January 2, 2016

• Three gratitudes:  1,) chicken soup; 2.) Amazon.com deliveries; 3.) watching an ESPN “30 for 30” documentary with my sons
• Exercise:  If taking down the tree and cleaning doesn’t count, then I messed up today.
• Meditation:  Prayed the rosary with special intentions for all those who struggled through the holidays
• Random Act of Kindness email:  Complete
• Journal about one positive experience in the past 24 hours:

I promote reading whenever I get the chance.  No wonder, then, that the Little Free Library concept is one that I adore. For years, whenever my sons and I drove past a wooden lawn structure filled with books, I announced my plan to one day finish my novel and go around town with copies to donate to these neighborhood boxes.  Today, I had the opportunity to do just that.  When I finished eight deliveries, I came home and wrote the following post on a local Facebook page:
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"Well, that was fun! Thanks to all who commented on the Little Free Library locations in Berwyn. I just drove around and dropped off copies of my book LINES—. It's been a work-in-progress for years, a bunch of vignettes about what my ancestors' lives might have been like in 1870s-1880s Chicago. My ancestors became characters, and the vignettes morphed into a storyline. More than anything, the book is a lesson to my sons to finish what you start. And it's a message to my students that their teacher writes, too!"

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