Off we went to the Martin Luther King, Jr Center. I have lived in Atlanta since 1998, it was past time to make this pilgrimage. By the way, if you are looking for something interesting, educational, inspiring and free in Atlanta - this is a great destination.
http://www.thekingcenter.org/about-king-center
Well, let me get back to the point. My 13 year was less than pleased that I pried him away from his Black Ops 2 marathon that had been ongoing since Christmas day. He moped, lagged behind, acted uninterested or ignored me. In sum, he did his best to ruin everyone's day. If you have or have ever had teenagers, you know what kind of day I had.
So after skipping a fun lunch in Midtown and lecturing my teen for his poor behavior, I decided to make him do something engaging. We made the Pepper Jelly-Goat Cheese Cakes from the December issue of Southern Living. Here is the recipe:
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/jelly-goat-cheese-cakes-50400000125295/
Honestly, Southern Living is not usually my go to for recipes, but their offerings for the holidays were pretty tantalizing, and I needed to bring something to a New Year's party. Plus my beautiful friend Dianne brought me a jar of Emily G's Roasted Red Pepper jelly as a hostess gift for my last cookie party, and I was itching to use it.
So I set my child to work, and amazingly, it was one of the best parenting moves I have made in a long time. It was as if his attitude melted away like the Sriracha sauce into the cream mixture.
So there it is, my recipe for killing a bad teenage attitude and getting your work done all in one fell swoop. Thank you, Southern Living! So glad I renewed my subscription!
Hilarious and awesome! Yes, I can so identify! (All this break has been is one long "something on X-box" marathon for my boys.)
ReplyDeleteLast summer, I wanted to go to the Titanic exhibit at Atlantic Station. I was very excited; I've always had a fascination with the Titanic.
Tickets were expensive. I talked it up and brought home books on the Titanic. Minimal interest. I took the boys anyway. In the first room, Jody actually looked at a few things. Anderson was already gone. I was still in the first room, when both of them approached me and said they were done and were going outside. I argued that they hadn't spent the time or attention necessary to understand the exhibit. This turned into a "scene." I went into Teacher-Mode and was berating my sons for not paying attention to the history, the tragedy, the differences in luxury cruising, etc.. Anderson screamed out, "I don't care about the Titanic!" and stormed out of the exhibit. I ran after him and started in on a lecture-y guilt trip about his attitude and the amount of money I had spent. He was hot and needed some space. I suggested that we all get some water, chill a minute, and then discuss things.
We both calmed down a little, and I asked them to please go through the remainder of the exhibit with me and at least look at stuff - they didn't have to read the signs. They complied and we enjoyed ourselves, especially the ice that you could touch to get an idea of how cold the water was. My passenger lived, both of the boys' died (they gave out passenger cards at the entrance and at the end you saw what happened to that person.) This part actually interested Jody.
Not sure Anderson "gets" museums. I took the boys to the Bremen Jewish Heritage museum while his English class was reading Holocaust literature. He just walked through, not really interested. Jody soaked it up - he wanted to look at every photo and asked lots of questions. At least Anderson and I did not get in a "butting heads" battle!
I love boys! Thanks, Becky!
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