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!!