Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-o to a tree

One of my duties as mother and parent to ateenage boy is to torture him.  It's a rightand privilege earned by having to put up with his angstiness. And it's fun.

Myprimary fodder is girls.  When I ask himif he has a girlfriend, which is fairly often, the typical reply is “moooooooooooooooooom”.

The kid is kinda cute . . . in a moppy haired,Shaggy Doo bearded kind of way.  So, Idon’t see any reason why some girlwouldn’t think he’s appealing.

He says he’s not interested in the girls he knows.  He says that they’re annoying.  All they do is talk, talk, talk and giggle,giggle.  Yeah, well, that’s what teenagegirls do.  Especially around boys theylike. 

Normally he doesn’t like to talk to me about girls . . . oranything else for that matter; you know how kids are.  But he just so happened to broach thesubject, so I let him talk. 

He said there was this one girl who came running down the hall athim . . . arms wide open and on a collision course for a full frontal tacklinghug.  He avoided the attack by turning tothe side and deflecting her with his arm. He escaped, sans hug, with the girl staring at him all goofy-like.

Yep, the chicks dig my boy. 

He then went on to tell me that girls only want to use boys to getother boys jealous.  That’s remarkably perceptiveand, sadly, true a lot of the time.

He said that just the other day a girl walked up to him and straightup asked him if she could be his girlfriend. Just like that, right out of the blue. He said, “Uh no.”  She was alllike, “Come ooooooon be my boyfriend.” He said, “Uhm . . . uh . . . no thanks.”  Then she was all like, “Puhleeeeease?  My boyfriend just broke up with me.”  And my boy replied, “No way!”  And made a hasty retreat.

 

I know that his hormones will eventually drown out the girlybackground noise but for now I’m kinda glad he has yet to submit to theirfeminine wiles.  He’ll be my boy for a while longer.

Homemade Chicken with Root Vegetable Soup

1 (3 Pound) Whole Chicken

4 Carrots

4 Stalks Celery

1 Large Onion, Halved

4 Parsnips

2 Potatoes
Egg Noodles (Optional)

Water to Cover

Salt And Pepper To Taste

Put the chicken, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 parsnip andonion in a large soup pot and cover with cold water. Heat and simmer, uncovered,until the chicken meat falls off of the bones (skim off foam every so often).

In the meantime peel and chop the remaining vegetables.  Set aside.

Take everything out of the pot, discard the vegetables (they’llbe smooshy).

Add the reserved vegetables to the broth and bring to aboil.  Turn off  the heat.

Pick the meat off of the bones. Season the broth with salt,pepper. Add the egg noodles at this time.

I pack into individual servings and freeze them forlunches.  Take them out, pop them in themicrowave and you have fresh, homemade soup whenever you want it.