesterday arrives.  I go over there after work, we have a bite to eat, m'lady, Josiah and I go up to Josiah's room, we sit on his couch and he lays down on his bed.  What came after that out of his mouth was painful, hurtful and some of derogatory, hateful and very much antagonistic in nature.  He said it in calm tones and he didn't blow up - mostly because I was seriously biting my lip.  I was shocked, literally, at the depth and tone of his complaints against me and further unbelieving that she knew much of what he was going to go into and hadn't warned me about it first.  Yes, I had asked early this week because that is when I found out and that is when it became obvious the two had been talking.

I'm not going to relive his words by writing them here, I just am not.  Very hurtful words.  I just had such a hard time with it because we had a pretty good relationship going - all up until that girl came into his life and then his attitude started going south and he is, at this point, obsessed with this girl.  Therein lies the problem. Nothing can get in the way of it.  Nothing. When something does, he has a cow, literally I mean it gets bad.  My words cannot describe the anger and even hateful speech that comes out of his mouth when anything - even a request to do something that will take all of 2 minutes to perform - is asked and she is there with him. He goes ballistic.  Or if he makes plans - without asking permission - and then expects that his plan is going to be honored regardless of what is going on or any life situations are brought forth.

Regardless, the end result is that he doesn't want me dealing with him and his girlfriend and the requests anymore.  That has been dumped back onto mom.  I mean, in one fell swoop this all happened and left me reeling. Not that he wanted to have his mom responsible for the decisions, but the way he went about trashing me and talking s*** and even to the point of attempting to inform me how to "love" his mother.  Consider the source, right?  Yes but I am a mere human being, people talking like that to me would normally illicit a reaction right back into their face - and oohhhhhh yes, I could have given it right back to him in a thousand different ways.  But I kept silent for the most part, mostly in awe (not in a good way) of how he was talking to me and also because she had not given me the information as soon as she had heard it so that I could have at least prepared my mind, heart and spirit for what was to come.

However. He will soon find out that in life, "be careful what you wish for".  It became apparent that he thinks she will give him much more leeway, but the exact opposite is definitely true.  In reality, I give him more than she ever wants to give him.  In fact, he will find out this week.  Well, in fact, he has already found out.

We went to the lake today. My idea earlier this week - though after last night I woke up this morning not even wanting to get out of bed, much less take a group of kids and m'lady to a lake and have "fun".  It will take days - at least - for me to get this out of my system the stuff he said to me last night and deal with it and move on.  We went - I was in a bad mood, quite honestly. Very bad mood.  Having fun at the bottom of any of my lists.  Stay home and try to work through this in my inner man, more like it.  Well we go pick up his girlfriend, she doesn't even acknowledge either of us as she gets into the rather enormous 15 passenger van.

Get to the lake and get going.  Get into the water - not too murky water and perfect temperature, I was amazed.  It didn't really change my mood but at least a temporary distraction.  Which lasted not very long as we basically had a terse conversation - lady and I - about Josiah and what happened last night.  I won't go into the details, it's kinda personal but we talked through it, out in the deep water hanging onto a floating pier that had been built for people to come and sit on or jump off of at their pleasure.  I just dumped it on her because - I was mad honestly - she hadn't told me anything and I felt like I had been ambushed - here he is, he's already got it in his mind that you are now over him, I want nothing to do with it. Make the decisions, deal with him yourself, he is two handfuls and I don't think you are really capable of it, since you handed him over to me to begin with.

But I got past that, it is really Josiah I have the issue with and he undoubtedly thinks what he says was perfectly fine. Laying things out straight, as he says it, with people is not always the best thing to do.  Regardless, Josiah did get to get dropped off at gf's home tonight but was informed that tomorrow? He will have to fix the pasture fence on the side where the houses have been built.  Saturday is one of his issues - he works 50 hours a week, why does he have to spend his "only" day off working?  Well, he has 2 days off but has this excuse that because he has to go to church for 2 hours on Sunday, it isn't a day off. Yes, this is the mentality I have been working with and FAR worse than that, in reality.

I heard the end of this conversation - he was pissed.  I said nothing.  After a - fun day - I forced myself into fun mode with the kids because they were having a blast and I didn't want to be the wet blanket to bring everyone down and eventually did start having some fun horse-playing and such - we drove back.  He popped up front and said to mom: I've made my decision.  I didn't hear the whole conversation that had pissed him off because I was busy outside of the van getting my feet cleaned so I could put my shoes on.  He wanted to go to the party tonight, work tomorrow and go to her house on Sunday. She said yes, he can go tonight, has to stay home tomorrow and work and Sunday she hadn't made up her mind.

Later on I asked her what her decision was going to be - curiosity since this weekend I had been the decision maker all the way up until yesterday, attempting to decide what to allow the boy to have and not to have.  But his attitude has totally sucked and I would have probably said no to Sunday - or cut it way short.  She said no, she "probably" won't let him go at all.

If she lets him to with her after all that has happened on Sunday, I am just simply going to tell her he is her son, make the decisions, please do not ask me for any further input, I can't keep doing this.  I have to preserve some dignity and his lack of respect and outrageous attitude? I am not going to continue to be subjected to.  He needs a major attitude adjustment.

This situation pretty much consumed the entire week.  I mean seriously. Today physically took it out me - in the water all day long.  This week has spiritually and emotionally drained me.  Their church does not cut it with me, either.  It has a nice pastor, he has some interesting messages, but it is nothing like the "meat of the Word" that I was getting at the church in Tempe.  It's a large church, nothing that particularly interests me, they have very few altar calls - to simply come up and get prayed for - that really doesn't set well with me and they don't really operate in the prophetic.  To each his own, a church that doesn't have all of that isn't really anything that does much for me.

I walked into the house today - to find a total disaster.  Kitchen, living room, bedrooms.  I pretty much went into despair after this ordeal with Josiah and saw the house again in that situation this morning and just threw up hands up. Said nothing to anyone about it.  Keep the house a total disaster.  Do whatever.  Understand that I am not even thinking about marriage and moving in there in a place that is turned into s*** that fast.  The reason I went into despair is because she listened to some dude giving a message about blended families and apparently thinks that she has to be the decision maker in all things concerning kids and that I guess I should just sit there and do - what - nothing?  Just live in filth and squalor, created by untrained kids who disrespect authority more often than not and don't care how they treat the living space they are given?  Just shut my mouth forever and live and deal with it?

NOT.  Look where the decision making has gotten that household so far.  My efforts would take a while to have effect, but I am confident with enough time and consistency, I could get them to come around.  Now? Oh well.  Whatever.  I'll get past this but if she wants to wear the pants in the family, that isn't going to work. Think I have said that on here before, but I will repeat it as frequently as my inner man brings it up to me.  I am not a passive man.  I do not sit around in a family having the other half telling me and everyone else what to do and when to do it.  I can go half way and meet in the middle to some extent, but sitting  around like a pantie-waste is a notion I have not even a remote idea of entertaining, especially for commitment as big as marriage and considering a lifetime of it. NOT.

Yes, I proposed marriage but yes, a marriage date at this point is indefinite.  No-one is going to pressure me into finishing this off until I am confident that this situation is reversing and coming around - in a serious, palpable and clearly defined manner. That something in my spirit clicks and says yes, now is the time to start talking about a date.

3 day weekend.  Today at the lake, totally exhausted.  Not sure about tomorrow.  I feel like I am wasting my time at this point in trying to fix up her house and get it presentable and a nice place to live.  Josiah's task tomorrow will take all day long.  I may go out there and help him. Yeah I know, sounds ridiculous.  I feel the need to at least try and work through this.  7 or 8 hours of working on a fence with him might prove fruitful.  Yep. That particular stretch of fencing - which is around 800 feet long - has been problematic with cows getting out and it needs a good fix and it's going to take an entire day to do it. 4 hands will get it done quicker.

Whatever the case, I refuse to sit in a house with garbage (literally household type garbage), clothing and whatever else laying around all over the place on the floors and everywhere else for that matter and just sit there and "take it". I will go outside and either sit out there or find something to do and when the subject finally comes up.  I am not going to clean up after kids.  They can clean up their own mess and if I no longer have any say in it, then she can tell them to do it, which obviously - she has not.

I am not trying to trash her, I love her and that's a fact.  To go into the events in her life that have led up to this would take a LOT of writing and is far too personal for me to write here.  It just wouldn't be right to do that, so I am not.

Well I am tired and finally at least getting something on here.

G'nite.

ben