Oh my sweet Peach, how can you possibly be 14? It just doesn’t seem possible. I know, I know - I’m like a broken record and say that every year (How can you already be THREE? or Whoa, you’re SEVEN today!) but it’s just hard to believe that this you-existing-thing-and-us-being-parents thing has been going strong for 14 years (well, 14 years plus nine months plus six days plus fifteen hours and 42 minutes … but who’s counting).
Speaking of counting (excellent segue, self), here are your Top 10 Lists …
Top 10 Things You Love
- YouTube, specifically Moriah Elizabeth and Studio C
- Hanging out with your friends
- Your youth group at church
- Sushi
- Singing
- Drawing (pencils and colored pencils are your long-time jam but digital art has become your new jam)
- Your family (I love that you still like spending time with us)
- Ice cream
- Listening to music
- Reading (specifically Keeper of the Lost Cities series)
Top 10 Things You Don’t Love
- Emptying the dishwasher (... the dishwasher that’s full of clean dishes … but you don’t mind washing dirty dishes … I’m gonna need you to explain that one to me)
- Being corrected
- Taking naps
- Seeing people get hurt
- When you don’t completely and fully master a new topic within 23.7 seconds
- Clothes shopping (Hey, clothing manufacturers - believe it or not but some of us really want entire shirts. And hey, Target and Old Navy - it’s super annoying that your sizing appears to be arbitrary. Fitting into a size 2 in one style, a size 8 in another one, and a kids’ 14/16 in another style is absurd. Get it together.)
- Babysitting (you’ve never actually done it - but you’ve never done it because little kids aren’t your jam)
- Lukewarm showers
- Cra-Z-Art anything (*cough*art snob*cough*)
- When people are mean to their siblings
Top 10 Things You’re Good At
- Performing on stage
- Trying any food at least once
- Drawing (your talent is astounding)
- Making macaroni and cheese
- Writing (you have quite a knack for stringing together some real purty, good-sounding words on them thar papers you write)
- Sarcasm and dry wit. They make your texting game s-t-r-o-n-g.
- Speaking to adults
- Organizing your schoolwork/homework for the week. It’s not the easiest thing to be in two different tutorials but you manage it beautifully.
- Making cards for people
- Ripstiking
Top 10 Things You’re Not Good At
- Speaking slowly
- Not squealing when you’re around your friends
- Creating the perfect Baked Alaska
- Remaining calm when you hear that someone has to go to the bathroom but there’s not a bathroom within the immediate vicinity (just to give your blood pressure a workout while we’re running errands, I’ll announce that I have to go to the bathroom. Your brow gets all furrowed, you slouch your shoulders, and you mutter how mean I am. It’s adorable.)
- Asking for help with math homework (complaining about and squawking about you needing help is apparently more fun than simply asking me to help you)
- Bowling a perfect 300
- Piloting a hot air balloon
- Being tall (my guess is this’ll change in 2023)
- Speaking fluent Italian
- Running an IRONMAN
We’re only a year into the teenage season, but so far I give it two resounding thumbs up. It’s a blast. I love you and your falling-apart-teenage-brain so very much. You’re bold in your faith and wildly responsible with your schoolwork. You know when you’ve hit your Socialization Threshold™ and quietly remove yourself to decompress. You’re impossibly funny, incredibly artistic, and tremendously smart. Even in the throes of the Teenage Angst and Emotions and Feelings and Tears™, you’re a delight.
You’ve had several art commissions this year. You drew a portrait of my friend and her family for her 40th birthday. She loved it and asked you to draw another picture of her and her family. She turned the second picture into both her Christmas card and her return address stickers. You were so honored. And you ended up doing several more commissions after that!
So your braces. You still have them on (but only for a few more weeks). At your orthodontist appointment late last summer, you got rubber bands. Dr. Shawn said you had to wear them all the time - that you should only take them out when you eat. And that if you wore them like you should, you’ll get your braces off around Halloween. Well, when a doctor tells you to do something, you do it 110%. And when we went to your next appointment, Dr. Shawn was all, “Um, did you wear these 25 hours a day?!” Cuz you wore them so much that you gave yourself an overbite (THAT outcome certainly wasn’t listed in the orthodontic brochure we got two years ago). Which meant that you had to wear your braces for another three months to undo the damage you did by being a model patient. Yeahhh. THAT was a fun car ride home.
Your youth group started doing a Student-Led Wednesday, where instead of the grownups leading the games and music and giving the message, the students do it. And Levi, the youth pastor, asked you to give the message for the first SLW. You handled this assignment with such maturity (with a dash of OH MY GOSH WHAT DID I AGREE TO DO? I CAN’T DO THIS. I’M ONLY 13. I DIDN’T GO TO SEMINARY thrown in for good measure). You spoke on 1 Peter 2:9 and described what it meant to be chosen. You talked about how we can be bold in our faith because the Lord has called us. You practiced it in front of me a few times, and I cried each time. I recorded you that Wednesday and just barely kept it together. I’m floored with your composure, your boldness, the clarity and simplicity with which you can explain a deep topic. I’m in awe of how the Lord is shaping your faith and deepening your walk with Him. I’m humbled that He gave you to us.
I can’t wait to see what this year brings. My guess is that it’ll include approximately 5,592 sketches sketched, 92,167 songs sung, 306,928 text message zingers sent, and 476 books read. And probably a few doses of OH MY GOSH I CAN’T DO THIS I CAN’T DO ANYTHING I’M GONNA FAIL SCHOOL LIFE IS SO UNFAIR AND MY LIFE IS THE HARDEST EVERRRRRRRRRRRR.
And we can’t wait for all of it cuz we’re the luckiest parents everrrrrrrrrrr.
Hugs and smooches,
Mom & Dad
