Susannah in the Fall

It has been a long time, a little over 1 1/2 years to be exact, since I logged into this blog.  A cousin prompted me today and so I dug up my log-in information and did so. Lo and behold, here sat a post I had written but never published. I was probably waiting to add pictures.  Since this is a glimpse into life as it was in September of 2015, I am going to go ahead and publish this even without pictures. 

Susannah is now 5 1/2 years old.  Her imagination is as adventurous as ever!! She continues to have lots of children in her imaginary family, and she keeps up with all of them quite well.

We started homeschool early August this year and while it took a few weeks for her to get in the groove, once she got there, she has taken off!  We are using a highly recommended curriculum, the American Language Series, which teaches reading and writing. We are also doing Horizon Math, which is very similar in learning style to ALS. Something that especially stands out to me about the reading and phonics of the American Language Series curriculum is it's thoroughness. It goes far beyond what I learned, and I can see that this curriculum is a great base for stellar readers! Susannah can read the short stories that come with the set (from a Biblical viewpoint, another plus), and it is fascinating to hear her get excited as she reads the stories and she gets the stories - it is not just words on a page. One day she was just giggling and giggling over one because she thought it was so funny. :)

Susannah is still a very tenderhearted, affectionate girl.  I think it was last week sometime that during afternoon quiet time I laid down on the couch to rest and read for a bit. She was playing in the living room with some toys quietly. Suddenly I sensed her presence at my head and felt her leaning over. Next thing I knew she kissed me so gently on the forehead!! She didn't say anything, just kissed me and then went back to playing. I rolled over and asked her about it, and she confirmed that she just wanted me to know that she loved me. :)

Daniel broke his foot on Wednesday, and Thursday afternoon he was dozing on the couch. Susannah was beside him keeping him company, snuggled up to him so he would not be lonely. At one point he awoke to her hands stroking his cheeks. :)  That night as we were tucking the girls in bed, she very seriously and sweetly told him that if he got "lonely of Mama" (me) that night, to just call for her and she would come keep him company.  We got a chuckle out of it later. :)

She has enough energy for a herd of horses some days!!  Especially with the week of rain we've gotten, she has put many a mile on her feet running around the house. :)  She loves to be a big helper but isn't too small for snuggles and cuddles. Or for aggravating her sisters. ;)  Her snuggle tank gets empty some days and we spend time filling it up each night.

Her two front, bottom teeth are loose and she is very excited for when they will fall out. She doesn't wiggle them very much so it is taking a while. It will be bittersweet for me when that happens!!

She is growing like a weed, it seems. Her dresses are getting shorter and she outgrew her shoes over the summer.  We were getting ready to go somewhere one day and I had her put on her shoes that day for some reason.  After several minutes she came to me nearly in tears and asked if she could please not wear her shoes. Once she told me why and I felt that her toes were nearly bursting out the ends of her shoes, I assured her that she did NOT need to wear them anymore!! A shoe shopping adventure is in our near future.  I need to either get busy on the sewing machine or go shopping so she has some clothes for this winter! Probably some of both!

She has a hand-me-down bike with training wheels and loves to ride it in and out the lane. Many sunny afternoons she will go out and spend a while riding her bike.

She loves the idea of growing up and being a cook and baker, and loves helping me whenever I'm making something.  I usually have the girls take turns helping me when I'm baking or cooking, and it works out most of the time.  One day when the kitchen was piled high (I was canning pears and every surface was covered), she came to me with her apron on and asked if she could please make some brownies for our dessert.  Aside from me just not "wanting" to, I knew there really was no good reason to say no. So I got out the ingredients, showed her how to measure, helped her measure each ingredient, and she made the brownies! They were the real deal, from scratch, no box mix version. They were quite yummy and she was pleased as punch. :)