Tomorrow, my daughter Pat is hosting a birthday party for me--come and go from 1 to 4.  Everyone is invited.  All of you, too.  She wanted to do it at her house but she lives thirty miles from here in the country--so I said do it here.  I will be eighty years young.  I thank God that I am in good shape and able to do almost everything for myself.  I certainly don't feel like I am eighty.  I have no idea what that should feel like anyway.

Pat is making chocolate pound cake--which is my favorite.  With whipped cream, or German Chocolate icing on the side--if you want it.  I like it plain.  And punch.

It is a blessing to have begun a new project--this late in life--by writing something everyday.  Who knew that you could reinvent yourself at seventy-five and start something completely new.  I had never written much, and yet here I am five years later still writing every day with almost 2000 postings.

The thing I like the best about this time of life is that I get to get up everyday with nothing to do and go to bed with it only half done.  Doing half of nothing takes a lot of time.

One of the best things is that I don't have to make anyone else do anything they don't want to do anymore.  There's no pressure.  Raising four children, with Ken gone so much, involved enforcing a lot of "house rules."  I don't have to enforce anything ever again.  Hallelujah!!

I'm playing my marimba for the choir on a regular basis--when we go to different places to sing.  I keeps my fingers, hands, wrists, and arms agile.  Everyone seems to like to hear me play, and that is rewarding.  I feel like I'm doing something useful.

My mom and her sister (Ann's mother) both had Alzheimer's disease.  It was tragic to see them so helpless in their later years.  I thank God everyday for my mind and my ability to communicate.  I pray that He lets me continue to write for years to come.  To be able to reason and think is God's second greatest gift to us.