The school year ended on Friday for my first grader. The next time it rolls around again, I’ll have a boy in second grade and my youngest will be in Kindergarten. I have parent friends who talk about their favorite years and while I always tell my children that their current year is my favorite year, to be honest – I loved first grade. It was a joy to see my son’s reading comprehension take OFF and he made some incredible friends. It’s hard to say if he’ll be friends with these kids for the rest of his life, but for this past year, they did his six-year-old self some good.
The mystery world lost a friend this week. Sandra Seamans maintained the blog My Little Corner and passed away recently. Her blog was a clearing house of short story opportunities for writers and she’ll be sorely missed.
Yay or nay: Dill Pickle Pizza. (I say “yay.”)
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Listening: I needed to hear some Neil Diamond over the weekend. That is all.
Reading: Huge congrats to a couple of my friends who had recent book launches.
Tracy Clark‘s second book in her Cass Raines series came out this past week. Publishers Weekly said that her protagonist Cass Raines “… is a worthy addition to the pantheon of Chicago sleuths.” <– Yup.
Writing Life: Work + kid activities + ailing / aged Cat = not a lot of time to devote to craft. But this week is a new week and my family will be settling into a new routine, so I’m hopeful for more edits and time.
Miscellany: This pretty much sums up my life in a nutshell:
– Shelley
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Monday Mayhem is what happens when I neglect to write a Friday Fare. Or it can be any kind of article that happens to be published on a Monday. I hope that it provides a great start to your week!
michellekubitz 
Definitely “Yay” on the dill pickle pizza.
Exactly!