There are lots and lots of birds out there this morning. Initially I had them confused I think. I put up a new bird feeder pole and I changed the location of several of the feeders. I had bought the new feeder pole for the sole purpose of hanging the two large sets of chimes on them. However, the chimes are heavy and with the ground thawing, the pole didn't stay up long. I'll need to get some "Quick-crete" today and put it in properly. In the mean time, I actually found a better arrangement for the chimes, and all it took was a re-arrangement of some of the feeders in the Pussywillow tree. I don't know why I hadn't figured it out before. Only the squirrel seems unhappy because there are now chimes where there were easy to reach feeders. Old squirrel don't care anything about music!

Byron got his PSA results back and they weren't the happy news that he had been getting. His numbers rose slightly ( 5 points ), but that could be accounted for by any variety of things. We'll just keep prayers going up for him and pray he is on a leveling field. Regardless of what happens down the road, we'll keep in mind that God has provided him and all of us with four wonderful extra months of blessings especially over the Christmas holidays. I believe that opening a fresh life gift every day is a most wonderful thing to enjoy.

It is another beautiful day here, although not so in other parts of the country. The upper part of the country is getting slammed with cold and icy conditions. Several people have been killed due to traffic accidents and large traffic pile-ups on ice covered road. My prayers go out for their families.

We have a few errands to run today and I need to do sermon work while Ms. Kate goes to sit with Aunt Aleen for a bit. Aleen has her bad days and her less bad days. Being in hospice care is different than regular care in that it is palative care only. Their program is to designed to keep her comfortable as opposed to "make her well". If she gets better as a result of being comfortable; --- that would be an added blessing. None of us, including her doctor expect that to happen. So, we ask God for a really healthy dose of patience and understanding all around. Far too often family members get worn out and then they start saying things like "I don't understand why she or he can't just die!" Then the guilty feelings and depression sets in. So, we remind ourselves that only God knows the span of our life and only God controlls that. In the meantime we need to give thanks for having our loved one in our life and remember that God is always good.

Take time today to count your blessings.