Good morning! I went to bed last night and woke up again this morning listening to blessed, wonderful sound of  God-given rain. It has stopped now and the radar shows that it has moved on off to the south. But, the birdbaths are full, the planters are all watered and the garden is watered. And --- the temperature has dropped into the mid-seventies. Thank you Lord God for those blessings. The yard and flowers and trees look more lush this morning and the guests at the buffet are less frantic today for what ever reason even though I didn't fill any feeders yet. Of course the blackbirds are being just as nasty to one another as they always are. But it is survival of the fittest in their world. I was up at my sister-in-law's house the other day and I'm glad I don't have her birds. I fuss about my blackbirds; ---but she has a murder of crows that empty her feeders.

This evening Ms. Kate and I have tickets for a Gaither Gospel concert. It isn't a full Gaither Homecoming show but rather the Gaither Gospel Quartet plus some of the other artists that sing with him. I'm really looking forward to it. I listen to their music every night before I go to bed as I mentally power-down. I think he has gathered together some of the best musicians in the country to sing with him and his Homecoming concerts. I've been listening to them now for a decade or more. I have one of those groups playing right now (The Hoppers) as I write this. I use the music to energize me in the morning and calm me in the evening.

I need to go out and pull off the daffodil leaves now that they have died off and fallen over. The bulbs are dormant now and that will clean up the flowerbeds. Ms. Kate says I'm not supposed to pull them off until they have gone dormant. She says they won't bloom next year if I cut them off when they are still green. I don't know, but I do what she says because she knows more about it than I do. I also still need to go deadhead the roses. They will come back in another week or so. These knockout roses seem to bloom all summer if you take care of them.

We are down to nine days until we all meet in Gatlinburg Tennessee for our family reunion and the whole family is getting excited. Each day we have planning sessions and conversations about what we are bringing, what we are going to fix to eat, what we each want to go and see or do. Some will get to stay longer than other s and and some will arrive later but it is such a blessing to be able to do this. I know I've said it before, but I still feel the real blessing is that we all love to be with each other and share in each other's lives. Maybe it is true that absence and distance does make the heart grow fonder. Perhaps if we all lived within a mile or two of each other we would not appreciate one another near as much. I just know that my heart swells each and every time Ms. Kate and I can get together with each and or all of our girls.

I think I'll go make a pan of sweet rolls. No --- of course I'm not making them from scratch. I'll get out a can of Pillsbury Orange rolls. In the mean time, I hope you have a blessed day and get to experience some personal time with the Lord God. Shalomn.