Good morning on a cool and wet morning. I’m up “early” today for no particular reason. It seems though every time I have a morning that I can sleep in, I wake up early. The last thing I said to Ms. Kate last night was that we didn’t have any appointments this morning and could actually sleep in. But, that didn’t happen. I woke up at 0600, (I know y’all are already getting ready for work by then and don’t feel a bit sorry for me.) however, I tried to go back to sleep but just laid there with the mind winding up. I started mentally thinking about my Memorial Day service and what I might want to do in honor of that. I know it’s a month off —- but that’s the way my brain works. When that happens, — I know I might as well get up and start putting some words on paper or my computer scratch pad or it will drive me bonkers. So, I’ve made a few notes and reached out to the mother of one our youth in the parish and am hoping I can get the young lad to play TAPS as a prayer response for the service. If he doesn’t want to or can’t, our keyboard has a trumpet setting on it that will work just as well. 

I also had on my mind one of our parishioners that was taken to the emergency room yesterday afternoon by her son. He called me last evening and told me and I wanted to get an update first thing this morning so I can plan my day to see if it is going to include a hospital visit or not. I got an answer from the son that it appears that his mom has pneumonia and is feeling a little better this morning. I suspect they are pumping her with lots of medicines to help her. I will call her husband in a bit and see how things are going. But, I may do a visitation later this morning. 

I plan on going out to Home Depot at some point this morning. I told you that I have been looking for 5-gallon buckets to put around my tomato plants. I couldn’t find any with the bottom already cut out but Home Depot had their standard buckets and I can cut the bottom out myself. They run about $5.00 each which is about the same price I paid for them the last time I bought some several years ago. 

That’s it for this gloomy morning. Maybe I’ll fix some oatmeal for breakfast this morning. I need to get some blueberries out of the freezer because I want Ms. Kate to make a pie.  Doesn’t a piece of blueberry pie sound good for lunch?  

Peace. 

 It’s late in the day so I don’t have a lot to say yet today. But, will share the news from our “doctor visit of the day” with you. Today we went for Ms. Kate’s radiology consultation and met her radiology doctor. He seems like a nice guy —- for a ten year old. LOL. Yeh, they all look like they are 10 years old these day. I long for the “Dr. Welby, MD” types but I’m now far older than the Dr. Welby character was. LOL 

The visit went well although her radiation treatment is going to be more complicated than at least I pictured. Today was meet/greet/explanation day with the doctor. Next week we see him again where they will do an enhanced CT with extra pictures so they can do exact pin-pointing when they begin the treatment. While they believe that the surgeon did a great job, there is no such thing as a guarantee that it will not return, especially for people like Kate who has all of the markers for a possible return. (Too complicated to explain) So, while we were hoping to start treatment as early as Monday, it could be a couple of weeks before she starts her treatments. The number of treatments is unknown at the moment until her radiation doctor tells us what that will be. 

The rain has started now and and will go for a couple of hours here. Good thing for my plants that are waiting for a permanent home. I did get a new peony planted yesterday. I’ve been scouring the internet for some five-gallon plastic buckets to put around my tomatoes. I used to have a bunch of buckets from Rural King tat I cut the bottom out of. They lasted through a few seasons but eventually they get really brittle and fall apart. But — Rural King no longer carries them. I would love think that somebody would make them with the bottom already cut out but so far I’m not having a lot of luck. If Amazon doesn’t have it —- I don’t know what to tell you. 

Time to watch the news and weather so I’m gone today. This is Thursday and one our favorite night for watching tv together. We watch “Young Sheldon”, — “Ghosts”, — “Swamp People”, —- and “Swamp People, Snake Invasion”. Noting like a good gators and snakes night!  LOL

Have a blessed evening. Peace. 

 Once again, a beautiful morning greets me. Then I look at the weather forecast and I see that I better put on a lightweight sweatshirt and I see showers are predicted. But I will enjoy the sunshine while i can and be grateful to the creator for it. I don’t our predicted rain for the next couple of days is supposed to amount to much and it will keep me from having to carry water out to my tomato plants. 

I’m sure you are wondering what the plan is for Ms. Kate as prescribed by her oncologist. She has to see the radiology doctor tomorrow morning so they can get her started for a series of radiation. The Oncologist said that while the surgery went perfect —- no one can accurately say that she is 100% cancer free which is why they do the radiation “preventative” procedure. She will have a total of twenty treatment  consisting of five days a week for four weeks. Hopefully, we can start them on Monday. That would be ideal because she would get all of it done in the month of May and Monday is May 1st. We expected this and nothing her oncologist said surprised us or worries us. He said the procedure takes about five minutes once you are on the table and has little to no after effect like chemo does. She can expect some redness and tenderness at the site but that is about all. So —- that’s the prognosis. We are so grateful that we found this so very early. She had not had her mammogram since COVID like so many other women. The oncologist said that had she gone for her mammogram a couple of month earlier, they probably would not have caught it or seen it. However, her results are a “triple negative” which is the most aggressive type and had she waited another year for her mammogram, they well may have had to take one or both breasts. We give all thanks and praise to God and His protection that prompted her to get her mammogram done this year when she decided to get it done. I’m positive there was divine intervention throughout this process. So, we will follow up with her oncologist again in October. 

I sent my “backyard John Deere” off to the dealer yesterday. It’s will most likely be an expensive trip because it always is. I think mechanic rates are up to $100.00 an hour now, but letting a piece of machinery sit and rust because I have no idea how to fix it is stupid. I’m have tubes out in the rear tires, and they need to fix whatever is wrong with the fuel line. I think that if they can drain it and get all of the bad fuel/water out (that’s my diagnosis) it will be perfectly ready to go. This year, I’m going to stow the thing in my garage again. Yes, it takes up precious space, but my yard barn is so full I just have no room for it. I have a cover for it but no matter what I do, the wind takes the cover off. 

Today we go up to the churches and run the bulletins for Sunday. Maybe we’ll grab some lunch somewhere. It depends on when we go I reckon. 

I have gabbed on enough tis morning. Time to be productive. Have a blessed day. Peace.

 Well, God did it again! I opened my eyes, (earlier than I wanted to) and there was a whole new bright week right there in front of me. There were birds announcing it and beautiful flowers singing God’s praises. I need to check out front where I have my tomato plants waiting on the porch to see if the frost did them any harm. I doubt it though.  

We had a good turnout for the services yesterday. That’s always a positive note and frankly makes me feel better. It’s always disappointing when we have a Sunday when very few people show up for worship services. While I realize it isn’t about me at all, I do put a lot of work into trying to do good services. I do a lot of research for my sermons and try to match the scriptures and hymns all together. Then when only a hand full of folks show up, —- well it’s disappointing. So, — I remind myself that Jesus said; “Where two or three are gathered; I am there too.” Sure, — he did the Sermon on the Mount where 5000 people showed up; — but 99% of His ministry was being a “street preacher”. I got zero to complain about, and I do love my two little churches. I’m going to miss them, but it is time to stop. 

Today we take Kate to see the Oncologist for her follow-up appointment and plan for any future treatment.  The best scenario would be for him to say that she doesn’t need any further treatment at all. But, as I have said, if they want her to take the twenty visit radiation thing to prevent any possible further cancer we will go for it. Heck, we’re retired people, what else have we got to do?? LOL At our age, we call it “going out”. And if the visits are at the right time of day, I get to go out for breakfast, assuming she feels like it after her treatment. The way it was explained to us initially, the daily treatment takes about five to ten minutes and then you’re done. There are four weeks of treatments for a total of twenty. And, I don’t think it is supposed to wear you out like I’m told chemo does. But, we’ll know more by this evening. 

I have a couple of jobs I need to get done this morning before we go for her appointment. Tomorrow the John Deere Dealer is coming to pick up my small JD mower. Right now it has a flat tire on the rear and I have to air that up so they can push it out front. For the moment, we have the laundry going, and I need something for breakfast. So, I’m out of here. 

Have a blessed day — have a blessed week.!! Peace. 

 Good morning on a beautiful but very chilly morning. The few days of seventy and eighty degree temperatures are off visiting someone else I reckon. They were replaced by upper thirty degree nights and fifty degree days. But, we will survive it all. And I think my plants will too. 

It has been a very busy couple of days since I last wrote but I have such wonderful news. We went to Kate’s final appointment with her surgeon on Thursday and I am thrilled to report that he declared her cancer free. He said he got all of the cancer out and her lymph node that he took was totally clear. God be praised. We are thrilled with the diagnosis. Monday we see the oncologist to determine if there are “next steps”. We suspect he will recommend radiation just as a prevention and that is okay with us. It is a four week, twenty treatment regimen but if it insures anything —- we’re all for it. Just because you beat the devil — doesn’t mean you should poke him in the eye. 

That’s my newsworthy printing. The rest of the week has just been routine stuff including parishioners visits at the hospital, sermon writing, A birthday party for my 80 year old life long friend; —- that kind of stuff. 

We had rain yesterday but while it lasted most of the day, it didn’t amount to a lot. I’m hoping it will dry out this morning so I can mow this afternoon. I also have another peony to plant that my sister-in-law gave us. I would really like to plant my tomatoes but I just know that if I do, sure enough we will have a frost. In fact we are predicted to have frost in the next couple of night. So, I must be patient. 

Tomorrow of course is Sunday and that means church services. I hope you will attend your house of worship. We have a lot to be thankful for this week. Peace. 

Good morning on what is yet another beautiful day. It’s sunny and 58 degrees already and is supposed to go up to maybe 82 today. That does not suck! I’m heading up to the churches this morning and do my weekly stuff up there. Then I think I will go up to Princeton and visit a couple of my parishioners that are in nursing homes. I haven’t been to see them in a few weeks. They do get to church once in a while and I see them but I like to stop by occasionally.

Well, yesterday I finally got my raised beds cleaned out. As you know I’ve been talking about doing that for maybe two weeks, I don’t know. But, I finally got to that point on my “to-do” list that I couldn’t put it off any longer. I didn’t plant the tomatoes yet. The frost threat still lingers out there. We can’t trust Mother Nature not to suddenly blow some freezing air down from Canada. I just read a list of seven different states that got snow yesterday and at least two of them had temperatures in the 80’s last week. I have friends in both of those states. They are frustrated with the constant back and forth but what can you do? Wouldn’t want to be in Ft. Lauderdale, FL right now either with their historic flooding. There is no where with perfect weather and after all it is the seasons that make the stuff grow. 

Ms. Kate and I have aa birthday party to attend this evening. I don’t know when I last attended a birthday party. And, —- it’s for my childhood friend who is a year older than me and is turning 80. I’m sure it’s going to be a wild event. LOL.

Tomorrow morning, we take Ms. Kate for her post-surgery appointment with her surgeon. I think he will be pleased with what he sees. The one incision has really gotten “hard” and she hopes he will allow her to start putting Vitamin E oil on it to soften it up. But I have looked at both of her incisions several times and they look good to me. 

I just got a text asking for another person to be put on the prayer list which means I need to go make a change to my bulletins. Thank goodness I got it before I printed them today. 

With that, I’ll sign off. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 April 18th, 1775 — Paul Revere set of on his famous ride through Lexington and Concord to warn the citizens that the British were coming. If my math is correct, that’s 148 years ago. I think that many people forget that Paul Revere didn’t actually finish that ride because he got stopped along the way by the British. However, William Dawes who was his fellow rider, escaped the British and finish the ride on into Concord. I know these things not because I’m a historian but because Ms. Kate and I lived on Hanscom Air Force Base and infect our house was maybe a half mile from where Paul Revere got stopped and the ride went through what is now part of the base. At one point we attended a Congregational (UCC) church that sat on the corner of the “Lexington Green” Commons where the “Shot heard around the world” was fired. One of the excellent benefits of a military career is that often we got stationed at some pretty historical and awesome places. It was wonderful for the kid’s education. Of course, we got stationed at a couple of places that were not so great too. But I wouldn't trade our way of life for anything. I can easily see how God worked his will all through our thirty two years of service. 

It is another beautiful morning. It is currently 64 degrees and going up to 75 today. It is going to be a great day to be outside and get some more work done. We got several of the “to do” items scratched off of the list yesterday but still haven’t gotten to the raised beds. I will get that done today come hell or high water. It’s bugging me. I may even go ahead and plant the tomatoes today. I think our probability of frost at this point is very low. I got the tree peony moved yesterday. I don’t think I hurt it any by moving it. It wasn’t out of the ground but maybe 15 minutes and was only moved about three feet. And, I took the contents of our kitchen compost bucket and put it in the bottom of the hole. That should give it a shot in the arm. I did the same thing for the new rose. LOL, I remember many years ago I was helping my dad plant a young tree and we had been fishing and had cleaned up a whole mess of fish to eat. So, we took all of the fish guts and stuff and put that in the hole that we were going to put the new tree in. It grew like crazy. 

Time for me to get busy. First I have to see if Ms. Kate want Belgian waffles for breakfast or not. I make good waffles and pancakes. I use Krusteze mix and have for years. Her other option is to get a box of Toaster Strudels out of the freezer and heat those up. Too bad the donut places aren’t across the street! LOL. 

Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Happy Monday! Let’s get a brand new week started by praying; “Lord guide my every footstep this week and thank you for another chance to be of service to someone.” 

Today is a copy of Saturday. The wind is blowing harder than comfortable. It’s in the upper forties and not going to go much above 60 today. But the sun is bright so that will help out a lot. I turned the heat back on in the house though this morning. It was 67 in the house and that wasn’t very comfortable at all. I think it is supposed to get warmer this week at some point but then of course we have rain predicted when it gets warm. Hello Spring!!! 

Saturday night we had a few limbs blow down again so I need to get those picked up and put away today. There’s only a couple so that won’t take long. I did get the trellis moved to the front yard but I didn’t get the planting done that I wanted to do. I had already mowed the yard, done all of the trimming, cut the asparagus and took some of the weeds out of the asparagus bed. By the time I got the trellis put up, I was pooped. So today, I have to first move a peony bush and then I will have room for the new rose to go in front of the trellis. It’s not a climber rose but it will look nice in front of that trellis. Then I have another small plant to put in the front flowerbed; (I don’t know what it is but Kate wanted it.) Then I really have to get that raised bed cleaned out so I can get the tomatoes in the ground. I see a lot of my FB friends are planting their gardens now. By the time the plants start coming up, it should be past “frost worries”. Most people are getting their root vegetables in the ground now. 

When I get done with all of that, I have to finish putting together video slides for this Sunday’s service and I have a small part of the service to finish writing. I guess I’ll go run the bulletins on Wednesday. Wednesday evening we have a dinner party to attend for one of my few life-long friends. He’s turning 80 this year. I’ve known him for 75 of those years. Thursday we have Kate’s follow-up appointment with her surgeon. I think he will be pleased with what he will see. 

So, I have a busy week. I can’t imagine what it is going to be like when I don’t have a weekly sermon to write or a worship service to put together. It is going to be different, that’s for sure. 

I pray you will have a blessed week. Peace. 

 It’s a sunny, brilliant blue, and windy day. I’m sitting here in the Sunporch watching Kate’s “whirligig” go at top speed. Unfortunately, — I’m also watching the “helicopter” things start to fall off of the maple tree and the tulip poplar trees, as well as some of the blooms from the flowering trees like Dogwood and Redbud. It is a spring ritual. 

Ms. Kate and I are having a lazy morning. We worked pretty good in the yard yesterday. I got all of the mowing and trimming done. I filled a couple of the planter pots and Kate planted lettuce and radishes in them. I also got the bird feeders all filled and my aviary clientele are satisfied with the results of that endeavor. Ms. Kate made a whole bunch of bookmarks for the hymnals at St. Paul’s church. They are really nice. She cut them out and hand-wrote scripture passages on all of them. I think people will appreciate them. At St. Lucas we put the hymns on the big screens so no one really uses the hymnals except for me and the liturgist. We can’t see the screens because they are lateral to us. 

I have some of my leftover jobs from yesterday to get done today. I’m moving one of my trellis’ to the front of the house and get the new rose bush in the ground. In front of it. And I still need to clean up the garden. Somehow that job keeps getting pushed back and it needs to be done. I have tomatoes ready to be put in the ground probably next week sometime. And I have an area that I want to plant zinnia seeds. 

Every thing is set for services tomorrow so that’s all good. I will be glad to get to the church tomorrow. I left my main pair of glasses up there Wednesday when I was working up there and have been using my store-bought cheaters to get by. It works but not well. However, it wasn’t worth the 50 mile round trip to get them. We all make our choices. 

That’s it for this beautiful day. I hope you are able to get out and enjoy yourself. Don’t neglect to go to your hoarse of worship tomorrow, or today if that’s your style. Just remember that God hasn’t forgotten you for one moment this week. Peace. 

 It’s another beautiful morning! Thank you very much Lord, for allowing me another. I’m feeling energetic this morning and that’s a good thing because I have a hoop of stuff to get done. Of course, I’ll wear out before I get it all done but at least I plan to give it all a go. 

Yesterday was a throw away day I guess. I have a group of Evangelical pastors that has started to meet once a month. We are all conservative pastors and it is nice to find that there are people that think like I do and don’t follow all of what is called “woke” thinking these days. It’s really great to talk with pastors who are more interested in Christology than social agendas. Our denomination used to be that way although we have always been leaders in promoting som what were radical ideas in the then current times. Things like allowing women in the pulpit, racial equality. But in the last forty years, our denomination has jumped on every social agenda bandwagon whether it agrees with the scripture or not. If it doesn’t, rather than sticking to the Bible, let’s reinterpret the Bible to make it fit our agenda. I shake my head at how we have changed. —— Okay, I’m off of my soap box for today. 

My first peony has bloomed and it is beautiful. Today, I need to put up more cages around them and I really need to get my summer yard treatment spread. I bought a couple bags of good potting soil to put in the big planters. Kate wants to put her early veggies in them; lettuce and stuff like that. I also need to plant my new rose bush and get the trellis in place behind that. And the birds want fed again and I need to get my garden ready for planting. I’ve been saying all of this for a week now and still haven’t gotten to it. Today is the day because we have rain coming tomorrow. 

My oatmeal is ready so I’m heading to breakfast. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Mr. Rogers would say; “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood”, and he would be exactly right. Tight now it is a sunny 70 degrees out side. I went out long enough to water a few plants and take an envelope to the mail box. The sun is “eye-squintable”. Okay, that’s not a word or phrase, but I make them up as I go. 

I fixed a pan of canned biscuits this morning, got out a jar of Kate’s cherry freezer jam and ate all ten of the biscuits myself. Just to be fair, I’ll let you know that Kate didn’t want any, she had yogurt and was satisfied. I know it still sounds rather “piggy”, but you and I both know that caned biscuits don’t get very big and it’s probably no different than having a stack of pancakes. Although I was tempted to make Belgian waffles for breakfast. 

Jobs today on my list are to fill the bird feeders, and go to the churches and run my bulletins for the week. That is generally an hour job, but it’s also a 30 minute drive up and a thirty minute ride back, so it does take chunk out of the day. Then late this afternoon, I hope to get out and do some work on my raised beds. The weeds are not bashful already this year. I don’t think I told you that Kate and I went out to the nursery and bought our tomato plants on Monday. We won’t put them in the ground just yet but last year we didn’t get any nice ones because they were gone before we gout out to but any. I think we bought 13 plants which is more than we need, but if one or two doesn’t make it, it’s not a loss of much. We do love a good slicing tomato. So often when you raise big tomatoes, they have a large core in the middle of them and that’s just a waste. Hopefully these will be good varieties. 

I went out and bought sunflower seed for my birds yesterday. I could not believe the price of sunflower seed; —- a forty pound big cost me $50.00. I used to pay $17.00 for the same size bag only a couple of years ago. I only bought one bag. Last year the price went up to around $35.00 and they blamed it on drought. But now it is up another $15.00. I truly think that these companies know they can get the money so they just keep raising the price. If you want it —- pay the price. I’m lucky that I can still afford to buy it, but there are a lot of senior citizens that can’t afford to buy it and for many, watching and feeding the birds may be their only real pleasure. Watching and feeding the birds was my late mother-in-laws one real joy, but there is no way that she could afford these prices today. It’s very sad. 

That’s it for today. I hope you get a chance to get out and breathe in some warm spring air. Don’t stay too long though; —- the tree pollen in the air will mess you up. 

God bless! Peace. 

 Good morning on this Tuesday after Easter. Can you actually believe Easter has now come and gone?, Of course as a pastor, my prayer is that only April 9th is gone, but that Easter is still alive and well in the mind of everyone who turned out to celebrate with worship and song. 

As predicted, my Easter was filled with worship services. The choir did a wonderful job with the Easter Cantata and we had a really good turnout for it. That was followed by a breakfast and good fellowship. Then it was time for me to head up to St. Paul's for their regularly scheduled worship service. The church was full and it was a great worship experience for everyone. The young children enjoyed the children's message that Megan did. and we all enjoyed participating in Holy Communion. 

After the 0900 service while the folks at St. Paul's enjoyed an egg hunt and taking lots of Easter pictures , I headed down to St. Lucas for the 1030 service and we did it all over again. Again, we had a full church. I felt very blessed and a bit sad. This was my last Easter service as pastor of this parish. There will be a lot of :lasts" this year. 

While I was at church, Julie and Jim came over. Kate made lunch for us and Jim put the lawn mower deck on the John Deere for me. My yard was really starting to get tall and needed to be cut, so thanks to him for that. 

Yesterday morning Kate had a regular family doctor's appointment. He as happy with how her healing was going as it had just been one week since her surgery. She is still very tender and sore. His advice was "don't be a hero" -- take your Tylenol more often if you need it. Good advice. 

So that's it for today. Have a great day. I have a yard that wants to meet my John Deere and get reacquainted. Peace. 

 Good morning! Do we actually say; “Happy Good Friday”  or is it more appropriate to simply give a blessing greeting? I’m not sure —- the events we recall that bring us Good Friday are horrendous at best. However, without those events, the event s of Easter Sunday could not have occurred. So, it’s dealer’s choice I guess. 

Good Friday is the day that we Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Tradition tells us that he was nailed to the cross at around 9:00 am and hung there suffering until approximately 3:00 pm. Most crucified prisoners would linger there sometimes for days but they had not been beaten to within an inch of their lives prior to the crucifixion. Jesus listed for six hours before declaring “It is Finished” and brewing his last breath. Due to the rapidly approaching Sabbath his mourners had to take him down quickly from the cross if he were not to hang there for another 24 plus hours. Unfortunately they had no where to place his body, but as always, God intervened and a friendly Pharisee named Joseph of the town of Arimathea spoke up and obtained permission from Pilate to assume responsibility for the body and they placed Jesus temporarily in a grave belonging to Joseph. None of them knew just how temporary his stay would actually be. But —- that is another sermon for another day.

We had a wonderful Maundy Thursday service last evening. It was a combined parish event and was really well attended. We celebrated Holy Communion and also did a Tenebrae reading. All of the readers did a great job. It was also first communion for our two confirmation graduates and marks their first event as full members of the church. 

Now I look forward to Sunday. We’ll start the day with a “Sunrise service” and our parish choir doing an Easter Cantata. The choir has worked really hard and they are well prepared. The cantata is entitled “The Cross”. 

I did get much of my outside work done yesterday and today I really need to sty inside and finish up that sermon. 

If I don’t write tomorrow, I wish you a very blessed Easter. If you are a member of the Christian Faith —— this is the day that defines our very reason for our belief. I urge you to attend your house of worship and give God praise. Peace. 

 It may or may not surprise you that I like to listen to a little lite opera once in awhile. Well, I guess I you can’ call this opera, although this particular trust is doing part of the album in Italian. I pulled up one of my two Katherine Jenkins albums this morning to listen to. She was all the rage maybe five or six years ago. She has a beautiful operatic voice, she is a beautiful woman and not a bad dancer either. She was on Dancing With The Stars and although she didn’t win, she did very well. She also appears to be a very proud and good mom. She is worth listening to. You can pull her up on You Tube.

April 6th, it is Maundy Thursday. I don’t know if your particular church celebrates Maundy Thursday or not. We will have a Parish wide service this evening and include a Tenebrae service and Holy Communion.  We end the service in silence and begin an all night prayer vigil to honor the words of Jesus when he said “Can you not watch with me, even for one hour?” Our service commemorates the “Last Supper” and the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot. It is also the “first communion” for our confirmation graduates. It is an important service for us. We don’t do a Good Friday Service like a lot of churches do. I think there will be a Good Friday service somewhere but have not heard of one. Often the Protestant churches will join with their Catholic brothers and sisters in recognition of Good Friday. 

Sunday, I will have three services; 0700, 0900, and 1030. Then, I think I will take a long nap in the afternoon. Well, actually I take a nap every Sunday afternoon. So, there is that!

Ms. Kate had a bad day yesterday. Her two surgery incisions were bothering her and she had an upset stomach. That may have been because she got back on some of the medications that she had been required to stop taking before surgery. She got up in the middle of the night last night and moved to her recliner in order to get comfortable. But, she is feeling a little better this morning. 

I have bird feeders to fill, stick to pick up in the yard, and a lot of weed eating to do today. Jim hasn’t been over to put the mower deck on and the yard is getting tall. But, I really need to take some of it down with the weed eater. Oh, and I still have a sermon to finish. 

I guess that means I better get off of my chair and on to me feet getting busy. Have a very blessed day. Peace. 

 Good morning and happy April 5th. Once again we are under a tornado watch. Like most people, I tired of the weekly tornado/severe storm watch routine. We have been very lucky at least in our neighborhood that there has not been any significant damage because of storms etc. Just about seventy miles up the road there was a very destructive tornado that wiped out the southern half of the town. I pray for those folks and for the people that lost family members. I think there was another tornado over in Missouri last night and one or more lives were lost. 

I’m glad to say that Ms. Kate is doing very well, all things considered. She only has to take Tylenol tablets a couple of times a day. Last night I noticed that she even was able to sleep on her left side which is a big improvement. That is the side they did the surgery on. The incision on the breast doesn’t bother her near as much as the incision to remove a lymph node under her arm. That’s where her bra rubs and she has to continue to wear one for support. But she says it is a small price to pay to get rid of the cancer. 

I got a good start on my sermon for the 16th last night and I have learned a lot in the process of writing the sermon. It’s always amazing to me when I find new things from scripture that I have read before many times. Last night I had the opportunity to do a good comparison of the four gospels on a certain subject and it was very interesting to see the similarities and the differences. It becomes obvious what each gospel writer considered important and what their slant or view was on their writing of their particular gospel. Mark, was the first gospel written and Matthew copied so much of his gospel as did Luke. Luke did more research on Jesus and reports in a different style that Matthew or Mark. John is a different type of gospel altogether. He approaches the story of Christ from a divinity approach, meaning that he looks at everything through the thought of Christ being the Son of God and being a part of God. The other three work through the human issues associated  with Jesus. 

Okay, our cleaning lady is here and is ready to move in to the kitchen so I got to get out of the way. I hope you have a wonderful day. Peace. 

 Good morning, I hope your day is going great. I don’t have a lot to say today but I did want to update you on Ms. Kate. 

As I told you yesterday as an add-on, The surgery went well and the doctor was pleased. We got her home and she rested pretty well for the remainder of the day. Last night she kept like a log, as did we all. She said that she woke up a couple of time but went right back to sleep. She got up this morning around 0830 well rested but needing to take a Tylenol. It is a little after noon and she is napping again. Julie has gone home about 40 minutes ago. I went to the grocery store and picked up some items for supper. Later on I plan to put some chicken thighs on the grill. 

Wee are all so pleased that she is dog so well. We are even more pleased that it pears that the doctor was able to get all of the cancer out through a lumpectomy. She goes back to see her surgeon o the 20th and then her oncologist on the 24th to determine how much radiation she will have to have or whether or not chemo will be warranted. At this point, I can’t see that she will need chemo, but what ever the oncologist says is what we will do. 

So that’s it for today. My lady is doing well and that just makes it an extra Holy Week blessing.After all, no healing happens with out divine intervention. Have a blessed week. 

 Good Monday morning to you. It’s April 3rd and Holy Week began yesterday with the celebration of Palm Sunday. We had good attendance at both churches which is par for the course for the Christmas and Easter seasons. But with a confirmation ceremony as part of the service, we had a bigger than normal attendance.  Unfortunately the person that was running the video/audio stuff didn’t get it done right so we didn’t live stream or record the ceremony. 

We had a night of thunderstorms last night. I don’t know how much rain we got because I haven’t had time to check it out. But the thunder was loud and long and we had a pretty good light show gong on too. 

The big story of today of course is Ms. Kate’s breast lumpectomy surgery. We are at the hospital right now. They just took her back for surgery. The surgery should take about 45 minutes and then she will be in recovery for another 45 minutes. It is almost 1100 now. We had to be here at 0615 for some reason. They had to take her for another mammogram for any last minute checks on the size and placement of the cancer. So that is part of the reason for the early arrival.. But, if all goes well, we should be able to take her her home by around 1330. I imagine she will be sleeping most of the afternoon, which is fine. Julie and I are ready for a nap too. LOL We have had several texts this morning from well wishers and if you are one of them, we thank you. Kate and I re not worried about tis and anticipate that everything is going to be fine.  That’s what you do when you decide to turn your worries over to God. 

So, I’ll let y’all know to morrow how things went. Until then, this is Holy Week. Stay close to Christ this week. Peace.