One night after dinner, I found Delaney in her room doing this . . .

I asked what she was doing, and she explained that they were working on essays in school and she was just "writing down her thoughts." She had borrowed books from a neighbor girl and was preparing for her assignment. This struck me for some reason. She's growing up! All of her homework to this point has been reading time or math worksheets - never taking notes from sources to write a paper! I believe Delaney was just so excited to have another opportunity for writing that she couldn't wait until school to get started! I couldn't resist grabbing my camera to document this step in her education.