Today is off to a good start, and it�s only ten a.m. AJ got up and demanded a project this morning, so we made oatmeal raisin cookies. The cookie jar is full (and also AJ�s tummy) and the house smells like cinnamon. It was the first time we�d cooked something where AJ stayed interested in the whole project. He helped measure all the ingredients, tried his hand at cracking the eggs, and of course licked all the spoons he could get his hands on. After I dropped him off at school, I returned home, dreading the mountain of laundry I needed to fold, but low and behold The Dick Van Dyke Show was on TV, so I laughed all the way through a chore I normally hate and now the linen closet is full and my laundry basket is empty and I am not grumpy. Since I was on a roll, I spent three quarters of an hour dusting and vacuuming the house and got most of my chores finished so I can spend the rest of the day enjoying the gorgeous weather � 70 and sunny. I stopped briefly at my computer to check my email and found that I�d won a $50 gift certificate to my favorite bookstore in a random drawing of people who filled out a survey for my university. So now, when I should be editing, I am instead fantasizing about what to do with it. What would you do with $50 to be spent on books?

Apparently I found a four-leaf clover yesterday without realizing it. Now if only the mail brings more checks than bills, we can call it a total success.

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