Writing rewards

My son came home from first grade today with a "Certificate of Excellence" for "outstanding performance in WRITING." Under that it says "Awesome Author Award," and he also got a sparkly blue dogtag necklace with "AWESOME AUTHOR AWARD" screen-printed on it. I asked if he got it for writing a story, and he said, "I got it for a writing a good story." I haven't gotten to see the story yet, but it's apparently about a "shiny shell thief." I asked if everyone in his class got a certificate, and he said only one other kid got one besides him. So, I thought that was pretty cool! He has also written a couple of stories about Neopets lately (fanfic, if you will) that I thought were rather well done for his age. He's really going to give me a run for my money when he gets older, since I just write, and he can write and do amazing things with math & science!

As for me, I found a check in the mail today for my pieces in the upcoming Summer Shorts anthology from Blooming Tree Press. Hooray! Even though I sold the pieces about a year ago, this was the first money I've gotten from my writing since 2004, so getting that check made me feel validated as a writer again! I can't wait to see the anthology when it comes out.

An update that wasn't worth the wait

So I apparently said I'd post an update soon...guess I missed the "soon" part! And I'm still way busy. Right now we're trying to get ready for my mom to visit from Texas in a few days, and our house is so not going to be ready. We never really unpacked everything, & now we just seem to be shifting stuff around & I still don't know where to put anything. There aren't enough places and our things aren't organized well to start with. We also have to put together a futon for her to sleep on, and I don't know if it's going to get done. I'm a bit panicked. Then there's stuff going on with the kids' schools and the end of the school year coming up, and we have no plans at all for summer, except going to at least one wedding out of state. Everything feels very haphazard right now, and I'm not writing, either. I hope things will look pretty different in a few weeks.