When the second book is about to arrive, and you must find a way to squeeze more book stuff into the same small space in your small house, cleaning and re-organizing is the order of the day! Fortunately, as a substitute teacher, I'm still on my two weeks of Christmas vacation. Much of my vacation to-do list is crossed off, and it felt good to cross off one more today. I ruthlessly discarded useless space-stealers I had been holding on to "just in case I might ever want this."

In the process of cleaning out old file folders, I discovered two newspaper clippings from 1998 that I had ear-marked as ideas for a future book. What a find--turns out they both dovetail with some ideas I've been playing with! Now, back to the computer to continue my pursuit of new online opportunities. Such pursuit often feels more like floundering, but I am so thankful as an author for all the ways the computer and the internet have opened doors of convenience and connection.