Saturday, July 17, 2010

Why I haven't sent them off to boarding school.... yet

When the kids were little, people often complimented me on how well behaved they were.
That was true, they were great, but we all know that they have their moments.
The child that was so angelic in Sunday school could come home and have a royal temper tantrum.
So I would teasingly comment from time to time that, as soon as they turned 13, 
I was shipping them off to boarding school. 

I didn't really mean it, but the thought of raising and living with teenagers was frightening. 

Now that I have three teens in the house (plus an extra!), I wouldn't give them away for anything in the world.

(Except, of course, the whole college thing that is quickly approaching.  I guess I'll have to let them go then.)

Besides... they cook!
Quincy and Natalie made us some delicious turkey parmesan burgers.
They worked awfully hard on these and did so well, 
that I barely felt the need to complain about the splatters of grease everywhere
 
( They did clean most of it up, but got distracted by ice cream and had to finish cleaning the stove the next day.)
Last night we were treated to spaghetti carbonara and asparagus by Chef Grant.
YUMMY!


Grant did an excellent job.

(except when he poked me with a knife, 
but he didn't know I was going to turn around just then 
and it made for a good lesson in how NOT to hold a knife.)

He's well on his way to being quite self-sufficient in the kitchen.
What a catch he'll be! 

(No mother's were mortally wounded in the making of this meal.)


On a less pleasant note, but still on the topic of why I'm glad I have my teenagers around...
There's this sad little dead skunk.  :(
For a couple of days, I had been smelling the faint scent of skunk in the house. 
I figured that we had had a backyard visitor that left it's smell with us.  
But I couldn't figure out why it smelled more inside than it did outside.
That is... until Julia came flying into the house, pale as a ghost, tears in her eyes
saying, " I think I saw the skunk!  It's in the garage!  It might be sleeping."

Awww.... crud!

Kevin and I tentatively made our way out of the house and peered into the garage.
Sure enough... there it was.
The flies that gathered around the body gave us our first clue that it wasn't sleeping.
After pronouncing the little guy DOA, there was a lot of 
"what are we going to do?"
"how do we get rid of it?"


Kevin took on the task of scooping it up with a shovel.  
It was a delicate process as we didn't want to cause more of a stink than there already was.
He took it and laid it to rest in a far corner of the yard under some trees. 

I'm really so sad for that poor baby skunk.  
He got stuck in the garage and couldn't get out. 
I don't know what exactly caused his death, but I feel somewhat responsible. 
Poor guy.

Anyhow.... I am glad to have the skunk smell gone
and I'm REALLY glad to have had Kevin around to help me deal with that. 
I really wouldn't have wanted to do that on my own.  
Yuck.

(Excuse the ridiculously messy garage!  I'd clean it up, but, folks... 
it's freakin 99 degrees out there and has been for weeks! )

(BTW... my excuse for not cleaning the garage used to be the fact that it was super cold and snowing out.
Maybe I can make this a fall project... 
but then the weather will be too beautiful to waste on cleaning the garage.)

(Okay... I think I'm off topic here.)

Soooo.... back to the teens....
I love having them around.
I'm so blessed to have them.
Not only because they cook and help out with the more onerous tasks around the house, 
but because they are fun and funny,
they are wonderful company and friends
and I'll miss them when they go off to boarding school college.

But that's not for a while yet!
Phew!!

24 comments:

Elizabeth said...

What a great post! Having teenagers freaks me out. Thankfully that's not for a long time. but considering the past 2 years seem to have flown by with Olivia, I'm pretty sure the next 11 or so are going to fly too.

Jess said...

Those meals look great, awesome job guys!

Oh, your poor little skunk. Normally I don't have much sympathy for them, as I have on one occasion blown one to smithereens all over the side of our house... but honestly, thank goodness it wasn't alive when Julia found it. What would have happened then!?

Alita said...

You make the teenage years sound so very idyllic. And while I'm not pushing the years along; now I'm confident that the teenage years won't be all bad. Because prepared dinners that I don't have a hand in sound uber delicious!

Leslie said...

well i am sure bummed that i missed out on that pasta carbonara. sorry you got stabbed while making. LOL...i am just envisioning all of this. probably all wrong but funny in my head. poor baby skunk...thank goodness that kevin could take care of it for you. yuck! there is still time to send grant to boarding school since he is dreading the WA weather so much

Brooke said...

Sounds like you have yourself a coupla KEEPERS! I hope my guys are as helpful when when they cross over to the teen years. :D
Ekkk.... about the skunk!
And - I love your excuse on the garage - it is SOOO true. Either unbearably HOT or COLD or... heck with the garage, lets soak up this awesome few weekends of lovely weather.

Unknown said...

They sound like good kids :). Nice food pics.

Grammie/Mom said...

I'm very proud of the chefs! Let them know. I'm looking forward to a meal or 2 made by them on vacation. Boy, good thing Kevin was around or that smell could have gotten worse! I guess you have to keep them all....no boarding school.

Dan said...

Can't wait to get home to try out some of this teen cooking!

EG CameraGirl said...

EW! In your garage?

Well, we we had a dead one at then end of our driveway last year. It must have been hit by a car. Our neighbour, who walks her dog very early in the morning so saw it first, called animal control who came and got it. :)

Bec said...

Ugh- I found a dead frog in our 2nd story apartment the other day. And while I just really wanted it to be outside and gone, I felt really guilty that somehow we had trapped it inside and caused its death (unknowingly). Luckily, there was no stench to accompany it :)

Joy Williams live is amazing.

bec@iheart

Unknown said...

that spaghetti carbonara looks delightful, lovely post.

betty-NZ said...

We tell our teens that they need to learn to cook, clean, etc so they can be good flatmates. Reality is that we just want them to earn their keep!

Charlyn said...

Hey. I found you via my daughter. Kayla Sue from Every Good Love Letter. I like your site. I have teenagers too. When they were born, I always feared potty training and teen years. Looking back I see why! :) Love em though. So much that I work with the youth group at our church.

Anyway. Nice to meet you. Feel free to stop by!

Kerri Farley said...

Super post! I thought having teenagers was going to be the end of me ~ but then they turned 18 and become "young adults" Yikes ~ that is even harder!
Sorry about the skunk :(

jabblog said...

Having teenagers around keeps you fit, busy and alert! I miss mine but may have another one soon.

Icy BC said...

I'm glad you love having your children around. They come with everything under the rainbow..

Gattina said...

You know even we were once teenagers and our parents surely wanted to send us to hell sometimes, lol ! We don't have skunks in Belgium, but it's sad anyway.

T.J. said...

Almost (not quite) makes me want Bear to grow up and be like all your talented kiddos. Get a load of those feasts they prepared!

So sorry about the skunk- I would have felt the same way :(

T.J. said...

Oh and CONGRATS ON WINNING OVER AT IN A YELLOW HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!

Jientje said...

Poor little baby skunk!

You're blessed, you have such a wonderful family!

Secret Mom Thoughts said...

Kids that cook will be nice. Kids that eat things besides PB &J will be nice too. Sorry about the skunk but glad your son helped clean it up.

Jay said...

I loved having teens in the house! Well ... mostly. There was the laundry thing. LOL! But I taught my boys to cook and they both took to it like ducks to water - just as well, since one of them now has a partner who is not the greatest cook in the world. Bless her!

Lucky you - three to help you out and cook for you, and those meals DO look delicious!

Sad about the poor skunk. I've heard about how they smell (people post 'de-skunk' recipes on the greyhound forum I use) but it's always sad to hear of an animal being trapped and dying. :(

koreen (aka: winn) said...

You've got great teens! Put them in the garage and pay them and then it's win-win! (You can pay them with a make-your-own pizza party if you want, sneak in a easy meal for yourself in there too. I'm full of devious ideas!)

Unknown said...

Teens are great for chores like that. I wasn't sure I would survive 5 teens at once, but I kinda miss them all now. And when they were little I just prayed for my kids to behave in public, I figured they could not be perfect at all times so please just be perfect in public, and they usually were. :)