Friday, April 30, 2010

The Best Daughter

Have I mentioned lately that we have a wonderful daughter? Well we do. Olivia is 11. She's smart, she's funny, she likes to work hard, she loves little kids, she wants to grow and be a mom and she's happy. She's been solidly in scholar phase for 9 months. Really. We haven't pushed her, we haven't expected, she just is.
She has amazing control of her emotions for an eleven year old. She is on her journey to being a wonderful young women. She likes to sew, crochet, knit, and loom. She likes practical things and she likes to make things beautiful. She LOVES to cook. I can't keep her out of the kitchen. She can make anything. She makes bread, salad dressing, doughnuts, casseroles, cakes, salads, meat, potatoes, green smoothies, etc. She can really make anything.


She spends most of her day reading and studying. She is currently passionate about The Revolutionary War time period and has spent her whole scholar phase so far studying anything she can about it. She is working hard on her writing. She understands the principles of freedom and democracy. She is working on articulating them because she wants to defend them. She pours over the classics.

Here's a quick list of some of the books that Olivia as read in the last year:
The Scarlet Letter
Plutarch
Midshipmen Hornblower
The Screwtape Letters
Leaves of Grass
Walden
The Secret Garden
The Real George Washington
Common Sense
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Proper Role of Government
Johnny Tremaine
Silas Marner
The Little Britches series
The Work and the Glory series
The Book of Mormon
The New Testament
The Doctrine and Covenants
The Pearl of Great Price



She also loves the outside. She loves working with our horses. She loves going on walks. She loves working hard.

Olivia is amazing and we are honored she's our daughter. Whenever I look at her I hope that somewhere out there that there is an amazing your man to match her. I believe that there is. I believe there are moms out there training their sons to be great also in hopeful expectation that there is a spouse worthy of their child.

So here's to all you great parents that are doing the hard things (and making 'best' choices) to raise your children to greatness. You are not alone.

2 comments:

Lara said...

She sounds like the perfect daughter in law! I've already started telling Muscles about her. I just need to know how tall she's going to be. Thank you for doing just a good job raising her for us!

natterbee said...

She sounds just like my daughter! I have always thought my 11-year-old was too good to be true, but now I see there is another one like her out there. What a blessing it is to have a kid like that! Our 11-year-old is also our oldest and sets such a wonderful example for the other children, as I'm sure Olivia does for your family.