Another most excellent morning. I have a day with nothing on my schedule, lots of sunshine, and Julie and the pups here to visit for the Easter weekend. Life is just so very good.

We had a nice Maundy Thursday service last evening. I guess we had around fifty people in attendance. I used a Tenebrae vignette as part of the service and that went well too. It was also first communion for my seven confirmands. They are now completely done with confirmation. As I have said before, the test now comes to see if they continue to attend church or not. My guess, unfortunately, is that of the seven, two will be regular attendees because they are the only two who have parents that attend regularly. That is the sad state of the church universal these days. There are too many reasons to not attend church these days and unless we become an entertainment industry, as so many of the huge churches have, people easily justify to themselves as to why they don't go. I can't be too critical because unfortunately, I didn't bring our kids up in the church either for all kinds of "good reasons". We raised the with Christian values, but failed miserably in the church attendance department.

On a much brighter note, Lauren rode her bike in the World Mini- Grand Prix MX race yesterday. She came in second in yesterday'race. She runs her second race today. The great thing is that it is on live stream telecast and we can watch it on our computers here at home. It was an exciting race. The top three riders were literally within four sconds of each other at the finish line. We will be glued to our computers around 4:30 this afternoon waiting for the next race. Good luck Ms. Lauren!!

With a beautiful day like today, how can I not offer up prayers of thanksgiving. I also offer up prayers of concern for my brother-in- law, Byron who goes in for MRI and CAT-Scan today. I pray for good results and a successful treatment plan for his cancer. I also pray for peace within your mind and spirit. I hope you will have a most blessed day.