First off, I want to start this post by saying that from now on, anything that I post that is personal about Laura Kate will have her permission before I post it. She and I talked about how she is old enough now to have a say in what I say about her publicly, specifically for things that are personal to her. There are things I will write about that pertain to my heart as mom, but for things about her personally, I will seek her permission before I post it. I also shared with her the point of this blog is to be transparent with our lives and not just share the good things and I think she understands that.

Y'all, this girl is totally rocking 4th grade this year! I have seen a spark back in her, that honestly I've been missing for the past couple of years. She has this insatiable thirst for knowledge and learning new things. I think it's a combination of personal growth and teachers that she clicks really well with this year and seem to really get her. And maybe just 4th grade content suits her more overall in terms of academic curriculum.

Her favorite things continue to be reading and writing stories. She almost always has a story she's working on, and she's typically reading several books at a given time. (See the bottom of this post for a couple of my favorite stories she's written this Fall.)

She is also continuing to grow and learn at piano. She practices constantly. And by practices I mean she will flit into the room and play a little bit and flit out. Back and forth most afternoons. She will typically have one long practice session a week (where she typically memorizes her songs for the week) and then flits in and out to play it throughout the week.

We have seen so much growth in her overall maturity this year. It is something we talk about a lot and she has worked really hard at. We often have conversations of "What would the mature response to this situation be?". It is notable not just to Kyle and I, but to her teachers at school too. Is there anything better than having your teachers praise and encourage your kids when they see improvement? I think that's been good for both of our hearts this year.

As far as LK's current challenges, I think her attitude is the biggest challenge. There are times where the battle for a good attitude is really hard. When she has a bad attitude she is disrespectful to Kyle and I and can just be really ugly to her brothers. This is something we are addressing on a Spiritual level with her, not just discipline, because she IS a Believer and it's something we want to teach her to go to the Lord for help with, not just try to conjure up the good attitude on her own (because how often do I struggle with my attitude as an adult even?).

Other challenges are organization overall. Laura Kate's brain spins so fast that she doesn't take time to keep things organized. This applies to her bedroom, her backpack and even her desk at school. Where this becomes a problem is when she can't find something she needs (like library books or school binders) and isn't prepared for class.

She has also had difficulty sleeping some lately. She has been waking up more frequently in the night and finding it more difficult for her to fall back asleep. She is typically the best sleeper in our house so this is hard on all of us. It makes her anxious when she can't immediately fall back asleep which only perpetuates the problem. Any tips for her for better sleeping would be greatly appreciated!

This girl is brilliant and creative and bold and sensitive and passionate. She believes in fighting for the truth and for people who can't fight for themselves. Mothering her continues to be one of my favorite adventures in my life and I am without-words grateful for the gift of being her mother.









 I asked LK if I could share a couple of the stories she has written lately on this post and she was THRILLED that I asked.

The first is her first historical fiction piece based on September 11th. I feel like I need to say just a couple things first before I share it.... 1. Laura Kate has always been very descriptive in her writing. Including gory things or about sickness. I would be more concerned about this except that my dad always reminds me that my sister was the same way in her writing (she used to have some pretty detailed depictions of Jesus dying on the cross...). Cassie turned out pretty well, so I'm not too concerned about it anymore. 2. Concerning the part at the bottom (you'll know when you get there, I'm no spoiler....), we talk about things like this and feel fairly confident that she knows the difference between truth and fantasy here. That being said, ENJOY :).



This next story was a "quick write" assignment in class. They were given a choice of three pictures and were asked to write about what they thought was going on in the picture. She chose a picture of a giraffe in a tree. She basically wrote a new fable.