Happy 4th of July. 250 years as a nation, isn’t it amazing how far this nation has come and yet in many ways we are still as we were on day one. One that day the founders of the fledgling country were full of hope and dreams that would take years to become to fruition. But it has come to pass. Those 13 states have become fifty and this world has no doubt about who and what the United States of America represents to the entire world. Many countries rely on us for their protection and their economic security. Our enemies respect what we are and what we represent even though they disagree with us. 

However, we are today a nation that is more divided than it has even been, politically, socially, ideologically. The main stream media has taken sides with the left and refuses to present news but rather opinions. And I wonder sometimes what would have happened to our heading for independence had we had today’s availability to social media back in 1776. 

But, I still believe in God Bless America more than ever. I’m extremely proud to have seems my country as a member of the armed forces for 32 years. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to have been allowed to serve God as a pastor of the Gospel for the last 23 years. I pray that this country will solve their differences and truly become a United States of America. I wonder if we will actually celebrate a 500 years anniversary and what we will look like. Keep praying America. 

 July 1st. We start the second half of the year. 

I was absolutely planning to start fairly early this morning and go mow my yard. However, I walked to the kitchen at 070 and checked the thermometer and the heat index was already 95 degrees and climbing. Ms. Kate said “The yard can wait.” 

Our cleaning lady, Kari, is here this morning. She comes around 0900 and is here for three hours. She has been with us for a couple of years now and really does a good job. She comes every two weeks. My friend Art Christmas also uses her. She is a sweetheart.

I guess since I can’t mow again today because of the heat, we will do laundry later on today. The laundry basket is getting full and when it gets full it gets heavy. 

Julie will be coming over on Friday and then leaving on Saturday. Her birthday is on Sunday. Hard to believe I have a child turning 58. Time sure does fly by. 

Okay, Kate is ready to go to breakfast so I’m off of here. Have a blessed day. 

 June 30th; the year of 2026 is officially half over today. That's a little hard to believe isn't it? How has your year gone so far? Have you accomplished any of the things you planned to do this year? It has been a good year for me and Ms. Kate so far. Our health is holding out, mine much better than Kate's. Next week she is to have a cardio ablation to hopefully get her out of AFIB for the foreseeable future. If that doesn't work, then I guess the next step is a pacemaker. Although, she was hearing something about an AI procedure to address AFIB. I guess we will be reading up on that. I didn't hear it but I will certainly check in to it. 

Any way, the highlight of 2026 so far is our vacation that we took down to Tennessee and getting to be with all of the family except for Lauren and Jon. I have said it a hundred times that I really envy all of our friends that have their families living close. I hope they appreciate it too. 

This year we celebrated our 60th anniversary in February and on June 16th we celebrated our 64th year anniversary of our first date. Man oh man, have we come a long way since that first date and even since our wedding day. We have tucked a lot of adventures, love, and miles into that envelope and I'm asking God to give us a few more. 

I bought a new laptop computer last week. My old one would no longer take updates because the system was too old and updates were no longer available. They quit serving Windows 10 last October. My old one only had a 12 inch screen and this new one has a 15 inch screen. Much easier on my almost 82 year old eyes. BTW, I'm only 20 days away from being 82 now. Who would have thunk it. But here I am looking for vacation spots for the next two years. Hopefully Kate and I both will still be kicking that long. 

We're in a major heat wave all across this country. Our heat index is to be 105 today and the same for the rest of the week on into Monday of next week. It is going to be a hot 4th of July. People will drink too much trying to stay hydrated and not realize that drinking alcohol has the opposite effect on you in hot weather. It just makes you thirstier. Of course, I'm not saying don't drink booze, I'm just saying that you won't get the desired impact you are looking for.  

That's enough for today. I need to put some thoughts together for a couple of sermons that I have coming up. Have a blessed week. God bless America. 

 Let’s start the week off with a quick post. We had lots of storms in the area yesterday afternoon. At one point our weatherman is tracking five active tornadoes at one time. I’m hearing there were two deaths and at least a dozen injuries. I know a bunch of homes were destroyed as well as two churches. AccuWeather says we will have some more storms this afternoon. Yuk We have had enough rain for the time being. 

Unfortunately, my generator has a problem. Last Thursday I was working in the garden and the generator kicked on. I went in and asked ms. Kate if we had lost power and she said “no”. So, I thought maybe the weekly test cycle was off and I waited for maybe ten movers and it didn’t shut back off. I tried to manually shut it off and as soon as I let go of the “off” button, it came back on. I ended up calling the peoples I bought it from and they walked me through a few ideas but it still would not stay turned off. Today they came out to look at it and said that this controller had gone bad because ants had eaten part of it. Who knew???? Anyway, it is going to be down for an another week while they order a new part. Sounds like money to me. 

Father’s Day was fine. I preached yesterday morning and then we stayed home for the rest of the day. It was plenty relaxing. 

This week I need to work on a couple of sermons. If the kids dries out I will mow and I have some limbs in the back yard to pick up. 

That’s it for this first week of Summer. Have a blessed week. Peace. 

 It’s been an okay type of day. The weather has been sunny for the most part but with a noticeable amount of humidity. Tomorrow though promises to be nice as does Saturday. Rain will next come on Father’s Day. 

I spent a good deal of time out in the yard yesterday. I had a lot of trimming to do with the weed eater. So much that I actually went through two fully charged batteries. My neighbor kids came over for an hour yesterday and I put them to work pulling the grass and weeds in my tomato bed. They do a fairly good job and I make sure they know that they have to complete the job. I actually hire the oldest boy, Lincoln, but his younger brother comes along. I pay Lincoln $15.00 an hour. If they both show up, I give them twenty. They seem very happy to come work for me. I’ll keep them working most of the summer. 

We had really heavy rain last night and I ended up with three or four significant sized dead branches down on the ground. I will clean that up tomorrow. Ms. Kate says she wants to try to help. We’ll see how that works out. I may have to ask Lincoln over to help. Or —- just try to do it by my self. Today I have been sore all day from using the weed eater yesterday. By tomorrow I hope to get back at it. 

So, that’s it for today. I hope you have a good rest of your week, Peace. 

 We’re back from our vacation. 😞 We had a wonderful time with the family in Sevierville, TN for a week. There were 21 of us total. Kate and I records large house and there is room for all of us. Our agreement is that we will rent the house and they will provide the food and do all of the cooking. Each family takes a meal or two. I do one breakfast with the help of grandkids. My “papa-cakes” are a demand and a tradition. This year I did waffles and we had eggs and sausage. Kate also mixed up a batch of home made ice creme and we had that one evening. I take along my ice cream maker and the grandkids sit and jabber with me as it churns. What a blessing. Kate and Lisa made meatloaf and mashed potatoes for one Mel so yes, she and I get in on the meal rotation too. Then each of the girls fix their “specialty”. I think we have decided though for future planning we will not include a lunch time meal. We eat breakfast too late and that slides everything else on the schedule and we always have a bunch of food left over. 

The family each go their separate ways durning our vacation doing what ever might be on their fun list. Lisa and Gary and Heather and John do al or of hiking and walking, The kids did zip lining and white water rafting and shopping at the “tourist trap” store. I took the entire family out to a favorite restaurant for one of our evening meals. That one cost me $600.00 and there was no alcohol bought . That’s one reason we chose that particular restaurant. If they had bought alcohol I suspect the price would easily have gone up another $200.00.  And tea and soda’s work just as well. 

So now I’m home and there is a lot of lawn to mow and weeds to pull. We had plenty of rain here while we were gone so the growing just kept happening. I also need to fill bird feeders or the birds will beat me up. 

That’s it for today. It was a wonderful vacation, I love being with all of the family but I’m still basically a homebody. 

Have a blessed week. 

 `Wednesday night. It’s been a busy couple of days and I don’t have a lot to write about. Today we went for Kate to get her blood taken for her Friday doctor’s appointment. She got the results on My Chart this afternoon and most everything looked pretty good. This appointment is with Dr. Jackson who is our family physician. It’s hopefully going to be a fairly quick appointment. She has a hair appointment shortly after her doctor’s appointment and she doesn’t want to be late. And, —- as soon as her hair is done, we head out for our vacation. We need to get south of Lexington, KY before we quit for the day. 

Tomorrow she has an appointment to have her toenails done. Then we come home and I have a bunch of things to get done before we take off for a week. 

So that’s it maybe until a couple of weeks. Peace.