Hello, Friends!

*Wow, it's been a challenging week or so.

My sweet hubby has been travelling nonstop,

and I have been manning the fort by myself.

"All by myself" has been compounded with some attitude issues regarding The Teenager.

He chose to ground himself on Saturday.

Yes, I said chose.

He smarted off, so he, in my opinion, chose to be grounded.

When he is grounded, he is absolutely a terror to be around.

He's mad, and he wants everyone around him to know it...and feel it.

Because my brother and Austin, AKA The Teenager, have always had a special relationship,

I called him and asked him to come pick Austin up for some uncle/nephew time last night.

He did, and they did.

It went great.

Austin was able to ask him questions about why Ryan and I expect some of the things of him that we do,

and Ben reiterated to him how good he has it.

Austin came home with a smile on his face,

positive words out of his mouth,

and a hug for me.

I know we're not out of the woods,

but I think it was good for him to hear it from someone outside of our little crew.

* I love teaching art.

Period.

* Carter and I have been reading a chapter from Charolette's Web every night.

Do you remember reading it when you were little?

It's such a sweet book and a wonderful departure from all the crap on TV.

Speaking of reading,

I am happy to say that Preston and Carter love to read.

I was so disappointed that Austin never really enjoyed reading they way I do,

so I guess 2 out of 3 isn't a bad deal.

Preston is currently reading the series

Series of Unfortunate Events.

When I taught 5th grade, my students loved the series, but I never picked one up to read.

Last night I read a couple of chapters with Preston and actually enjoyed it.

Carter is into the Captain Underpants series.

Shocker.

Complete potty humor.

Boys love it.

Oh, well.

He's reading, so I'll take it.

* Did you know that high school kids, at least here,

have to earn community service hours every year in order to graduate?

Austin has earned 10 so far and will earn more tonight when he works a booth at Family Math Night.

Pretty cool, I think.

* We're hosting Thanksving again this year,

and I have been working for almost 2 weeks on the tables for the adults.

Ryan and I bought new dishes etc. from World Market a few weeks ago,

and I found some great chargers at Hobby Lobby.

Pics soon.

This week, I've been working on the kids' table.

Fun!

I can't wait to show y'all the pics!

Well, friends, that's it for now!

Duty calls!

Have a fantastic day!!!