Sunday Morning Sunshine! Happy birthday, Jonathan!

 Our youngest grandson celebrated his ninth birthday this week! 

It seems like only yesterday we were carrying him around, enjoying his babyhood! 

Alas, he's growing up.

We've enjoyed watching it,

and it's exciting to see the changes in him.

He's still so imaginative

So creative:  A hat for protection from bees:

And an all-around good boy!

Love him!

Rambling Friday: Rambling About Blessings and ...

 Sometimes it seems a person has more troubles than blessings. Have you ever felt it? Oh, yeah, I have. 

• Everything breaks down at once: the stand-up mixer refuses to mix up the dough another time, the lawnmower gives up the ghost, and your favorite vase, dish, mug, whatever--well, you or someone else drops it, and of course, it doesn't bounce. It breaks. 
• You're coming home from a nice dinner with friends, or you're in a hurry to get to your
  
  
  destination or you want to get home before the storm hits--doesn't matter what the situation is--and a beautiful, doe-eyed deer decides to jump in front of your vehicle. Uh, huh, right.
• Or it's winter and you slip on the ice and injure your knee, elbow, or some other part of your anatomy. If it isn't that, lines freeze up. Or the electricity goes off and everything thaws...

Yep, some of this has happened to us, recently! 

But... (there's always a but, isn't there?) there are blessings too. And when the blessings come, somehow the world seems a wonderful place.

And I think to myself, "What a Wonderful World."

You kinda forget about the troubles you've just gone through. The blessings outshine the hardships. Everything seems top of the world. Those troublesome troubles seem to fade out--almost as if God has your back. Almost as if he's saying, I truly do love you. See...

It's then I whisper, Father, forgive me.

And he does. 

Serious Wednesday: Clues

There are clues, then there are clues. 

We're talking clues today for the mystery writer. 

Did you know there are different types of clues? 

Here's some of them:

• Physical clues. These can range from fingerprints to DNA evidence. This is a scientific process. Think Sherlock Holmes or forensic or pathologists.

• Verbal clues. What is said or not said. What would only the suspect say or not say, have known? Decoding verbal clues is a psychological/sociological process similar to how Miss Marple, Poirot, or private detectives would use it.

• Thematic clues. Pointers from the experience of reading, such as someone who dresses all in black (the villain, of course), a stormy night that signals danger, a butler who is either invisible (always unnoticed), guilty or innocent (who knows??)--all simply because he's the butler. 

While the first two types of clues will influence the detective, all three will affect the reader's experience of the story.

Clues enlighten readers and clues confuse them.

Hopefully more later!

Sunday Morning Sunshine: A New Year; A New Day

 My motto for 2021

What's yours?