First day of school, first day of school

(title to be read in Nemo’s voice, of course)

First day of school is a mixed blessing. What time I have is more free of interruptions, but I have less of it total to work. For example, the boy got home about 3:00 and spent an hour, give or take, on telling me about his first day of high school, and when he was done, it was time to go meet his sister’s bus.

The best part, however, is that both of them seemed to enjoy their days, and whatever nervousness they had seems to have been dispelled. They had much to say, and I hope their enthusiasm continues.

What’s new in your neck of the world?

The state of the pumpkin

Although there are ears on the corn plants, the kernels are all underdeveloped. The lettuce has been out there so long that even what’s not flowering is slightly bitter (rather pretty, though). The pumpkin, though — this is my success for the year. Just feast your eyes on this:
pumpkin growing orange

Isn’t that looking lovely?

I’m also (just a bit) grateful that school starts two weeks from today.

What are you grateful for today?

A good start to the week

Since last summer, we’ve been having a mostly weekly D&D game with friends. I mentioned back in April that I ran a one-shot Numenera adventure for the group. This summer’s been more off than on, between our vacation, summer school, and their vacation (Pennsic*, which they just got back from), so we haven’t been progressing much on the adventure.

On the other hand, that means the last couple of times we’ve gotten together, we’ve played other games that we have, like Zombie Dice (theirs — I still need to buy some), We Didn’t Playtest This at All (and We Didn’t Playtest This Either), RoboRally, Boss Monster, and Exploding Kittens. (No, really, it’s fun, even if you like cats.) This, in fact, is what we did yesterday evening.

So I’m grateful for fun games, good friends, and especially friends who want to get together and spend time playing even after they’ve just gotten back into town.

What are you grateful for this week?

Monday gratitude

Posting this rather late in the day, at least partly because I spent so much of the day feeling ungrateful and overwhelmed. I’m writing on one book, editing another, supposed to be outlining yet a third (but didn’t get to that today), plus I have both copyediting and proofreading deadlines at the moment and my son just started band camp, which means three weeks of interrupting my work in the middle of the day to go get him. And this doesn’t even count the stuff like my sketches that I need to get back to or the dragon I’m knitting…

So, yeah, overwhelmed and more than a little snappish about it.

Then it occurred to me that I was literally being ungrateful for plenty, which is stupid. I have so much — not just paying work, but paying work from repeat clients who like my work; not just my own projects, but creativity overflowing in multiple outlets; and not just family, but children who are trying to walk that line between greater independence/responsibility and still needing and wanting parental involvement.

That’s a lot to be grateful for. (And maybe if I have the sense to go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, it’ll be easier to remember in the morning.)

What are you grateful for this week?