Happy Sunday! Time for this week’s installment of Five Minute Friday.

Even though I’m typically a day late, I cherish this exercise. And I do have a good excuse … even better than the dog ate my homework! I was on vacation … a real, live vacation untethered to my laptop. In fact, I didn’t even bring it and since we were camping in Indiana, I figured Internet service would be spotty at best. I was right.

But the exercise still give me a chance to shut off the world and focus on a specific word prompt. It gives my mind a chance to ponder the word and send the thoughts cascading through my fingers onto the screen for all to see. But the best part is visiting Kate’s place on Facebook at http://www.fiveminutefriday.com by our special community of writers. It’s always exciting — and often informative — to see how my fellow FMF friends develop their thoughts in a variety of different genres. If you get a chance, stop by.

I’ve been sharing snippets taken from Five Minute Friday: A Collection of Stories Written in Five Minutes Flat. They are a testament to the value of the exercise. This week, I’ll share some perspective from an anonymous writer who I hope inspires you to check us out … and maybe join in?

“I love Five Minute Friday! It stretches me beyond my comfort zone … makes me think quickly and with great focus …  no daydreaming while writing for five minutes. It’s all out. Wide open. Challenging!”

This week’s challenge is COLLECT. The timer is set for five minutes so let’s GO …

I’m not a collector, per se. I don’t have a hobby collecting things.

But I do collect memories. And another memory was collected this week as I was joined by six of my grandchildren and an adopted granddaughter for a week of camping and sightseeing in Indiana. As a bonus, two of my older grandchildren — one with his wife and their daughter, my great-granddaughter, and the other with his girlfriend stopped by for a beach party!

The trip was full of memories, from quirky remarks, to an overabundance of laughter. The whirlwind trip may not have tired them out but its certainly tired this grandpa out.

I’ll talk more about the adventure in  a subsequent post. This one is about collecting, so I’ll try to stick to that.

We’ve been taking these junkets for eight years now. I hope the grandkids appreciate the time together with their spread-out cousins and collect and savor  the memories as well. I think they do. One of my eldest — who has been on all trips and now serves as a chaperone — recognized the Cleveland skyline and immediately associated it with our very first trip to see the Radio City Music Hall Traveling Christmas … STOP

… in Cleveland. One of the middle grandchildren gave me a hug and said this was the “best ever” and the youngest in the group raved and raved about our trip, highlighting with bright wide eyes to Albanese Candy Company saying it was just “awesome”!

I know I’ve collected a zillion memories over the years and about half a zillion on these special trips. I hope the grandkids have started collecting these family moments as well. I also hope and pray my  children — who have served as chaperones over the years … and planners! [Grandpa is good at picking out the highlights, but not much at filling in the gaps] — continue the tradition for the next generations.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: TGIF– Thank God I’m Forgiven!