Thanks to the host D.L.
Hammons and co-sponsors Alex
J. Cavanaugh, Katie Mills
and Matthew MacNish for hosting the Origins blogfest on Monday. I was struck by how many of us started writing later in life and how many people continued to write despite obstacles.
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| (The photo has no relevance, just cool that someone took the time to paint butterflies on the side of an ugly building.) |
But that isn't the courteous thing to do. She tried to compare it to Facebook and told me you don't have to respond to everyone. But this is different. The comments seemed to be heartfelt, and everyone's posts were very personal. When I explained that to her, she said, "Or you can just respond to two or three of them."
I said, "Whatever," teenage-style and did my best to respond and return follows. If you followed me and I didn't follow you back, it's only because I couldn't find you. Feel free to leave a comment with your link and I'll follow back.
* * * * * * *
My husband's dad had a heart attack last night. It sounds like he's doing much better now, but he's still in the hospital. My husband and I have only been married five years, and his family lives out of town (probably more like we live out of town). I don't know his family well, but I know them through my husband.
He's on his way now to see his dad. I hope they understand the best I can do is to help my husband pack, make sure he got enough sleep last night before travelling, and take care of things so he can go there to visit to let his dad know how much we care.
I'm sorry about your father-in-law! Prayers for his full recovery.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to respond to comments from Monday and visit all of the participants. May take me until Friday, but I'm determined!
Thanks. Good luck on your responses. :)
DeleteHope your father-in-law feels better. Trust me I have no problem following back people's comments on Monday since I only got like six of them. I think one was from you, so thanks a lot!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Hmm, yours was one of the first ones I read. That's odd. Don't you usually get a lot of traffic?
DeleteSorry to hear that. And I know how overwhelming it is to keep up a blog and with your MS. It gets to be a lot of juggling. And teen daughters and husbands don't always understand what we're trying to do.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I kind of lost my place of who I had visited and who I hadn't and only had time to do it in spurts.
DeleteMy husband doesn't think there's any obligation to return or even respond to comments. He mostly reads nerd-blogs written by nerd experts. I think that's different maybe.
I hope all goes well for your father-in-law and your family. I understand feeling overwhelmed with all the comments! The larger the bloghop, the harder it is to make it around. We all just do the best we can. :)
ReplyDeleteI also need to add that I learned a valuable lesson this week. One should never participate in two bloghops back-to-back because it's impossible to make the rounds. :)
DeleteThanks. I'm a little overwhelmed with my husband being gone too - two of my kids have to be delivered to school at exactly the same time. I agree - two large bloghops are a lot in a week. A-Z should be fun, huh?
DeleteHa! What Brinda said about two back-to-back bloghops. After Friday and Monday I was exhausted from reading so many entries. A good kind of exhausted, though. And I agree, I try and respond back to all commenters if I can. I also don't want to end up one of those bloggers who only comments back on other people's blogs if they leave a comment on mine first, so I'm trying to get to know new followers proactively. It's getting tougher every day to get to everyone's blogs, though. :-/
ReplyDeleteAnd positive thoughts sent your way for your father-in-law. Hoping he has a speedy recovery.
I try to comment proactively too. But I couldn't keep up on Monday. I wrote in the morning. By the time I came up from air, I was buried...a good kind of buried. I thought it was the best blogfest - everyone's stories were great.
DeleteFather-in-law is doing better. I'm glad my husband could get up there today.
Hi Tonja! I'm visiting blogs from the A to Z Challenge list to say hi and get acquainted. Writing later in life is awesome because it helps stop procrastination-- we older writers figure we have a lot to catch up on and can't waste any time.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to more of your posts!
KarenG
Well, that is very true.
DeleteThat's awful about your hubby's dad. Hope he's going to recover well!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about being overwhelmed. I've been trying to visit blogs for two other seriously big blogfests/hops too, in the last few days, and as if that weren't enough, this Origins 'fest had HEAPS of participants! but I'm slowly getting there :)
Thanks - he is doing better. I'm glad my husband could visit.
DeleteThere were a lot of participants for Origins and the posts were all very heartfelt and wonderful - all very personal.
I'm still going through visiting everyone who visited me during the blogfest. Many many blogs to visit!
ReplyDeleteI hope your husband's dad recovers quickly.
Thanks, Lynda.
DeleteThe blogfest was huge. I fell behind, too, Tonja.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your father-in-law seems the week. My uncle had a stroke this week and passed. Then my parents had other cheery news. Siigh. And I'm buried under my deadlines. Blogtime shortened due to the myriad of family phone calls, etc... Something has to give somewhere sometiems.
I'm sorry to hear about your uncle and other family problems.
DeleteI pray your father-in-law recovers! That's so rough.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laura. He's doing better now - out of ICU.
DeleteSo sorry to hear about your father-in-law. I'm glad he is doing better and out of ICU, that sounds like a great sign.
ReplyDeleteTake care!