I love the Zits comic and read it every day. Creators Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman really have a handle on what it’s like to live with teenagers.
They got it wrong today, though. Around here, Middle Sister is the one most likely to eat the leftovers.
For breakfast.
Even when those leftovers are Beef Enchiladas. Especially when those leftovers are Beef Enchiladas.
…and an indication that Standards Are Slipping around here:
“When you eat a Hot Pocket in the bathroom, please clean up what you drop on the floor.”
This morning when I went outside to grab the newspaper, I could see the morning star. Had to rush in and get Little Brother away from his breakfast so he could see it too. (He thought it was worth it.)
Speaking of breakfast, Little Brother is a major-league toast eater. He’ll go through 6 to 8 slices each morning. But that wasn’t enough to get him through until snack time. Now I serve him 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt before the toast. For snack, he has fruit and a string cheese. He says mornings are much better now.
I am doing my best to resist the open bag of candy corn that’s sitting in my kitchen. But I’ve got some Count Chocula in the house…my kids had never eaten it before so I just HAD to get a box.
Generally I am not a flavored-coffee person. But I highly recommend Godiva Coffee’s Pumpkin Spice. It pairs equally well with candy corn AND Count Chocula. Note to self: go back to Wegman’s and get another bag of this coffee before it disappears!
Looking forward to tonight’s activities. I schlep the kids around a lot to things they do. But tonight’s event is really for me. It’s the first rehearsal for the Festival of Lessons and Carols in the parish where Little Brother attends school. Little Brother will be in the children’s chorus, and Big Brother will play various musical instruments. I’ll be singing and playing guitar. I have no illusions of having the kind of musical ability that many of the other singers/musicians possess. This is an amazingly talented bunch of people! But I find that I sing and play better when I’m challenged by being among musicians who are better than me. Time to stretch!
I don’t get to bring my guitar tonight, though. It’s just a vocal rehearsal for the first day, which kind of freaks me out because my guitar is definitely my security blanket. It’s hard for me to sing when I don’t have something for my hands to do.
I’m still hoping against hope that I find the earring I lost the other day. It’s not a valuable or expensive earring, but it was a really cute pair of earrings and I liked them a lot. I should have an earring more than 8 days before I lose it, I think.
Last night I took Middle Sister shopping. She had a really weird shopping list: shoes for the Homecoming dance and a blanket sleeper (known in this house as a “woobie.”) The sleeper is for her Halloween costume. The last time I saw her wear one of those, she was 4! After trying on a lot of shoes with insanely high heels, platforms, sparkles and the whole nine yards, she settled on a beautiful and feminine pair of black silk pumps. Grown-up shoes and little-kid pajamas, all in the same shopping trip. I guess that’s life with a teenager.
Just this week a new website for Faith and Family magazine launched. It has the magazine content plus a great blog section. And all the articles allow comments, just like your favorite blogs. I was pleasantly surprised that this site has information for parents with kids of all ages–not just babies and toddlers.
An article that really caught my attention was Open House by Tammy Darling. This article explores the benefits of opening your home as the “hangout” for your teen’s friends.
I’ve experienced these benefits firsthand in the past couple of years. Big Brother’s school is walking distance for us (about one mile away) but it attracts students from 25 miles away or more. We wish that all his friends lived in our zip code or even in our area code, but that’s not going to happen. So it’s been nice to have the “go-to” house when the teens have a couple of hours to kill after school before it’s time for stage crew or some other activity. Usually they walk here, eat, hang around (loudly), eat, and then I ride them back to school. We get to know Big Brother’s friends and their interests. We feed them pizza and Dr. Pepper. We allow Big Brother to have sleepovers (guys only) and toss the kids pillows, blankets and the air mattresses used at Boy Scout camp so they can get as comfortable as possible on the floor, and we don’t grumble when we trip over their huge feet as we pass by.
We’re comforted to know that our son has chosen some great kids as his friends. They’re loud, but they’re funny and smart and usually polite. They’ve definitely influenced Little Brother’s musical tastes (most 6-year-olds don’t favor Freebird) but they cheerfully put up with him and even include him in their video games.
So we’re happy to allow Big Brother to bring his friends here. We’re happy to allow Middle Sister to have friends over too, and that might expand once she gets to high school. Nothing beats having your kids invite their friends into your home, where you can get to know them.
