A Week Abounding in Blog Surprises

         Things have been changing believe or not.  My clutter is being culled about as quickly as my blog has been changing.  In other words progress is so slow that it's barely noticeable.  That's not really a bad thing in my case because it means a couple of things.  For one thing, I'm being careful about what I do when I make the changes on my blog so I do it right and don't screw anything up.  And the clutter that I am talking about in my house and in my life is not a situation that calls for any kind of intervention.  In other words I'm doing detail work.  Detail takes longer than just running your car through the automatic car wash.

          Also, things are going slow because I am trying to keep up my blog posting and some commenting on your blogs while having some busy summer events coming my way.  Forgive me if I've missed some of your posts of late, but I'm trying to do my best.

               Last Saturday I was reading a lovely post by Jules at Trying To Get Over The Rainbow and I was thinking about how much what she was saying related to what I had been thinking in recent days, then lo and behold here she gives me a shout out.  This was just one of those cool things I had to mention on my blog.  Check out her blog and give her a hello.  I always enjoy reading what she has to say.

           My Tossing It Out Tuesday feature began this past week with the topic of Junk Mail.  Ellie from Ella's Edge showed how one can turn junk into Recycled Treasures-- a far better solution than merely tossing it out.   I don't know if she'll come up with a way to recycle my next topic for this coming Tuesday when I'll be talking about junk e-mail.

            This past week had several surprises for me.  One was Yvonne Lewis's tribute to my Wednesday post, My Grandmother's Air Baths.  If you missed it, check out Yvonne's hilarious poem, Air Baths.  Yvonne always amazes us how quickly she can get a topical poem onto her blog.  Next Wednesday I am going to tell you about the first public performance of one of my musical works.

            As always, I'll be having seven days of eclectic blogism to share with all of you so I hope you'll join me right here at Tossing It Out.

           Alex J Cavanaugh is holding a contest to celebrate reaching 200 followers.  By the time you get there he might already be at 300--excitement about his upcoming book CassaStar is abuzz as the chatter is all over the blogosphere.  And if you haven't seen it yet, check out his CassaStar book trailer.

            On a sad note, Blabbin' Grammy Ruby's husband (Gramps) passed away this past week.  Many of us have been keeping track of Gramps and Grammy's life and know that Gramps has been dealing with a lot of suffering of late.  If you haven't done so already, please stop by to express your condolences to Blabbin' Grammy.   We love you, Ruby, and are praying for you.

            Have a nice weekend and enjoy your summer--it's going fast!

Company's Coming!

          My big summer surge of activity will begin over the next couple of weeks as our daughters come in from New Jersey and Texas to visit us.  We will be doing some fun things around town, but mostly just hanging out and enjoying one another's company.  My wife and I only get to see them in person a couple times a year now and our visits are always too short.

          When our kids grow up and move away it seems like everyone's life is busy and there is often not enough money for frequent visits.  Some of you may be fortunate enough to have your grown kids and grandkids nearby, but sometimes even then schedules don't allow for visits like we might like.

         For those of you who still have children at home, savor it as much as you can.  Take pictures, go to activities, and establish close family bonds and traditions.  It seemed like I had to work a lot when my kids were younger, but we still had a lot of good times.  I tried to take them places that I hoped would enrich their lives.  I made every attempt to attend every soccer game, dance recital, award ceremony, and whatever other school or church event in which they were involved.  It all has sped by so fast--graduations, weddings, births.  Now the next round will be the grandchildren who are here now and are still to come.

        I'm scheduling my posts ahead of time for the next couple of weeks so they will post automatically.  However my blog visiting and commenting may be somewhat curtailed.  I should be able to acknowledge comments on my blog and visit the blogs of those who have commented, but beyond that I am not too sure.  But I will be here so please keep your comments coming.

         If you missed The Soundtrack of My Life this past Monday please check it out.  I started a new feature called Tossing It Out Tuesday.   This coming Tuesday I will be talking about junk mail.  My Thursday Debate Day topic will be concerning government pensions.  The other days will be topics that you will hopefully enjoy.

         My thanks to Ellie at Ella's Edge for the kind mention on Wednesday.  She was talking about "change"--I guess there are several of us thinking of that word.  I'm still making changes in my blog.  Have you noticed any yet?

          If you have children who are grown and on their own, do they live near to you or far?  How often are you able to see your grown children?  If your children are still living with you, how do you make quality time for them?  Who is visiting you this summer, or who are you visiting? 

         Still looking for some government paid employees to weigh in on this past Thursday's debate.  I still need to be convinced that I am wrong.  Or am I?