Welcome to Monday and once again we start a brand new week. We have a local car dealer here in the Tri-State area that begins his spiel with "It's hot, Don!" Well today, it's hot Don. The heat index today is going up to 100 -105. I don't care who you are, that's hot and humid and miserable.

We had 85 in church yesterday. That's a great number; down a few from the 93 of last week but we had more visitors last week because of the families coming to support loved ones that were being baptized. I once had a mentor that told me to try to have something special each week to draw people in. We're in a changed society that seems to need a special event to bring them to church rather than just coming because it is a part of a person's life. Maybe it is a need to "be entertained" on some level although I never thought of church and worship as entertainment.

Good things are happening at the church this week. We have a contractor upstairs in the sanctuary at the moment replacing our pew cushions. The church had agreed that we needed to do this but the cost was going to be $10,000.00. We were getting ready to start a campaign to raise the money when one of the parishioners gave a check to cover the entire cost. God does work in mysterious ways. This morning we also had a contractor out in the Woodland Chapel pouring the rest of the concrete for the steps. Our next (and last for this year) out door service is September 9th and we are hoping to have all of the concrete work done out there including a sidewalk and wheelchair area. This has been needing to be done for several years. It all takes money though and a lot of planning and hard work.

 I went to Pet Food Center on Saturday and picked up another eighty pounds of sunflower seed after I filled all of my feeders. I still have maybe fifteen pounds in my small can and I want to empty it completely and let it air out before I get another forty pound bag. Right now the food is disappearing quite as fast and I finally figured out why. I haven't had any black birds or starling around here to speak of for a few weeks. I guess they are all out in the fields because it will be harvest time before long.  Once they show back up, it will be a daily effort to keep everything filled. Of course if they didn't show up it wouldn't hurt my feelings or or my wallet as often. This afternoon I'll have to get the sunflower seed out of the back of the car and fill up the can in the yard barn.

We have several other things to do today so it is a good thing that I'm caught up with my writing for the moment. Ms. Kate wants to run up to the little town of Johnson and pick up a couple of cantaloupes. Plus we need to go to the Apple store and get a new keyboard for my IPad. Then to Sam's to return a couple of shirts, and to the doctor's office for Ms. Kate to give blood for her blood tests this month. Somewhere in there we will stop and have lunch too. So it is going to be a "run around" day.

I should probably quit "doing my stuff" here at the office and maybe make a couple of phone calls to parishioners. I hope your day is blessed. Peace.