Happy Monday. Welcome to another week of opportunities to be of service to God and mankind. I pray it is going to be a great week for all of you. I know my week is packed with activities and things I need to get done. But, for the moment, I 'm sitting here watching my birds and enjoying my cup of coffee.

The Lord sent about three inches of blessed rain last night and it is still cloudy this morning. The radar shows that the rain has pretty well passed us although I can still hear the thunder in the southern sky. Unfortunately, it appears that the rain will miss our farm ground over in southern Illinois. My cousin had to replant the corn on it this spring because it got flooded out and now we can't buy a rain cloud. Tis the life of a farmer. But, the farmers in the parish should be happy. As I expected, yesterday a couple of them said I wasn't doing a very good job of getting rain in here. And as usual, I reminded them I'm in sales --- not production. Yeh, it's an old, old preacher's joke.

I filled all of the birdfeeders yesterday so all winged and furry critters should be happy this morning. I know at least one squirrel is because it has been out there eating for a good long time this morning. The rest of the feeders have birds coming in and out. The cardinal group will be in here in about fifteen minutes. I can pretty well time their arrival every day. The robins are happy because the worms have come to the surface. They are hopping all over the yard snatching up breakfast. A friend of mine sent me a posting on my Facebook page about a new hummingbird feeder that is called a Hummerbar. It hangs horizontally, is two feet long and has a dozen or so ports in it spaced just far enough apart for plenty of birds. I have ordered one now and look forward to getting it and putting it up. We only have one or two hummers again this year but maybe this will bring more. Plus, I just planted a new butterfly bush and they really like those. We'll see what we see. I have talked to several people that say their hummer population has decreased this year. But, thank you to Jean Des Rocher for the heads up about the Hummerbar.

The phlox is just starting to bloom here in the flowerbeds. Now that I cleaned the bed out, it can get more nourishment. The hummingbirds really like tha phlox too and it stays blooming a long time.

The neighborhood was noisy first thing this morning as the next door neighbor had a large tree taken out. Well, I haven't gone out to see if they took it all the way down or not or just had it trimmed. It was an elm tree and had a lot of issues; so I hope they took it out.

Tomorrow morning I need to be at the hospital around 0630 because one of my parishioners is having knee replacement surgery. That will be an awfully early morning for this guy who likes to go to bed late and then sleep late. Ms. Kate and I generally don't go to bed before 0100 and then get up between 0730 and 0830.

It has started to rain again, not hard, but the sound of the raindrops on the roof of the sunroom is sufficient to cause a fellow to close his eyes. I better get up and move or I'll be wondering how it got to be 1000 hrs. I pray you will have a great day full of peace in your soul and mind. God always walks with you, so don't worry about living life alone. Shalomn.