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. 

June 1st, 2026. We begin a new month and at the end of this month 2026 will be half over. Just wow!

I’ve been staying busy trying to stay ahead of the weeds in the garden and keeping the grass cut. We’ve also had our share of doctor’s appointments and I have as you know been busy preaching. I preached at Christ UCC again yesterday. I will pitch there again on the 21st of June and then on the 28th of June I will preach at Wadesville Christian church. The church that I preached at yesterday voted on a friend of mine to be their interim pastor starting in August. Interesting he enough, he asked me if I would be interested in doing Supply preaching at the church he has been doing supply for. I told him I would love it so he is going to provide my name and number to the president of that church. We will see what happens. (Have sermon, will travel; LOLOL)

 

We are five days from our family reunion and everyone is really excited about it. Menus are being planned, supplies are being bought, packing has started and the daily chat continues. It still looks like everyone will make it except Lauren and Jon. I really hate that they can’t make it. Kate and I are responsible for two meals. I’m doing “papa breakfast” on Sunday morning. That will be waffles, sausage, and eggs. I will enlist the grandkids to help me because that is our tradition. Maybe we’ll bring the great-grandkids in on it and they can continue the tradition. Kate and Lisa will be making meatloaf by request on Tuesday dinner time and I think Monday evening we will be making the homemade ice cream. No doubt we will be fixing entire too much food and schedules will have to be tailored. Josh, Christina and they’re two kids will be leaving on Tuesday afternoon so they’re visit will be short. But at least they get to come. The week is going to fly by. 

My tomatoes are producing already. I counted six on yesterday. They won’t be ready for a couple of weeks but at least I know they are producing. 

That’s is for today. I hopped you have a blessed month. Peace. 

 It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. I honestly have simply forgotten that I do this. That’s probably not a good thing, forgetting to do what was once a daily routine. 

There isn’t a lot to write about though. Life has gone on. Routine things like tending the yard and flower beds, doctor’s appointments and more doctor’s appointments. Ms. Kate is going through a rough patch again and is back in AFIB. Her doctor has scheduled her for a heart ablation on July 10th. The AFIB has left her feeling totally drained of strength. But she does what she can. I feel for her. 

I just came in from mowing my yard and Dan’s yard. This is Memorial Day weekend and I want the yard to look good. I have spent quite a few hours in the flowerbeds these past couple of weeks. The peonies and the iris needed to be deadheaded. I got a lot of it done but have not finished. We have had rain for much of this week and expect it to rain more through the majority of next week. I was lucky that the grass is dry enough to mow without clumping up. 

My whole family is counting down the days until our family vacation in Sevierville, TN. It starts two weeks from today. All of the family is supposed to be there except Jon and Lauren. Jon simply can’t afford it because he’s still waiting on a job, and Lauren has a MOTOCROSS race on each end of our week. But, we’ll at least get to watch her on NBC Television Sports the first weekend. 

I’m preaching tomorrow and again next Sunday. Then I preach again on the 21st of June at one church and June 28th at a new church. It is keeping busy writing and I love that. 

That’s it. I hope you have a pleasant Memorial Day weekend. Be safe out there. Also tomorrow is Pentecost. Take time to celebrate the birthday of the Christian church. 

Peace. 

 I always tell myself I am going to do better about blogging  but then here it is, Wednesday again and I have not been on for five days or so. Truth be known, you haven’t missed anything at all. Humdrum is humdrum. 

Julie and Jim came down last Saturday for a quick visit. I missed part of their visit because I was at a conference at church with the Evangelical Association. That conference was a really good thing though. I had a session on EA polity and truly enjoyed it. I’m glad our church hosted the conference because I would not have gone otherwise. Their meetings are usually held over close to St. Louis and I won’t drive that far for a meeting. But, Julie and Jim are coming back this weekend for Mother’s Day. That’s a great thing. 

We have been busy doing unwanted stuff with our banking. I know I told you about our check take we had sent to pay our Visa bill being stolen and “washed” and cashed under a frightened name. Well of course that set off a number of events that we had to tend with, not the least of which was that our bank said they were going to cancel our account because of the fraudulent transaction. That meant I had to change where my direct deposit from my retirement check went and change a couple of automatic payouts etc. I called the bank and they told me that they would cancel my account and open me a new one but that I had to physically come to one of their locations to do that. They are in Missouri, so that ain’t happening. They recommended that I take my money out of their bank before they close it. So, I wrote a check for the full amount  and deposited it in my local bank. I also now have my retirement check being direct deposited in my local bank. It was all just a hassle but I think it is taken care of. I left $5.00 in the Missouri account and they can send me a cashier’s check for that on the 18th when they officially close my account. 

On a happier note, one month from today we check in to our vacation home with all of the family. That is exciting stuff and the entire family is counting days. So far, I think only Jon and Lauren won’t make it. Jon is busy with his job and so is Lauren. We are going to miss them.  We haven’t seen them is a long time. But we all knew the day was coming when the grandkids and now great grandkids would become adults with their own lives and daily stuff. So, we are truly grateful do get to see them. 

It is a chilly day here today (56 degrees) and there is moisture in the air from the rain last night. But a pleasant day to be outside. But the sun is finally shining and that makes it “look” warmer. 

I guess that is all the catching up I have for you. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 May Day! May Day! May Day!!! Yes, it is May the first, and it is 9:30 at night. I’m watching one of my paranormal shows that Julie, Lisa and I follow. Ghost hunter that react to a lot of noises and never “see” anything to speak of. But at left they aren’t like some of the shows, one in particular, that runs into “demons and being “possessed” every show. I hate the obvious fake stuff and the stars of these other shows call them out all the time. But, the girls and I like to watch them and talk and laugh about them. 

We had stuff to do today. Kate had a hair appointment this morning. Then we went to the bank and to the Walgreens to pick up a prescription diet Kate. This afternoon I planted some plants that Kari had brought me. Then Kate made two angel-food cakes. One of them is for me to take to the church in the morning. I have an all day meeting with the Evangelical Association folks tomorrow. Our church has agreed to host the meeting. So Kate made a Kate soup the lunch dessert. The other cake is for us. Julie and Jim are coming over tomorrow and we will share it. We haven’t seen them in a while so it will be nice. 

I have a couple of things that I want Jim to do because he is tall. I save these jobs for his visit rather than get on a ladder myself and get fussed at by Kate. She thinks I’m old or something. 

That’s it for tonight. I hope you have a blessed weekend. Peace. 

 

Mid week again. We had another “doctor morning”. Kate had an appointment with one of her heart doctors. She is back in AFIB for the “umpteenth” time. Doctor is recommending a Cardio ablation this time instead of doing another Cardioversion. She has put in the order but it will probably take a couple of months to get it on the schedule. I reckon until then, we just stay with the current meds and -she will remain in AFIB.  The risk of the ablation or that she has some kind of blood clotting disorder and an ablation could cause a clot to form and she could have another heart attack or stroke. She has been told by another doctor that her disorder is what caused her to have three mis-carriages, her heart attack and her stroke. The odds are small but certainly there. We suspected this was going to be the only real option. It’s all in God’s hands. 

We were facing strong storms on Monday evening and night but they never actually formed. We did get some beneficial rain though, 1.75 inches worth. We got some more last night. I woke up around 0300 and could hear the rain coming down hard. But it is sunny outside now and the high today is 63. The entire country has been going through really weird and crappy weather. 

Tomorrow I have to take the new car down for some kind of Armour protection coating to be put on. I stuff it is a weather protection or speeding. It was part of the package when we bought the car. Here an interesting thing for us; When we had our last Cadillac I had a personalized Indiana license plate put on it —- K8SCDY, for Kate’s Caddy. When we sold it, I kept that plate incase we should ever buy another Cadillac. I’ll, we went to the BMV yesterday and they put the plate back in service and I now have it on the new car. I’m very happy about that. I’m also easy to please. LOL. 

That’s it for today. I hope the rest of your week is fully blessed. Peace.