It's ten days before your seventeenth birthday.  I find myself eating up bits of time we get to spend together and letting go things I once thought important like whether or not there are dirty socks under your bed.  I've always hoped I'd be able to teach you everything you need to know, and that you'd learn and practice everything I'd taught you.  Funny though,  the years have passed quickly and you still have a world of learning before you.  However, you left and will continue to leave, an indelible mark on my heart.  Oh how I've learned from you; I could tell you a hundred life-impacting ways.  But I think I'll keep it light.

Ten Things I've Learned From You:

10. I've learned that it's ok to not be in a hurry.  Sometimes we need to make time to slow it down, so as to glory in our surroundings. We don't always have to move "like a cheetah" even though that's all I told you when you were a preschooler stopping for every bug and rock.

9. If dessert is good enough, it's totally acceptable to lick your plate.... or your fingers.  It might make the person who made it feel good knowing that you enjoyed it so much.

8. I've come to know that even the most blunt and innocent objects (like a glass of water) can be turned into weapons of sibling torture

and that chair railing is the perfect spot to stick that wad of gum you may want to chew again tomorrow.

7. I've learned what a broken arm looks like, without needing an x-ray

6. It's never too early to have a love for philosophy/psychology; things like what makes people tick and who makes the world go round.

5. Nothing good happens after midnight, except for mother/son conversations about life.....just because.

4. You can never have too many pocketknives

or jugs of milk.

3. I've learned that homemade gifts crafted from ordinary things, like a BB gun and an empty can of Dr. Pepper are the best gifts a mom can get. The flattened framed piece of aluminum bearing the word "Mom" in BB enforced holes is the most delightful piece of art I own.

2. A hug is truly a healing agent.

1. You can fit a bed, dresser drawers, a loveseat, a small entertainment center with a sizeable flat screen and a recliner in a bedroom, but you couldn't fit more love in this mom's heart.

Happy last ten days of being sixteen!