In Praise Of My Teenager

I know that when you have a teenager you're supposed to roll your eyes when you talk about them in that "you know how they can be" kind of way, but instead, I want to dedicate this post to how awesome mine is. Partly because she does things like this

 While at our homeschool group's park day, she decided to try out her Man Versus Wild skills.

I wish this picture was better because it was way more impressive in real life. She took a bunch of broken sticks and tied them together using pieces of ripped leaves to make support poles and walls. Then she tied more sticks across the top and covered them with leaves.

Partly because last week when I was overwhelmed with preparations for her sister's birthday party she stepped up, asked "what else needs done" and knocked off HUGE portions of my to do list. Including this

Partly because while the older kids were staying at someone else's house yesterday, she woke up at 5 a.m. to help her sister while she threw up.

Partly because every week she voluntarily leads a children's class at our church, spends her own money on supplies, decides on her own lessons, games and crafts completely unassisted and is way more on top of things than I was when I taught Sunday school.

But mostly because she is brilliant, creative, talented, kind, generous, thoughtful, helpful, fun, amazing and just plain awesome. No eye rolling necessary.