Just looked and we are closing in on 300 posts here on the blog. My guess is that most of them were written during the last few months. This week hasn't been the best week of writing. Like we said, writing everyday is not easy. Reporters that do this normally have a story to guide them in their work. Mine seem to come from the top of my head. That is a dangerous place to be. Maybe there will be a really good idea for post 300. One can only hope something shakes loose soon.

My youngest and I returned my mother back to Louisiana today. We again have clean clothes to go with a stocked refrigerator. Supper should be good through the weekend. I will pick up doing the laundry soon. The clinic called while we were driving her home. My Cat Scan is set for August 16 early in the morning. This will tell the doctor if or how well the treatment is working. She says it is ok to be optimistic. That is not my strong suit. My history is one of expectations that were probably out of line at the start. So what I hope for is to just go in for the test then let things fall as they do. Do I believe the therapy is working? I do feel the effects of the chemo during the three weeks between visits. My faith is still in the mix of miracle and medicine. But my choice is to remain in the trust phase of all of this rather than having expectations beyond my information.

One of the best things about taking my mother home is going to eat at a local seafood place. Even better is the fact that this is day four of steroids. Put those two things together and you get the idea that my meal was very good. My youngest had his chicken while my side was filled with shrimp, oysters and crawfish tails. My heritage from New Orleans does reveal itself on occasion. We all had a good time along with getting there and back safely. There was even time for a short workout. It seems like the steroids are not affecting me nearly as bad as round two. My fluid intake is much higher this round. I also made the effort to exercise as much as possible. This may also help with my blood counts returning to a normal level sooner than previously. I am grateful to God for all of this regardless of the explanation.

Now it is time to finish up the day. This is the night when my efforts turn to cranking out some type of outline to publish in our Sunday bulletin. We got a jump on the study or research but this step is not coming together very well. Let's hope something happens in the next hour or so to turn that around. We are in a difficult part of Paul's letter to the Romans. My temptation is to write out a summary of the research rather than the application. Good preaching has to be able to fit into our real world. It is really easy to just put down stuff based on the study. Work is involved in translating it to where we live and breathe. We all deal with this. Isn't it much easier to leave our spiritual life in the realm of the theoretical than the practical? We were made to live and learn. It is there we become the people God destined us to become.

Bro. Trey