Happy Birthday, Jenny!

Yesterday marked Jenny's 14th birthday. This is the real Jenny, my niece, not to be confused with the fictional version. A lot of people ask me if there really IS a Jenny, meaning, of course, the figment of my imagination. Yes and no. She "exists" as the child I wanted to be long ago, but not as a real person. My niece doesn't resemble her in anything but the name.

Not long ago, I let the real Jenny "meet" the fictional Jenny for the first time. Anxious to know what she thought, I asked if she liked it. "I liked seeing my name," she said. When I pressed further, she admitted she liked the names of the ponies in the story.

On a happier note---it is now 11 days into the month and I am making progress on my organization! There is an actual path through my bedroom floor among the boxes, piles of stuff to store, and bags to go out for the Goodwill. My files HAVE LABELS! My Christmas bins have LABELS! The ornaments are organized in BOXES with LABELS! I know where things ARE and can actually put my hands on them without an all out search and rescue mission.

I even--JUMPING FOR JOY---have an address book and it's FILLED in! Only someone who knows my habit of scribbling phone numbers or addresses on any handy scrap of paper and "filing" it in a pile in my drawer, can appreciate this fact. (To be perfectly honest, it's not a real address book. It's a mini-journal--but it has lines, I had a pen and it works!) Although, come to think about it---where did I put that??

My organization also spread over to my writing. I had a rare day off Tuesday. Sister #2 came home sick from work so the boys stayed home. Although I could have written all day, I decided I'd better start cleaning first. Timed myself and every few hours I took a writing break. I managed to do edits to 3 chapters in my mid-grade, make a list of queries I wanted to send out, looked up some magazine info online, AND (drum roll, please), I committed to starting a first draft of "Lost." Managed to get down 2,000 words. Yesterday, I sat at the library and forced myself to plot out the whole thing on 3 x 5 cards. Also made a master list of things I need to research to finish the book. Somehow, it looks a lot less intimidating than it once did. Thanks, Erica!