Brilliant blue and forty four this morning. What a great start to the day. My neighbor across the fence has someone mowing their yard already this morning. I guess I'll finish my computer stuff and do the same this morning.

There are lots of birds up and at 'em today. I really enjoy the fact that we have so very many Cardinals in our yard. They are beautiful birds. When the Goldfinches are sitting in proximity to them it makes for quite a nice picture. The Starlings --- not so much. But, God made them all so we might as well enjoy them. I had a squirrel this morning that was hanging upside down by his toenails trying to get to a seed cylinder that we have in a cage feeder. He finally managed to get a chunk of the food that had come loose. He took it up on top of the feeder, ate it, looked back down at the cylinder and I guess decided it wasn't worth the effort to try again. He ran off to an easier feeder to scrounge from. Rats --- they are just fuzzy tailed rats.

Lauren is riding in the World-Mini MX races today and tomorrow. They are showing it on closed circuit television and we will be able to see her race right her on our computers. It is really exciting to watch and we are so thankful that they have decided to broadcast it like this. Even though she is 2500 miles away, we get to "be there" for and with her.

This evening is the Maundy Thursday service and first communion for our confirmands. This will complete their confirmation experience. We are doing a Tenebrae service with Holy Communion so I hope it will be inspirational to the congregation. We have followed the service with a prayer vigil for the past few years but interest waned, so I'm not doing it this year. I think we will leave the church open though for anyone that wants to come by and sit in silence and pray. They will have brand new pew cushions to sit on this year. We just got them installed within the past two days and they look great and are comfortable.

I'm offering up prayers of gratitude again this morning. Life is good if we just allow ourselves to realize it. We humans grind ourselves down with minutia so very often. If we have our families to love us, friends who care about us and a God who fills our hearts with grace and love --- we should be happy. If we are blessed with good health, and a home, those are bonuses. I count myself fortunate and blessed because I have all of that and I don't have any unfulfilled needs in my life. Everything else is just fluff and stuff that either can be an aggravation or a challenge or a blessing. It depends on us to decide which it will be. I choose to make all of my challenges a blessing.

I hope your day is as good as mine.

It is 34° on this brilliant blue morning. The great thing is that there is no snow like the poor folks up in the UP of Michigan have today. From first look out of the porch, everything seems to be alright. So, Lord, thank you for the continued blessings. As our weather guy said last night, people get anxious to plant stuff outside when a warm day comes along, but he said that we should really wait until Mother's Day to be safe. I do know that when Ms. Kate starts new roses from "slips", we cover them with a jar until Mother's Day, so maybe the weather guy is right.

Well, I got my pedicure yesterday and it was interesting. I have to admit that my feet did feel better afterwards, but I wasn't crazy about the process. Ms. Kate says it will be easier and more pleasant next time now that they have my feet in good shape. Yeh, --- there may be a next time. It does beat bending over and trying to trim them myself.

My world outside the porch is getting greener everyday. I'm going to have to mow the lawn in the next few days I reckon. That means of course that it is time to get the snow blade off of the John Deere and put the mower deck on. It isn't an easy thing to do by myself, so hopefully I can get some help from my neighbor, Dan, from across the street. Next week I have signed up to mow the lawn at St. Lucas. We take turns doing it rather than hiring someone to do it for us. They bought a new John Deere ZTR last year. It does a great job but it was hard to get used to. I'm sure I will have to re-learn again next week since I only used it the one time.

We have lots to do today again. We have to finish running the bulletins for three services. Tomorrow is Maunday Thursday, the celebration of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ. It is from this celebration that the church universal derived the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Of course not all churches celebrate it the same way and many do not celebrste it at all.

My prayer this morning is for peace during the remainder of the Holy Season. How horrible it is that people fight and kill one another over how to believe in and worship God. So, I pray that the world simply stop and acknowlege God in a spirit of prayer and leave others to do the same. Have a most blessed day. I already have.

Tax day ---- April 15th, and there is a wind chill factor of twenty seven degrees outside. Brrrrrr!  I'm glad I'm inside with a good cup of coffee.

The wind and the temps have the critters on the move. I filled feeders yesterday and they are busy flying in and out grabbing energy to keep warm. I have one squirrel out there on the feeder we allocate for them. He'll be there all day or until he emptys it. There was a second squirrel out there on a different feeder when I came out here but I chased it off, at least for now.

The tulips have closed in on themselves against the temperature. The daffodils are getting past their prime and will be starting to lay over and be done. But, I give God thanks for the beauty they created when they bloomed. They were the announcement of spring for me. The Redbud trees are now blooming and the Dogwood trees are starting to show their buds. Last week I transplanted five peonys from the north side of the house to the west side so they could get proper sun. They have grown a foot since last Saturday. I was amazed when I saw them yesterday. I hope things don't get hurt tonight as we are supposed to have a hard freeze of 27 degrees. But the bottom line is that God has once again brought forth a beautiful world for us to enjoy. Obviously God is a far better gardener than I am.

Ms. Kate and I have appointments for pedicures this morning. I really need my toenails trimmed because they have gotten long and ugly; and bending over my belly to do it isn't easy. But this will be my first pedicure and I'm not sure about doing this. My feet are extremely tickelish and I'm not crazy at the thought of having them touched. Ms. Kate says it "feels wonderful" so I guess we will chance it. The worst that can happen would be a knee jerk reaction to being touched and kicking the guy or gal off of their stool.

Prayers again go out this morning for Byron who is to have some more tests done this week and also for my nephews wife Christina who is also facing some tests.  God's will be done and may each find comfort and peace with their diagnosis.

Well, the fat boys have moved in but are having a hard time hanging on to the feeders because of the stiff breeze that is blowing. I need to refill my coffee cup too. I pray God's blessing on you this day and throughout this Holy Week, and I thank God for my continual flow of blessings in my life.

April showers for this morning and I suppose, most of the day, at least on and off. But who could complain after the beautiful weekend God gave us. We took advantage of it too. Ms. Kate and I took a convertible ride on Saturday and then again on Sunday we took the convertible to church. So, if it showers today, that's alright. Unfortunately, our 63 degrees this morning is also going to be the high temp for today and by tonight it is supposed to be cold and wet enough for a few snow flakes.

The earth and air looks clean and green this morning. There are more and more leaves on the trees and the flowering trees are magnificent. My next door neighbor to the west has a flowering crab apple tree that has trippled in size since we moved here thirteen years ago. This time of year it blooms beautifully. The great thing about it is that it is in her yard and not mine. I don't have to clean up all of the stuff it drops during the year.

Cardinals and Goldfinches are the most frequent visitors this morning along with a couple of Starlings. The Robins  are still gatering nesting material. At least two of my feeders are empty of sunflower seed and need to be refilled. I'm still surprised that we are suddenly down to only a couple of squirrels. I don't know why, --- and I'm certainly not complaining.

It was a good weekend with the churches and family. We got our casket shopping done with my mother. We know what funeral home she wants to use and a general idea of what she thinks her casket should look like. Beyond that it was pretty much as I knew it would be ;---- lots of talk but no actual commitment being made. That's just the way my mother shops.

Palm Sunday went well. We confirmed a total of seven young children, one at St. Paul's and six at St. Lucas. We had close to 100 people at St. Lucas. Afterwards, we took our our guests to R'z Resturant for lunch. This coming week we will have bulletins to run on Wednesday as well as our final choir practice, then the Maundy Thursday worship service on Thursday, a Sunrise Service with the Cantata on Sunday followed by a Parish breakfat and the normal two Sunday services. Then it will be time to crash and burn!!!

This mornig I give God thanks for spring rains that wash away some of the pollen that comes with the beautiful blossoms. I also give God thanks for this Holy Week and the gift of His Son who was crucified for our salvation. I ask for the continuing flow of words and messages if I am to continue as a pastor of these two churches. Sometimes it seems I have run out of things to present and I wonder if God isn't telling me that I'm done.

So, have a most wonderful Monday. Its the start of a whole new set of days to make an impact on the world.

It isn't morning, nor am I on the sun porch. Ms. Kate and I sat out there for three hours this morning just gabbing about everything and nothing at all. We went through a pot and a half of coffee.  It was a most enjoyable morning and I didn't want to stop and write a blog.

It was a beautiful morning out there though. There were Cardinals everywhere this morning as well as several Titmouse, lots of Goldfinches, Blue-jays, and Robins. The only thing missing this morning were the squirrels. We only had one n the yard at any one tine the whole morning. That was strange, but it was also very enjoyable.

So, --- today we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a convertible ride. The temp was 77 degrees, the sun was shining, and the wind was mild. We took a small road trip to Vincennes, IN which is around fifty miles from our house, to eat at a place called Montana Mikes. We've eaten there several times and have always enjoyed it; however, today was sorely disappointing. the service wasn't very good and the food was worse. We only go there a couple of times a year, and we may just skip a year. But the ride and being out in a beautiful spring day made it worth the trip.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and it will be Confirmation Sunday. I assume that will mean a larger than usual crowd at the churches as the relatives of the confirmands come in for the big day. We made a lot of extra bulletins. Tomorrow also kicks off Holy Week. We have a Maundy Thursday service this week an then Easter Sunrise service next Sunday.

So, my prayers today are prayers of gratitude for the seven young people that have decided that they wish to become members of the church tomorrow. I pray that they will remember the promises they are making to the church and to God concerning following their faith journey and church participation. So many get confirmed and then we don't see them until they want to have a wedding in the church.

Have a blessed evening.

I'm up before the birds again today, but just barely. I sat out here for about five minutes before I started even hearing anything moving around or singing. But slowly I started hearing one here and there. Then the birds started flying in. So far the fuzzy tails are still not here. It won't be long though.

There are a lot of clouds this morning. I think we are predicted to have showers on and off today. That will be fine as long as it isn't anything major. Yesterday I transplanted two azelias and five peonys. It wouln't hurt to have them get water today. This is a second move for the peonys. They came from a field behind my folks house before my mother sold the farm. We just didn't have them planted in a very good spot. Now, assuming they survive the move, they will get good sunshine and should be happy.

Today should be "interesting". My sister and I are taking my mother to look at caskets. Mother is 96, and insists that she "wants to be put away proper", what ever that means. I guess we'll find out what that means today. She will want the most expensive whatever that they have to offer. Reeling her in to reality will just honk her off. So, we'll go casket window shopping today. After that we are coming back here for our "Easter lunch". I'm a bit busy on Sunday mornings, especially Easter Sunday. There is no way we have time to drive an extra 100 miles just to pick up my mother for the sunrise service and lunch etc. So, we are celebrating today.

The back yard is beautiful. The daffodils are fully in bloom and we have have lots and lots of them. I should have maybe mowed the yard yesterday but I ran out of time. The grass isn't all that tall but there is a lot of winter left over stuff that the lawn mower could smooth out.

My prayers this morning are again prayers of gratitude. Ms. Kate is sitting here beside me peeling "taters" for potatoe salad, my sister and brother-in-law are in town to celebrate with us, and life is good. God's blessing abound all around me. How could this anything other than a blessed day? Thank you God for my blessings.

I hope your day is as blessed.

It is a "too busy" day when I don't make time to sit out on the porch in the morning. That was the case yesterday and threatens to be the case today. This morning I 'm writing from the front seat of the car as Ms. Kate goes into the doctor's office for he blood work to be done.

However, I still have my coffee, and the sun is shining. But instead of listening and watching my birds and squirrels. --- I'm watching traffic out on Highway 41.

Yesterday we had shopping to do at Walmart, and at Sam's. But first we had to have lunch at O'Charlie's because it was free pie Wednesday. I some times think we are getting as bad as old people with a routine that says we got to go here or there because we can get something free. I've always hated that thinking and mentality. I don't know what bothers me about it, but it does.

We went up to the churches yesterday afternoon and ran the bulletins for this coming Sunday and for next Thursday's Maundy Thursday services. We got started on there Easter sunrise service too but time ran out and we had to go upstairs for choir practice. The cantata is going well.

Ms. Kate is back and now we got to move on.

Have a blessed day.