Brilliant blue and forty four this morning. What a great start to the day. My neighbor across the fence has someone mowing their yard already this morning. I guess I'll finish my computer stuff and do the same this morning.

There are lots of birds up and at 'em today. I really enjoy the fact that we have so very many Cardinals in our yard. They are beautiful birds. When the Goldfinches are sitting in proximity to them it makes for quite a nice picture. The Starlings --- not so much. But, God made them all so we might as well enjoy them. I had a squirrel this morning that was hanging upside down by his toenails trying to get to a seed cylinder that we have in a cage feeder. He finally managed to get a chunk of the food that had come loose. He took it up on top of the feeder, ate it, looked back down at the cylinder and I guess decided it wasn't worth the effort to try again. He ran off to an easier feeder to scrounge from. Rats --- they are just fuzzy tailed rats.

Lauren is riding in the World-Mini MX races today and tomorrow. They are showing it on closed circuit television and we will be able to see her race right her on our computers. It is really exciting to watch and we are so thankful that they have decided to broadcast it like this. Even though she is 2500 miles away, we get to "be there" for and with her.

This evening is the Maundy Thursday service and first communion for our confirmands. This will complete their confirmation experience. We are doing a Tenebrae service with Holy Communion so I hope it will be inspirational to the congregation. We have followed the service with a prayer vigil for the past few years but interest waned, so I'm not doing it this year. I think we will leave the church open though for anyone that wants to come by and sit in silence and pray. They will have brand new pew cushions to sit on this year. We just got them installed within the past two days and they look great and are comfortable.

I'm offering up prayers of gratitude again this morning. Life is good if we just allow ourselves to realize it. We humans grind ourselves down with minutia so very often. If we have our families to love us, friends who care about us and a God who fills our hearts with grace and love --- we should be happy. If we are blessed with good health, and a home, those are bonuses. I count myself fortunate and blessed because I have all of that and I don't have any unfulfilled needs in my life. Everything else is just fluff and stuff that either can be an aggravation or a challenge or a blessing. It depends on us to decide which it will be. I choose to make all of my challenges a blessing.

I hope your day is as good as mine.