Waffles

For reasons I have yet to understand, some of my son's friends from our youth group, have decided to come over this morning for waffles. Let's get something straight right away. I don't make homemade waffles. I never have. I owned a waffle iron once, and never used it. These will be Eggos from the freezer. They just want to come over and say hi to "Momma Kay". Okay........

The teenage mind in hilarious. I am sure this started as some kind of joke. They don't even go to my son's high school, but to one farther away. Yet, they are coming over for waffles. I realize this is just a ploy to be random, but hey, I do love these kids.

So I must go and warm up the toaster. I thought briefly about getting some sausage yesterday to compliment the waffles, but where is the randomness in that? I will get out my Costco size syrup and the butter and the plates and make them waffles. Hilarious. If you have not hung out with teenagers lately, let me tell you, "random" is one of their favorite words.

Literally, five kids are getting up earlier than they have to, all in the name of crappy waffles from a wild haired, not had enough coffee, crazy lady. Okey dokey. Gotta love it.

What is random in your life today? Share the love.

God bless you and yours.

Hey, I cooked for something.....

So yesterday, due to vacations, Tyler's bible study group was at our house. Since many families are on vacation, about ten kids showed up, mostly my chicas. That would be chicas por Jesus from Velocity. Fun times. Then, Pastor Tim took Tyler and two of the gals to the mall. I said I would make tacos for dinner and they all came back and ate them. Then the hubby got home with his brother Keith and Grant had Elijah sleeping over, so it was worth it to cook.

Tacos are easy and healthy. Lean ground beef, cook it up and add the seasoning. Chop up some lettuce and tomatoes. Sour cream and I found the bonus, guacamole in my freezer. Soft tortillas, we are a soft taco family. Queso dip and chips. Shredded cheese. I normally make home made salsa, but I did not have the stuff on hands, a great alternative is Chuck and Dave's fresh stuff. You can get a really big one at Sam's club. Then it is just pile on what you like. You can even make nachos if you like. Really, it's a twenty minute meal.

Oh, I did make Redonna cheese crisps or quesadillas. See, I used to just throw some shredded cheese on a tortilla and stick it in the microwave. That was until my small children went to my friends house. She puts butter on two tortillas, cheese in the middle and fries it in a pan like a grilled cheese sandwich. Crispy yumminess and you cannot go back to limp, hotness from the microwave. Then I cut them up with a pizza cutter and wahlah, Redonna cheese crisp.

So, tacos for a crowd went well. I love a full kitchen, especially full of teenagers. Love it. Oh, we had ice cream for dessert. PT had two kinds, it is his weakness after all.

I hope your kitchen gets filled to the rim soon.

God bless you and yours.

Summer Eating

So, our niece is staying with us all week. Love her to death, she is great. All the kids home all summer, is kind of eating into my food budget. Where do they put it? Apparently teenagers eat a lot of food. I made tacos last night. Just some burger, shred some lettuce, cheese, queso, salsa, tortillas and sour cream. The kitchen looked as if ravenous dogs had rifled through it. Actually, they did. Yikes.

These kids eat as if they have not eaten all day. What is up with that? In our summer schedule, we stick to definite eating and snacking times. If the kitchen stayed open all day, we would be broke. They do have snack times. I encourage a healthy snack that will stick with them the longest. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. An apple with stick with you longer that a bowl of chips. The only reason we have chips is because we had hangtime here and they are leftover.

We have a family graduation party this weekend. I have never been to so many in one year. With our youth group and family, this makes five. Five graduation parties. So much food in one place. And yet, the teenagers eat their way through it. They eat everything, chicken, pasta, cookies, hamburgers, hotdogs. You name it, they will put some kind of sauce on it and eat it.

Speaking of sauce, my niece is a mustard fiend. I have the big bottles of mustard from Sam's club. She got here Saturday, we ran out of one already. She puts mustard on her mustard. I don't think she tastes any kind of food. She has mustard all over it. You name it, she puts mustard on it. My sister was the same with ketchup, but I don't think she does that anymore.

So, what ravenous dogs are eating through your summer budget? Do you have a summer budget? Share the love and pass the mustard.

God bless you and yours.

Youth Group Hangtime

So in the summer, we have much more casual youth group meetings. Our church calls them Hangtimes. I had volunteered to have the highschoolers here last night. Sounds insane, but you put up a volleyball net and have a bonfire and you are all set. It was, I thought, quite successful.

I love listening to their conversations and Stevo playing the guitar. It's just great hanging out with these teenagers. I am amazed at myself that I love these kids. I never thought I would dig hanging out with teenagers. Although having a teenager can be a challenge, I love the kids he hangs out with. They are a great bunch of kids. Not perfect, but working on being good kids.

So with hotdogs, chips of every variety, pop, brownies and smores, I knew they would not starve. I kicked the last of them out by 11:30 and cleaned up and went to bed. Totally worth it. The dynamics of teenagers are unique and weird and wonderful. Every time I learn something new. Some of the music gets on my nerves, but that just means I am old. When I ask to have the radio turned down, I am acting my age, not my shoe size.

So, are there teenagers in your life? Do you love it or hate it or both.

God bless you and yours.

To Cell phone our child or not

Okay, you with smaller children may not think that this applies to you, but it does.  At what point do you arm your child with a cell phone?  I used to say high school, but Scott and I have changed our tune.  Tyler gets a cell phone when he can pay for it himself.  I will add him to our plan and all that, but if he has to pay for it, I have a feeling the whole process will go better.  Let me tell you why.

Our thirteen year old niece, who shall remain nameless, just went over her minutes on her parents plan to the tune of $400.00.  Four.  Hundred.  Dollars.  When her parents originally let her have texting, she went so far over, they took the texting away.  They have since taken away her cell phone until she can pay the money back.  I don't have to mention anything else do I?  When I learned of this two days ago and asked her how she could do this to her parents, she replied, "I don't know how to check my minutes".  Really?  Kids today know everything about anything that has to do with an Ipod, a cell phone or a computer.  They are way smarter than we are, so I called her on the carpet.  I think all of us know someone who has had to deal with this, the answer is not to get unlimited minutes.  What does that teach our children?  It solves the immediate problem, but not the long term.

That being said, young teenage minds do not have the right wiring for consequences.  They don't think before they act.  They believe the best until the worst happens.  That is why they have parents to keep them alive until they can make proper decisions.  That is basically our jobs, keep the kids alive until they can function on their own and not make complete fools of themselves or worse.

That brings up something I think is very important.  You cannot wait until your kids are teenagers to decide what they can and when they can do it.  You and your hubby need to figure all that stuff out, hash it out, when they start to walk.  When will your girl be able to wear make-up?  What about the cell phone question?  When can they date?  That is a big one.  Make these decisions early, because these kids are dealing with things at a much younger age than we did.  If we heard about something or tried something our senior year, they are doing it in sixth grade, or younger.  It is a scary, scary world out there.

I know all the arguments from my teenager as to why he needs a cell phone.  He makes a great argument.  He will someday make a great lawyer or senator.  He still isn't get a cell phone until he can pay for it himself.  I am the meanest mom on the block and proud of it.