December 28th. Christmas has come and gone. Julie and Jim have come, spent Christmas with us, and gone back home. They will probably be back again tomorrow evening depending on the weather. It is supposed to rain and may even bring some snow along with it. 

Lisa and Gary arrived on Tuesday morning from North Carolina. We’ve been have a good visit with them They will head back to NC on Sunday afternoon. 

Christmas Eve services went well for both the morning and the evening service. As expected, both were well attended. This Sunday is my final service and my farewell to the parish. It has been a wonderful career but is now time to hang up the robe. 

That’s it for tonight. It’s late. With more company coming in —- I won’t be writing again until 2024. Have a blessed remainder of your 2023. Peace. 

 December 23; — one more day until Christmas Eve.  With Christmas Eve comes Ms. Kate’s 76th birthday!!! I have an Angel Food cake in the oven right now for her. I usually bake her an Angel Food cake, and there is a story to go with that. Many years ago I offered to bake her a cake for her birthday and she said she wanted an Angel Food cake. Well, my only experience with angel food cakes was when my mother made the “back in the day”. I guess back then they had a tendency to “fall” so we didn’t dare make any heavy steps or whatever or we would catch the dickens from my mother. So, I told Kate there was no way I could make an Angel Food cake. She looked me in the face and said “You can’t add a cup of water to a cake mix and bake it???”  Yeh, I felt pretty dumb. 

Yesterday was a fantastic day at the surgeon’s appointment.  We had the CT scan the day before and Dr. Roberts had the results of that. He was very pleased with what he saw. He said the infection was mostly gone and was ready to remove the drain tube from her which was fantastic. And just like that he took it out. She felt so relieved having that thing out. So first time in four weeks we didn’t have to do a flush last night. And for the first time in four weeks she was able to sleep on her left side without the drain hurting her. 

She goes back to she the surgeon on the 19th of January and then he will do her surgery two weeks after that. We appear to be coming to a close of this saga. Hopefully that will be the end of all of this drama and her life can get back to normal. She will be well, I will be retired —- watch out world!!! 

Julie is here and Jim and the pups are coming a little later. She is going to get busy shortly preparing the turkey for our dinner. 

Have a wonderful day. Peace. 

 December the 21st; the shortest day of the year. Yes, they all have 24 hours but today has the least amount of sunlight thereby giving it the title of shortest day of the year. Starting tomorrow morning we will have maybe one minute more of sunlight which will increase daily until June 21st. That’s your science lesson of the day and about all I know about science. LOL

It is also my daughter Lisa’s 52nd birthday. Y’ all don’t know her but let me just say she is a wonderful human being. And if I may be so bold as to say —- all of my daughters are wonderful human beings. They all have such different personalities. Julie, my oldest, is the one with the biggest imagination. That imagination has, I think, been the street to her success. If she thinks she can do something, she will make it happen. She is kind, determined and strong willed and would give you the shirt off of her back; —- unless you cross her or try to BS her. 

Heather, my middle is focused on doing what is right and is also strong willed. She’s honest to a fault and a deeply caring person. She’s highly selective of her friends and deeply loyal to those friends and her family. 

And then there is our birthday girl, Lisa. I don’t know of a kinder, more gentle person in the world than Lisa. We always called Lisa “our nature’s child” because she has always been in tune with the universe and the world around her. She unassuming, unpretentious, and deeply cares for the people and the world around her.  My girls are all wonderful mothers and wonderful daughters.  They are all the embodiment of Ms. Kate. I think they all get their “workaholic” nature from me which is why they are all highly successful leaders and managers; but all the rest of it comes from Kate.

So, that’s enough bragging on my girls. God blessed me and continues to bless me. 

Peace.  

 December 20th; eleven days left in this year and in this month. Can you imagine that??? And can you believe that we are supposed to reach 55 degrees today and that we might have 60 degrees on Christmas day?? But —— I’m not complaining about any of that. 

Our house cleaner was supposed to come today but I got a text from her that her son and her husband have both tested positive for COVID. So, she won’t be coming; and that’s okay. We went a lot of decades without a house cleaner. I just pray they will all recover quickly. Would be terrible to be spending Christmas with the entire family down with COVID. 

I’ll be spending some quality time today at Walmart, sigh!!! Got to get the shopping done for the Christmas company coming in and today is about the only free day to do that. Tomorrow and Friday we do doctor’s appointments and Friday Jules and Jim come in and then we have company for the rest of the year. My list isn’t overly long and I want to get my stuff and get out of the way of the last minute crazies. Ms. Kate and I have our menus fairly well planned, at least for the “big meals”. 

Yesterday we did a good outing. I got ms. Kate to actually ride along with me and we went to our butcher shop, and to both of the churches. She didn’t get out of the car but she did get to see. Few folks that we know and got to have short visits with them. It did her a world of good and it did me a world of good too. It was almost like a”normal day”. It’s been a long time since she went anyplace that wasn’t aa doctor’s visit. 

Well, I can’t put off Walmart forever so I better get properly dressed and get my shopping done. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Monday December 18th. This month is moving pretty fast, or so it seems. We are exactly one week from Christmas; and only two weeks from 2024. That countdown came really quickly all of a sudden. And yet, it seems like time is crawling along like a snail in a snowstorm. 

Our update on Ms. Kate is what makes time seem to crawl. We were really hoping that she could get this surgery done and over with prior to Christmas. But our last visit with the surgeon indicated that the fluids we are draining from hr are still showing abscess. And, rightfully so, they don’t want to do the surgery as long as the lesions are showing abscess. She ran out of her antibiotics and her surgeon took her off of them until after we can get another CT scan. So we are just continuing to flush out her drain tube twice a day and just wait. This Thursday she has her CT scan and then Friday she will see her surgeon for a another evaluation. If he decides that we can proceed with surgery, we will have to wait for “X” amount of days wile she gets the Coumadin out of her system; or they will put her in the hospital and maybe give her another plasma treatment to bring it down quickly. We just don’t know. So, we take life day by day. If we were not people of Faith, I’m not sure how we would be handling all of this. But, are are people of faith and we know God has the situation under control, regardless of what the outcome may be. 

In the meantime, I have two Sundays left of my job; that’s just three services. I will do two on Christmas Eve and one on New Years Eve; And out of the next 13 days we will have company for 10 of them. So, no pressure anywhere at all. LOL. 

You are now caught up in the Heumann web of excitement and I’ll stop with that today. I hope your week will be fully blessed. Peace. 

 Good morning and happy mid-week. It’s another cold sunny winter morning. I’m thankful that we are in a weather zone that doesn’t get a lot of snow. Last night my favorite weather forecaster said the odds of a white Christmas for us are extremely slim; in fact the temperatures will be warmer than normal. I’ll take it. 

Well our hopes and plans for Ms. Kate have been less than successful. We were really hoping that she could have her surgery before Christmas but that is not to be. It will be 2024 before she gets it done. We had really hoped we wouldn’t go into a new year facing another hospitalization and surgery. But — the reasons are valid. The fluid we are extracting from Kate still show signs of infection and they don’t want to do surgery as long as it does unless it is an emergency. Kate’s situation, while critical and surgery is absolutely necessary, it is not yet an emergency. So all precautions should be taken. It’s a pain in the butt —— but it is good medicine. Got to just leave in the hands of God. 

We are currently waiting for her surgeon’s office to get another CT scheduled so we can see how she is progressing.  When you bounce between several doctors it is hard to keep up because they don’t necessarily talk to one another. Right now she has a family doctor, a surgeon, a heart specialist, a radiologist, and an oncologist that she bounces back an forth to. Plus our dentist and optometrist. It’s no wonder our Rolodex names all start with Dr. 

That’s it for today. I pray you will have aa wonderful week. Peace. 

 I’m just making a “run through” today. I home for aa bit between doctor’s appointments for Ms. Kate. The first was with Dr. Jackson, our family physician and was basically just a check up for her. She has one of those every four months. While we there though he had his FNP give me my flu shot. I still have to get my RSV shot somewhere. 

We need to head out soon for her next appointment. This will be with Dr. Roberts, her surgeon. We are really hoping that we can get a date for her surgery scheduled. I suspect he will want her to have another CT scan before he gives us a date though. We have been doing the drain flush twice a day but we don’t know what we are expecting to see. I would not expect the stuff we get out of her tube to become clear but  we don’t know. We just want to get this all over with. 

We had good attendance at the churches again yesterday. The St. Lucas kids did their Christmas program and the choir sang “Mary, Did You Know”. Next Sunday the St. Paul’s children will do their Christmas Program and the St. Lucas choir will sing another anthem. And, believe it or not —- the following Sunday is Christmas Eve.  

The Pastoral Search committee is working hard and they now have at least a dozen candidate profiles to go through. The first two Sunday’s in January they have a candidate lined up to preach and she will be doing a trial sermon to become the interim pastor until a settled pastor is found. So things are working like they are supposed to and soon I become just a memory. I have to admit I have a bit of angst about the whole thing, but it is time for me to step down before I fall down. 20 years is long enough. 

Tie to go. — Have a great day. Peace 

 Happy Saturday morning. I’m sitting here at the kitchen table listening/watching to Christmas video music on You Tube. The scenery on the video is beautiful especially because all of that snow is somewhere else. 

It has been a relatively lazy morning around here. I was up at 0700 for no particular reason other than I was ready to get up. Ms. Kate was asleep in the recliner in the family room. She has had to sleep there because of indigestion and coughing. The doctors took her off of some of the medications that control all of that. Sleeping flat on her back doesn’t work and her drain won’t let her sleep on her right side. So, the “good” recliner works well for her. I call it the good recliner because it is a bit bigger than our other recliners. I think we have six recliners in this house and all of them are LazyBoy recliners. But this one is aa leather one and I have one just like it down stairs. They are super comfortable.

We got her medical routine done first thing this morning so that is done until bed time. Then I got the laundry going. It’s only a couple of small loads but I wanted it done before the weekend was out just to keep up with it. Monday we have doctor’s appointment in both the morning and afternoon. This way I don’t have to wait and do it after those. 

Julie is coming over today with the pups. She will stay here and be with Kate while I’m at church for two services and then a council meeting. She has to be back home for a 1600 appointment tomorrow but that will work out fine. 

It was 61 degrees when I got up this morning. It had rained some and a cold front has now gone through. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be only 40 degrees. That’s quite a change. I think it is also how so many people get winter colds. 

Well, the beautiful soft music is about to put me to sleep. So, it may in fact be time to check the inside of the eyelids. Have a wonderful day. Remember what this Christmas season is really about. Peace. 

 Friday morning, December 8th. It’s 48 degrees already this morning which is pretty decent. I haven’t been out much but I did make a quick run to Dollar General first thing this morning. We have a new one about a mile from the house that just opened maybe a month ago. I only went as far as the first aisle so I don’t know if they rest of the aisles are filled with the customary boxes that make it hard to get trough the store or not. However, it did appear that there was only on employee and she was stocking shelves. I was aggravated though that there are only three places to check out and two of them are “self-checkout” and take no cash, and are “card only”. So I rang the little bell and the lady put down her boxes and came and checked me out. This national effort to go to a “cashless society” drives me nuts. I don’t want to have to use a credit card or debit card for every purchase I make. I don’t know why the merchants would like it either because it costs them more when customers use credit. 

Yesterday we had to get hold of the hospital liaison person to make contact with the doctors office and give us a prescription for more of the “flushing syringes” that I’m having to use on Kate’s J-tube. We only had a couple of days worth left, not enough to get to her appointment day with the surgeon. The process went through smoothly though. The syringes are filled with .09% sodium chloride and I have to use two a day. I had first gone to our local medical supply store and they didn’t have them. They told me that they were by prescription only. But it all worked out and they prescribed two weeks worth. 

Yesterday afternoon was a nice afternoon so I got the John Deere out and mulched the leaves in my front yard. My neighbor had a huge Bradford Pear tree and most of the leaves blow over to my yard; (thanks for the gift) so I get to clean them up. It’s not a big deal since all I do is mulch them. Then I brought “Bambi”, my smaller JD in and have parked it in the garage for the winter and parked “Big John” behind it. Thankfully there is room and I think there will still be room even if I put the blade on Big John. 

That’s it for today. Have a blessed weekend. Peace. 

 Good morning on this cool but sunny December 5th. It looks like it might turn out to be a nice day. Got to give thanks to the Creator for another day of blessings. 

Ms. Kate is still doing fairly well. This morning she had a hair appointment. She hasn’t been able to wash her hair in days and days and she can’t take a shower because of the drain tube. So now she feels a lot better about the world since her hair has been taken care of. It is amazing how the simple things like that can affect one’s entire attitude. 

I have our winter heating and air guys doing to service the furnace and make sure we are good for the winter. He will check things out, put in a new Heppa-filter and life will be good. We use Schneider for our service. We bought the system from them several years ago, and it has worked extremely well. We have a n annual contract for service for bth the A/C and furnace. 

I neeed to fill all of the bird feeders. The yard is still wet and this Thursday is supposed to be a really nice day. I will wait until then. I did take a bunch of pecans that I had picked up and put them under the tree. I want to go see if they are gone yet. 

That’s it for today. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Good morning and welcome to the first full week of December. I hope you had a great weekend. 

Last week was a looooong week. I wrote to you on Wednesday that we were in Deaconess Gateway Hospital for Kate. Well that stay lasted until approximately 5:00 pm on Saturday. It was hours and days of waiting and sitting, waiting and sitting. The biggest problem is that Kate is on Coumadin blood thinner and they needed her “levels” to get to almost zero. So they gave her stuff to bring them down but that all takes time. Finally, the levels got to where they needed to be and they were able to take her and put in what they call a “J-tube” which is designed to drain the abscess out of the lesion. I’m glad to say it is doing it’s job. We have her home, and I am being her “nurse” and I’m emptying the drain tube and flushing it for her twice a day. She is feeling so much better now. 

We have her lined up to see her surgeon on Monday. Hopefully by then her abscess will be clear and they can schedule her surgery. 

I had a good Sunday, we had good attendance at both services and then St. Paul’s threw a nice luncheon for me for my retirement. I really appreciated that. This coming Sunday we will have the children’s Christmas program at St. Lucas and then the following Sunday the kids at St. Paul’s will present their program. And the choir is going to sing both of those Sundays. Lots of good stuff happening. 

On that positive note — I’m done. Peace.