A quick announcement–I’ll be joining forces with The Money Writers, a popular network of personal finance bloggers.  Please take a moment and check out the other member sites:

• The Digerati Life
• My Dollar Plan
• Money Smart Life
• Lazy Man and Money
• Million Dollar Journey
  
• Brip Blap
• Generation X Finance
• Sun’s Financial Diary

I’m still a member of The Life Skills Network, and will be working with both groups on some exciting group writing projects in the future.  As a matter of fact, TLSN has a great “Back to School” series beginning this Monday.  Stay tuned!

photo by Kables

First, thank you all for your well-wishes, thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.  As I mentioned earlier during the week, my mom is facing a very serious medical condition that will likely require a risky surgical procedure in the coming days.  She is currently home from the hospital recovering from rounds of tests while her medical team maps out the next steps.

No Roundup, Sunday Conversation

Obviously, I haven’t made it over to my feed reader much this week, so I’ll skip the weekly roundup for now.  I also won’t be including a Sunday Conversation post tomorrow because I plan to spend much of the day with my mom before I head back to work on Monday.  In lieu of a weekly roundup I’d ask you to take a look at The Life Skills Network site for some great articles from my fellow network members.

Future Plans

I do have a couple posts lined up for the coming week, including an excellent guest post or two.  When things return to normal I also have a couple new ventures to share with you, so stay tuned.  Thanks again to everyone who has dropped me a line, or a comment, to share their support for our family.  I’ll keep you posted as I can.

Just a quick note to readers to let you know that my mother has been hospitalized with a very serious, potentially life-threatening condition, which had gone undetected until discovered earlier this week.  I was at the the hospital all day Tuesday and most of Monday, and will likely be with her the remainder of the week.  Obviously, writing about frugal living has taken a back seat in what seems most important at the moment.

If I am a little slow to respond to emails, or approve comments, or join in discussions I hope you’ll understand.  I’ll post another update towards the end of the week.  In the interim, I have a great guest post scheduled for Thursday and an update to our square foot garden tentatively scheduled for Friday.  After that, I can’t make any promises, but know that I will get back to cranking out posts when the time is right.

Finally, someone asked the other day what I liked most about writing this blog.  I’d like to change my answer.  The thing I most like is the sense of community that is developed over time with readers and other bloggers.  Since announcing this news in a couple forums, and to my network friends and colleagues, I’ve received a ton of well-wishes and prayers for my family.  The most amazing thing is that I’ve never even met 99.9% of the people who read this blog in person.  Thanks to all of you who have kept my family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.