You Just Never Know

Beside Rebekah's spot on our school table

I have written about Rebekah before.

As our last born, and still youngest after the adoption of Josh and Ben, she holds the unique position as the caboose. Number 7.

But that is not her only distinction among her siblings. Her mind has a way of looking at things differently than our other children. And because of that, you just never know what she will come up with next.

Yesterday, to help celebrate it being cold enough to actually have a fire, she decided to make a torch. She retrieved a piece of wood from Dad's scrap pile and a long strip of fabric from Mom's scrap pile. After examining it, she was concerned it wouldn't burn long enough, so she decided on a new and improved plan. She unwrapped the fabric strip and gathered pieces of bark from the wood pile to add to the layers of fabric. Of course, the lobbying began immediately to try it out. After spending the previous evening in the ER with Joshua after his attempt to sharpen his knife (that was already sharp enough to perform surgery) went terribly wrong, I was a little concerned about my 10 year old lighting a torch in my dining room. You can call me a scaredy-cat, and I won't flinch. But, since the fire extinguisher is under the sink, I told her to go ahead. She was not impressed with the duration of the flame and has plans for future improvements.

The fire is going again today, and so she decided to heat the lunch meat for her sandwich over the fire on the shovel out of the fireplace tools. Of course, slapping the meat directly on the ash-covered shovel would offend her culinary sensibilities so she fashioned a box for the meat out of foil. 

She has discovered a new skill in the past few days: box-making.  She saw it in a craft book and has been making boxes ever since. 

More crafting supplies beside her "school" chair

A box becomes a dollhouse for her cousins, complete with a "tiled" bathroom floor. She saw the box and instantly the completed dollhouse was visible in her mind. And all the supplies she used for the furniture and bathroom fixtures and kitchen appliances appeared the same way. She new when she looked at a piece of styrofoam that came in a package what it would look like as a leather covered chair. 

The scope of her interests is quite diverse. She will have a stack of books out on everything from the weather to a specific animal species to biographies to science experiments.  She has an entrepreneurial bent, and is always wanting to find ways to earn money. Breeding her tropical fish has provided many interesting conversation starters. She just came in and announced that when she is finished with her tank of tropical fish, she would like to move on to raising Alligator or Longnose Gar. Sure, no problem.

Elizabeth with her Longnose Gar

She thinks they are available on Ebay for purchase. Who knew?

She has an extensive collection of fishing tackle and then another of pipe cleaners. Her vast interests tend to end up making multiple large messes. It's always "on to the next idea" with her. She definitely thinks it's a waste of time to clean up the former project before beginning the new one. 

Okay she just came in with a large piece of firewood. She said the shape made her think of a giant hand. So now she wants to carve a hand, with the help of Kregg's power tools, and then buy "one of those globes that doesn't have a stand" and put it in the palm of the hand. Then she wants to add a sign that says, "The world is in God's hand." I'm telling you, it is like this every waking moment.


Her creativity is not limited to projects. She is also very creative when it comes to avoiding culpability for her actions. She can make the most circuitous arguments concerning her innocence, that if you don't mark the starting point, it is easy to lose your bearings as the disciplinarian. I have often said that the Lord in His infinite Mercy, saved her for last because we would need every single thing we have ever learned about parenting to raise this one. 


And in the Lord's omnipotence, He knew that she would help to refine me in ways the other six haven't. She pushes buttons I didn't know I had before she arrived on the "Conderosa". And isn't that another of the Lord's blessings? He knew there were things I would learn from being Rebekah's mother that I would probably never learn another way. 


Thank You, Lord! (I think . . . ;)