Zeke Wilson
Here is an excerpt from my personal journal on January 30th: Zeke got his report card on Friday, but he just showed it to me last night. He was very nervous. The envelope was sealed so he hadn’t seen it. Last quarter he got a C in Math which led Gregg and me to sit down with him and talk about the importance of good grades and the need for him to care more and be more focused. Since that time he has tried harder and made a greater effort. Prior to that time I don’t think he cared a hoot about his grades—only about football at recess! He was so nervous about his grades on his report card. I opened it and he had improved significantly! He got a B+ in Math—yea! It was so fun to be able to congratulate him and see his pleased expression. He looked at his report card and said, “I still don’t like that C.” I was so delighted to see how much he cared! I took him in to Gregg and told him and he made a big deal of it. Zeke was so pleased. A little bit later, I came into the study and he came up to me with a pleased smile and gave me a hug—didn’t say anything—just a hug. I have noticed that since last quarter’s grades, he has treated me and the homeschool I do with him very differently. He has ceased to see me as quite so much of an irritant and instead views me as an asset. It has been a great change. I’m very grateful for it. I’m still an irritant when it comes to piano, though!

I am happy to report that just since that time he has started enjoying piano, too. He doesn't balk about having to practice, in fact he actually enjoys it. It's so nice!

Gregg and I have commented many times recently on how great Zeke is doing. I think he is the child we have the least concerns about at this moment. He is sweet and good and conscientous. He is obedient and diligent and delightful and affectionate. It is so much fun to have him around.

The other day Gregg and I brought him into the living room and instead of Gregg doing his normal PPI with him, Gregg and I just sat there with him on the hotseat and took turns saying things we loved about him. I almost started to cry as I started to think of how wonderful Zeke is doing and how much I am loving him right now. He just sat there with that fantastic smile of his. Then he ran upstairs and reported to Stone, "You're going to love it. They just sit there and tell you good things." It was Gregg's idea to do that, and it really was fun.

March 13, 2012. Ten years old. Fourth grade.

Some sweet Zeke comics and other artwork.
A sweet note from sweet Ella. And a cute story.
Zeke participated in the magic show in the Blue and Gold Banquet. He told a few jokes.
Birthday part Zeke went to. They went to JumpTime--a place filled with trampolines. Zeke thought it was the greatest. He got to go back again a couple weeks later with a different friend and had a blast again.
I like Zeke more and more every day. He's just a really cool kid. He's got a fantastic sense of humor, he's enjoyable to be around, he's thoughtful and perceptive, and he's darn handsome.

He really enjoyed his football season. Football is certainly still one of his first loves. His football is almost always in his hands--he even sleeps with it. One of his others is drawing. He notices everything around him--details about life--and that shows in his artwork. He's really gifted at drawing. He enjoys making comics because it combines two of his strengths: art and humor. I am fairly astounded as I watch him draw--watch an image begin to appear on the paper. I'm not sure how he does it. When he draws he sits completely still and focused until the drawing is finished. It is interesting to me to see the contrast between how active and passionate he is when he plays football and how quiet and still he is when he draws.

He's in fourth grade. When I went to his Parent/Teacher Conference after the first quarter, I found out he had a C in Math and a B in Reading. This was upsetting to me. As I've worked with him on math concepts and with homework generally, as well as homeschool, I've noticed that his mind is sharp. He just learns differently. He definitely does not learn by having things explained to him. He learns by doing. It has developed a very soft spot in my heart to work with my Zekie and help him grasp concepts and see him improve. I feel like the teacher he has this year is not a good fit for him and that's very frustrating to me. But it gives me a chance to work lots with Zeke and that's good.

Gregg and I have both noticed changes in Zeke--positive changes. He isn't nearly as loud as he used to be! He has matured out of that as well as other things. His testimony has strengthened. He is thoughtful and good. We have been working hard at our family and the kids' individual scripture study lately and Zeke has been reading lots of the scripture stories. That has been good for him.

I've gone to lunch at the school with Zeke a couple times this schoolyear and I have really enjoyed it. He has a super cute little group of friends--he really likes his friends. We eat lunch together. He's always excited to see the boys and me. Then we get to the main attraction of his day--one of the reasons his grades suffer because this is his focus--football at lunch recess. He's the star of the show and he has so much fun. But he's so nice about it and well-liked by others that he incurs no negativity from others. Often I have kids come up to me as I'm sitting there, usually freezing, watching the game. They ask if I'm Zeke's mom and then they tell me about all the funny things he does in the classroom. One time he ran a touchdown down and I heard a kid say, "You're just trying to show off for your mom." And he was. He loves for me to see the things he does.

I love, love, love my Zeke. I'm so thankful for him.

December 4, 2011. Nine years old. Fourth grade.

Zeke has really gotten into drawing comics lately. Here are some of his characters and strips. Following are some other cool Zekie creations.
This a worksheet from Family Home Evening. Zeke whipped out this city-scape in just a few minutes. I thought it was pretty cool.
Zeke's Sacrament Meeting Program part. He did a wonderful job. Stood up there confidently, spoke loud, and looked great.
Zeke got his Bear award in Cub Scouts quite early, thanks mostly to a great Den Leader.
School picture. Fourth grade. Nine years old.
Zeke's football team, Fall 2011.
A summertime Primary activity.
Zeke has had a great summer. We went on a family vacation to the Coeur d'Alene area where he enjoyed bringing in fish with his net, swimming in the lake, playing on waverunners, going on a 15 mile bikeride over an old train track, watching movies, and eating treats. We went down to Utah for a Lindquist family reunion where he loved playing on the huge slip-n-slide and spending time with his cousins. We went on a Ward Campout where he loved the water slide and playing around with friends, and the Wilson family reunion where he loved swimming in Grandma and Grandpa's pool and riding bikes with his cousins.

Zeke's cousin Porter and his family moved to Boise this summer and that has been fun for Zeke. He got to spend the night with Porter one night after Porter's birthday party and he always loves swimming in the pool with them.

It has been fun over the summer to have time at home. Zeke and the other kids enjoyed an unusually cool first couple of summer months and the lived it up outside-- riding bikes and playing football. Once it warmed up they stayed cool with otter pops, slip-n-slides, and making a "Wilson Family Waterpark" with hoses and the playground equipment in the backyard.

There is always work to do and Zeke put in his time weeding, feeding animals, and, later, harvesting. He also did homeschool during June and July (just one day of the week) and piano lessons throughout June and July ("You're ruining my summer! I hate piano!"). We did a reading challenge for the summer in which Zeke had to read two chapter books. He finished in barely the nick of time. His reward was a new book at Barnes and Noble. He picked out a football book that he has been really enjoying.

August has brought the beginning of football season. Zeke is absolutely loving it. This is his first year in tackle football and he thinks it's the coolest. He looks so handsome in his uniform, and he wore it every day for the first little while because he was so excited about it. It took all of 15 minutes for his coaches to recognize the talent they had in Zeke. He quickly became starting receiver and earned nicknames such as "Dwight Howard" (a professional basketball player) because of how high he jumped to catch a ball. He had a Jamboree a couple weeks ago on the Boise State blue field and that was pretty cool. He had his first game yesterday, and he got the ball lots. He had several great runs, including a great kickoff reception where it looked like he was tackled, only to emerge from the group of guys and gain more yardage. He had an impressive tackle in the Jamboree. There is one coach in particular--the offensive coach--who really likes Zeke and recognizes his capability. Zeke loves the intesity of it all, where other kids struggle with that aspect of it. He said, "I love how the coaches yell at us. It makes me do better!" Another time he said, "I really like my coaches. They're super nice, and they're super mean, and they make me do better, and they think I'm really good." It was super fun to watch him yesterday, and he was all smiles at the end.

Speaking of smiles, Zeke got braces this summer as well. And he looks handsome with him. He's one of those kids that is always handsome, no matter what.

I'm really proud of Zeke right now. He's maturing and emerging as a responsible, dutiful boy. I was worried about he and Stone getting hurt during their football seasons, so I asked Gregg to give them pre-football blessings. He did. The blessings were beautiful. He blessed Zeke that he would put football into perspective--that he would recognize that football is a fun thing to do while here on earth, but that it's not as important as Church or family. He thought about that. He came up to me later, very seriously, and expressed to me his thoughts. He said, "I think that I'm going to just play college football and not play professional football." He reiterated that same sentiment the next day. He was very serious. He recognizes that the NFL plays on Sunday and that he shouldn't do that. Never mind that a career in the NFL is a cool dream that probably would never happen. This was an important expression of his growing little testimony. I'm really proud of Zeke.

August 29, 2011. Nine years old. Fourth grade.

Cool Zekie creations. Seldom is Zeke more content--and quiet--than when engrossed in a drawing.
Dressed up like a Nephite for a Primary Activity.
Zeke read 600 minutes in an allotted amount of time during the spring to earn a free pass to Roaring Springs Waterpark for summer.
Zeke enjoyed his third grade year. He had a teacher that he really liked, Mr. Levy, and he thoroughly enjoyed his time with his friends in his class: Ethan, Indiana, Austen, and others. Here is his class picture, followed by his report card and other end-of-year reports. I'm always impressed by the high marks he gets for behavior in school. He is such a high-energy kid that I would have assumed he'd struggle in that area, but each year the teachers, while acknowledging his energy level and ability to make others laugh, are very happy with how responsive and respectful he is to them. Good job, Zekie.

June 12, 2011. Nine years old.
Here's a reading chart he completed this Spring. 600 minutes of reading earned him a free pass to Roaring Springs Waterpark.
For one of Zeke's Cub Scout Activities, the boys were asked to write a thank you note to someone. One of the boys, Talon Hintze, chose to write his to Zeke.
And here's a note from Abigail, obviously making reconciliation for a previous comment of a much different sort!
Zekie creations, and a movie stub to a movie he liked.
Quite awhile ago--maybe about a year ago--Zeke was running up the stairs to tell me something and smacked his head on a sharp corner of moulding on a column on the stairwell. He started screaming, which is not terribly unusual when Zeke gets hurt, in fact it didn't even get my attention. I was upstairs changing Mack's diaper, irritated at the fuss Zeke was making about what I assumed was nothing. Then Stone started yelling, I assumed at Zeke because he was being a baby. Then I started yelling at Stone to back off of Zeke. All chaos. Then I hear Stone yell, "There's blood all over." That got my attention. I ran downstairs, leaving poor Mack mid-diaper change, and saw Zeke screaming/crying with blood dripping off his head. One look at the wound told me that it would require more than a butterfly bandage, so I loaded everyone into the car and called the doctor on the way. I met Gregg at the doctor's office. It was 4:30 on a Friday and I'm pretty sure the doctor just wanted to get home, so she sent us to the ER. On the way out of the doctor's office, Gregg drily said, "We're not going to the ER. We're going to my office." We zipped over to his office. A couple shots and seven stitches later, and Zeke was good as new.

He still carries an emotional scar, though, and the other day, for some reason, that pointy corner started scaring him, so he made a sign out of notebook paper and hung it up on the corner of the column with scotch tape.
Zekie loved playing football at recess. It was his favorite part of the day. A few weeks ago he went back for a pass, fell, and hit his head. He got a pretty good headache from it that lasted quite awhile. One of the kids told the teacher outside about the incident and football at recess was promptly outlawed. Zeke's ticked at that boy. But, it's allowed him to discover that there are other sports that exist in this world, even if football is still his favorite. He and his friends played tetherball for awhile. Now they are playing basketball at recess, although he just informed me that they are going to need to go back to tetherball because there is a kid out there that cheats. So that's the low-down on third grade recess. I'm not sure about the rest of the schoolday, but that's recess!

Zeke has football practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Cub Scouts on Wednesdays. Every day he has to feed Billy (our goat), do homework, and practice the piano. He hates practicing the piano, but we're plugging away at it. He really has an ear for music--he just lacks the patience and desire to sit at the bench and practice. We do language arts homeschool every Tuesday morning at 6:30. We do math homeschool after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We do piano lessons on Thursday mornings at 6:30. He has his "Active Before School" Program at 7:15 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. That's a week in the life of Zeke, at least the scheduled part.

Zeke loves his little brothers and sisters, especially Mack. He loves interacting with Mack.

Zeke has become more quiet and sober lately. He still has fits of passion on occasion, but they're relatively rare. He's not nearly as loud as he used to be. He has a sly, witty sense of humor. He is pleasant to be around, and not proud. I really like Zekie. Gregg and I have both commented recently on how happy we are with Zeke. "Zeke's going to do just fine," Gregg always says. I really love Zekie. He's sitting here with me in the car, just the two of us as we wait for Ella's soccer practice to end, and I've thoroughly enjoyed having him here with me, entertaining me. He's a delight.

April 20, 2011. Nine years old. Third grade.

We spent one of our Spring Break days spring cleaning the kids' rooms. Here is a stack of artwork I retrieved from Zekie's desk. I love how he titles (and rates) some of his drawings!
Another day of the break Zeke went to a 4-H day camp with a neighbor boy.
Zeke's report card for the semester.
Zeke really enjoys football. Most organizations don't offer Spring football--there is only one in our area that does and so we signed him up for that. Last game his team was down 12-0. On the last play of the game Zeke caught a deep pass and ran for a touchdown. So exciting! He ran another touchdown previously in the game, but it was called back. On the game before that, he caught an interception and ran it for the touchdown. He was super excited about that one. This week his team scrimmaged another team during practice and he had some great runs. His coaches love him. I was talking to one of them at practice. He commented on how much they loved Zeke's attitude. He's positive, sober, and intense. They love how fast he is, and he said they love how he can stop on a dime and turn and go on the other direction. He plays quarterback, running back, and receiver, and, of course, defense. He's really enjoying it.
A birthday part Zeke went to. The little boy invited Zeke and one other kid and they went to Wahoo's and played laser tag and other fun things. Zeke had a blast. He has no shortage of friends. He's a very likeable guy.
A note from Abs. She can be a stink to him sometimes. Sometimes he deserves it.
March 2011. Nine years old. 3rd grade.

Zeke is doing well in all areas of his life, but his two main loves are drawing and sports. He goes to an "Active Before School" program every Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 7:15am. It's essentially just an extra PE class. He absolutely loves it and begs me each morning to leave as soon as possible so he can get there early. We try our best, but it's tough for that to happen because we do homeschool and piano lessons at 6:30am on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, respectively. He plays football during every recess and the first words out of his mouth as he walks in the house after school are his "post-game report" from recess. I don't hear about much else of his schoolday, but I hear all the exciting highlights of his football games. He always has a football in his hand, and he loves to throw the ball with Stone and Gregg. Sometimes he gets the little boys to play a game with him.

Zeke just started spring football, and he is loving every minute of it. He's on a returning team which is always a concern because often coaches will already have the players they favor and are slower to recognize new talent. But in the scrimmage on the first day of practice, Zeke scored three of his team's four touchdowns, one of those being an interception. He's only had two practices, but it is evident that the coach considers him one of the best players on the team. That is exciting for him. I watched the last half of Thursday's practice, and he had a great run for a touchdown in his scrimmage. He's fast and he jukes guys all along the way.

One thing I appreciate about him is that he lets his talents speak for themselves and otherwise he is silent. He's not loud, obnoxious, or braggy. He just genuinely has fun with football or whatever sport he's playing, and when his hands get a chance to touch the ball, he makes things happen.

Invitation Zeke made with his pack for the Blue and Gold Banquet.
Birthday party Zeke attended for his friend Danny.
With the passage of a birthday and the completion of requirements, Zeke advanced in cub scouts. As the kid before him was getting his award at Pack Meeting and the kid was pinning the pin on his mom, Zeke turned to me, gave me a warning look, and said, "Be ready, Mom." He successfully pinned it without stabbing me.
A birthday card from Zeke's uncle, aunt, and cousins. Shelley is so good at remembering everyone's birthdays!

Winter 2010-2011. Nine years old.
Artwork. Zeke has an artistic talent. It is one of his favorite passtimes. I often find him at the kitchen table or at his desk in his room, silently working on a new creation.
Gregg took Stone, Abbie, and Zeke to this movie. Abbie spent half the movie in tears and Zeke spent half the movie outside in the hall because it was too scary. Not a good judgement call on our part. Stone liked it, though!
Zeke's primary program part.
Program from Zeke's Halloween recital at his school.
Zeke was completely not excited to play in a piano recital. Then I told him he had to dress up for it and he about exploded. But he lived and did a great job!
There is a cute little girl in our ward at Church on whom Zeke is not shy about admitting he has a crush. Her mom was telling me that the other third grade girls get mad at her because Zeke likes her and they like Zeke. Stick to football, Zekie.
I remember years ago when Zeke was a toddler with boundless energy and a higher-than-normal noise level, my little brother commented that he felt bad for Zeke's future school teachers. But, you know, Zeke has received nothing but praise from his school teachers for his behavior. True, he is chatty, and, true, he is good at making the kids around him laugh, but he knows to be good and he's responsive to the teachers. His energy, though boundless, is positive. He is a class leader, well-liked by all. He is a good friend. He has the rare ability to push himself without desiring to be better than others. His marks in school are always good, though I know he enjoys drawing monsters and other artwork all over his worksheets more than actually doing the work. Here is a progress report, followed by two report cards.

Fall & Winter 2010-11. Eight and nine years old. 3rd grade.
Zeke has decided that football is the only sport that exists. He enjoyed every minute of practice and games this year. The team started out not winning any games. They practiced hard and got better with each practice. As they improved, Zeke became confident that they would win games. One Saturday morning before a game, he announced, "Mom, we're going to win today." That particular game they weren't able to gain one yard or make one defensive stop. As he walked up to me after the game, he was wiping the tears away as fast as they came out. He had been so confident and he was so frustated. A game or two later, though, and they won their first game. No sideline of parents has been so excited as ours was at seeing these boys, who really had worked hard, finally win a game!

Zeke was a team leader. He was one of the older boys on the team as well as being one of the more experienced and skilled. He prefers the position of running back, but the coach had him play quarterback most of the season because of his knowledge of the game. He did a great job.

Fall 2010. Eight years old.