Several weeks ago my middle son, Jason, told us some of his friends from Castlepoint were getting married in a nearby town, and another friend, Paul, was driving down from Indiana for the wedding, and then had to go to NC to the camp where he’s be working this summer, and Jason wanted to know if Paul could stay here during those days. We said sure, that would be fine.

So late Friday evening we get a call from a lady at church, whose daughter had also worked at Castlepoint for several summers and who was also hosting one of her Castlepoint friends who was coming for the wedding. She had been trying to reach Jason but couldn’t because he was working, so she was trying to ask in in a roundabout way about accommodations for Paul, who had traveled down with this other girl, who was her guest. My husband had taken the call, and as soon as I heard the word Paul, I thought….”Oh no! We forgot!”

I even knew Jason had the wedding to attend the next day, but somehow it just hadn’t clicked that that meant Paul was coming in. If I don’t write things on my calendar, I can’t be sure of remembering them, and I guess the conversation about Paul coming must have taken place while we were eating or I was cooking or putting away groceries or something. Even Jason had forgotten.

But we assured Paul that it was fine for him to come over, and I dashed around changing sheets, picking up, and running the vacuum over a few key areas. Thankfully things were still pretty well clean from when we had company a couple of weeks ago for graduation.

Paul was very gracious about our forgetfulness, and I really enjoyed meeting him and some of the other friends from camp who came over Sunday.

Thankfully I had just recently skimmed a post on Hospitalilty vs. Entertaining at Making Home — skimmed because I had read similar things before and had read the book she referred to, so it was more of a reminder than a new revelation to me that hospitality isn’t “showing off” a picture-picture home: rather, it’s about making people feel welcome and ministering to their needs. But I am thankful the Lord put that “heads up” in my path just before I needed it, so I didn’t stew about not getting everything done I would normally get done before company. And it was wonderfully restful and freeing not to have gone into a get-ready-for-company frenzy! I used to feel I had to practically spring clean the entire house before company came, and I tell ya, there is no greater deterrent to having people over than that!

Before I share with you some interesting stuff I’ve seen around this week, I have a question. I view most of the blogs I read through Google Reader, and many blog posts have ads there that are not on the blog – but not all of them. Is there some kind of agreement between blog owner and Google about ads or does Google place them at their discretion?

• Semicolon is compiling a survey of top 100 hymns and asks for input: more info. here.

• If you like Facebook for keeping up with friends but don’t like the “clutter” of seeing who took what quiz and who is a fan of what, Jeremy has found an add-on to streamline  it.

• Nancy Wilson had an excellent post about being a good wedding guest.

• Susanne at Living to Tell the Story shared this awesome web site called The Infinire Photograph that coule keep a person occupied for hours. Very creative, beautiful photography — a photo made up of hundreds of smaller photos from around the world.

• I discovered a neat new blog called Quoth She. Each post is just a beauitful photograph and a quote. It’s a pleasant spot in the blogosphere.

• Normally I am not a fan of mushrooms, but this one is just too cute.

• It’s that time of year — there are some great inexpensive gift ideas for grads (in the comments) and teachers (more links at the end of the page.)

• Jess at Making Home had a very edifying post titles Wise-Worded Women.

• David Hosaflook has a thoughtful, balanced post about Alcohol on the Mission Field — things to think about if your conviction is not to drink but the culture you’re in allows for it.

• The Common Room has a post about Strong-Willed Children with some good thoughts that are probably counter to what you may have heard before on the subject.

• Ivman has another list of Tom Swifties, such as “‘I forgot what to pick up at the store,’ said Tom listlessly” and “”That’s the last time I’ll pet a lion,’ said Tom offhandedly.”

• Finally, Lizzie at A Dusty Frame linked to this cute video of a couple married 62 years playing a piano duet.

I was all set to post more about graduation day and our celebratory dinner last night when some strange things started popping up on my computer — some fake spyware thing added several files. I ran the virus scan and it dealt with several of them, but something is still wrong — my computer now crashes in anything but safe mode. 😦

My computet wiz son worked on it til the wee hours this morning and is now backing up files and reinstalling windows — hopefully that will work! meanwhile I am using my husband’s antique old computer, but I don’t have access to my pictures from here.

I’m so glad Jeremy’s here and knows what to do! Hope to be back in action soon!

I noticed this “ad” on my egg carton one day and was a little taken aback. The eggs I was scrambling certainly looked natural! 🙂

It goes on to explain that the “natural” eggs came from hens fed a certain diet. Still, I am looking at these a little more suspectly…

Have you seen the video seen round the world, Susan Boyle’s surprising performance in Britain’s Got Talent?

What a magnificent voice! And what a sweet little lady she seems to be. Diane has some more information on her here: evidently she suffered a bit of brain damage at birth, has been taking care of her mother for years, was unable to sing for two years since her mother’s death, and went on the show because her mother had wanted her to.

But as fun as the “Cinderella story” is, I am just appalled at the audience’s initial reaction and at the reports that Susan was picked on as a child. Think of the utter ridicule she would have suffered on that stage if she had not had a good voice — and how sad it would be that people would think such ridicule is justified. Why, with all the emphasis on tolerance in the last several years, has society missed the most basic tolerance that people should be valued because we are all created in God’s image whether we’re “beautiful” by society’s standards or young or old or talented or not or whatever.

I appreciate and agree with the article Diane linked to, The Beauty That Matters Is Always Inside by Colette Douglas Home of The Herald, especially the last two paragraphs.