Son #2’s school has quarterly “award” ceremonies where they give out certificates for perfect attendance, citizenship, and the two honor rolls (A/B and All A). The local Kiwanis club also comes in and gives out an award called a “Terrific Kid” award. I’m not sure how many they give out per grade, but last year my boys, as wonderful as they are (and terrific as their teachers thought they were), didn’t get one all year. At each little award ceremony I hoped one or the other would be called up front for this, but it didn’t happen.

Until today. Today was the first awards ceremony for the school year, and the first thing they did (after a few words from the principal) was give out the “Terrific Kid” awards. And this time, Boy #2 got one! He now has a t-shirt that declares to the world he’s a “Terrific Kid” and I have a bumper sticker to display on my van… if I can figure out where to put it! There’s also a certificate, and a free something-or-other from Chick-Fil-A as part of the award. Boy #2 promptly put the t-shirt on over the one he was wearing for the day, and I collected all of his certificates before coming home. He has had perfect attendance, and made the All A honor roll again, as well.

I know I’m probably being nauseating with all my boastfulness over my children, but I am so proud of them! All of them! The Girl came home yesterday with a smile on her face because she’d gotten a 100+ on her geometry quiz. The class had been such a struggle for her in the beginning and now she feels better about it, like she has more of a handle on the material. And I know that Boy #1 is enjoying school and making some friends there, too. When we took the kids out of the sheltered atmosphere of Christian school, I had a lot of trepidation about how they would adjust to life in public school. But they seem to have made the transition pretty well.

On the writing front, I finished chapter 10 of Overtures and ended up cutting it in half, so I have chapter 11 mostly finished as well. Alan and Tin-Tin threw me for a loop there. I hadn’t been making much of their relationship up until this point, just a couple of small scenes in the other books and a comment from Grandma in Masqerade. But, for some reason, I felt compelled to write about them and the most surprsing thing happened. I won’t spoil it for those of my friends who haven’t read it.

Need to get some laundry done and more cleaning up in the kitchen. Back later if the muse moves.