What is up with these squirrels this morning? They have certainly given rise to the definition of "feeling squirrelly". I have four of them running and chasing, and fighting, all over the yard, the trees, and my roof. I don't know if it is a territorial dispute or a mating session. Bunch of  weirdos.

And a happy absolutely beautiful Tuesday morning to you. It is forty five degrees but the sun is shining brightly. I went out and put the mail in the box and it almost felt warm out there. I think I need to do something productive outside today and take advantage of this beautiful weather. Yesterday was a productive day inside as I managed to get a sermon written. So a little celebration of fresh air is in order. I think I'll start breaking down my limb and twig pile that has built up over the winter. I break them up into small pieces and put them into the trash can. I wish I had a "burn barrel" but I don't.  But, better to let the trash man carry them off to the land fill than to add smoke to the atmosphere. But I do love the smell of the wood smoke. I have thought before that we might like one of those fire pits but we really don't have a place to put one. Besides, why sit out with the mosquitos when I can enjoy the same view from inside a screened in sunporch.

I notice that the daffodils are now starting to wane. Soon their blooms will be gone and they will just be greenery for awhile, Then even that will all just lay over to the ground and die back. But --- the tulips are looking healthy and will be blooming shortly, and the lilies are growing fast too. The azaleas are leafing out well and the peonies are coming up nicely too. So, we will have beautiful flowers around here for quite a while. The redbud trees are starting to bloom and our lilacs are coming along nicely as is the big snowball bush. I do love spring time of the year.

Julie is off to Orlandoo Florida this morning for a Barnes and Noble store managers conference. She will meet up and room with her best buddy, Karen, who manages a store in in MA. Those two are like peas in a pod. There will be a lot of gabbing and coffee drinking going on down there this week. And --- they might accidentally learn something.

It is mornings like this that just make a person be glad to be alive and able to enjoy God's creation. To be able to just sit here and enjoy watching the woodpeckers and robins, and a dozen cardinals and yes, even my insane squirrels that are still doing frantic antics, is just such a blessing. If all of humanity would and could just stop for one day and enjoy something like this, all at the same time --- it would so benefit the world. So, I urge you to do your part and stop for awhile and take in the beauty and peace that can come from absorbing that which God has made. Go stand outside in the sunshine and breathe in God's blessings and think nothing but positive thoughts. It will do your mind, your heart, and your soul good. Have a blessed day.

A blessed Monday morning to you! It is a chilly one at 47 degrees this morning and no sun is breaking through. I see patches of blue up there but no bright light in my micro-portion of the world just yet. The air is relatively still this morning with only the slightest movement of any leaves. The Corinthian chimes give off an occasional sound but I think that is from the birds landing on the branches next to them.

Easter has come and Easter has gone. Yesterday was a busy day and it all went off without a single hiccup. The choir sounded great doing their cantata, the church breakfast was excellent as it always is, the services were well attended, and our after services lunch at our favorite resturant was excellent.  Julie and Auggie came for the weekend and we enjoyed a great visit with her. Log another holiday in the books.

Now, Ms. Kate and I can concentrate on getting ready for our vacation. We are going to drive to California for Heather's wedding. We have only kind of "guesstimated" at where we are going to stop each day. But we know the route fairly well because we have driven across the country so many times. Generally we plan well in advance where we are going to stay and have our hotels laid out in advance and reservations made. This time, because we need to be there on a certain date and are limited on when we can leave, we may actually just do the old "let's see how far we can make it each day". We aren't crazy about that idea but there are always hotels. The problem is that there aren't always cities when you are ready to stop and we don't want to drive to exhaustion. We might have just flown out but we have a couple of end tables to take to Heather. One of these days I'm going to retire and when we travel we won't have schedules to keep. I am looking forward to that day more and more.

I see the observation side panel on my bluebird house is open again. I wonder what keep pulling that open.  I guess I am going to have to run a screw in it. There was a small nail holding it shut, but Idon't know what happened to that.

I have a mountain of writing to do before we take off on vacation. As you know, I can't just lay my fingers on a keyboard and magic happens. I spent some time last evening and came up with a few ideas but that is a long way from being ready to actually form a complete thought and write something that makes sense. But, I rely on the fact that God will let the words flow as they need to.

The sun has broken through the clouds and lit up my backyard kingdom. Unfortunately, it is time for me to head downstairs to my office. I hope you have a wonderful week. Never forget that God walks every step of your life with you either as defender, protector or the strength you need to take your next step. Have a blessed day.

A beautiful 47 degree morning greets me this morning out here in the sunporch. The sun is bright in a cloudless sky for a change from the last couple of days anyway. We were under a frost warning until 0900 in this area but we didn't see any of that around here.

Julie and Auggie dog came down yesterday afternoon to spend Easter with us. She and Auggie are in the family room behind me and both are gently snoring  on the couch. hearing their snoring has lulled me into a couple of drift offs too as I sit here. But, I 'm also having my coffee and the remains of a box of Dunkin Donut Munchkins that Jules brought me  from her area. We don't have Dunkin Donuts here. But, true to form, Auggie was sleeping beside Julie until I opened the box of Munchkins and ZAP! There was Auggie sitting beside me waiting for one. Not too spoiled!

I have a good variety of back yard friend this morning; lots of cardinals, junkos, doves, mockingbirds, finches and robins. I expect my Pilated woodpecker to show up this morning too. But, with Auggie here, what I won't have is squirrels. He does a good job of keeping them at bay.

I finished writing the wedding service for my daughter Heather last night. The wedding is five weeks from today. Starting Momday, when all of the Easter work is done, Ms. Kate and I need to get serious about planning our trip to California. This will be an exciting occasion. Heather's daughter Lauren will be her Maid of Honor and her son Jon will walk her down the aisle. The wedding will be on one of their beautiful golf courses they have in Riverside. It will be wonderful having all of my girls in one place again. I totally cherish those times.

We don't have anything on our radar today except Ms. Kate has to make something to take to the church for the parish breakfast in the morning. I think she is going to make a couple of pans of French toast casserole. That goes over well and makes great left overs if there is any. Church meals are always great because the food is always so good. It seems that everybody kind of has one or two "signature dishes" that you can count on them making. And there is always more than enough.

I hope your Easter Day is a joyful one. Take time to remember why we celebrate this occasion. It is critical to your soul. Blessings.

Lesson learned for today --- if I don't take advantage of a semi-warm day and fill my bird feeders, then I have to do it when it is 35 degrees out. Of course I alreaady knew that but was just too lazy to do anything about it yesterday until it was too late and we had other things to do. Priorities - priorities!! But the bottom line is that the birds all have food and I can quit feeling guilty. Of course the bad news is that I need to take my $100 bill and go to the bird food stores. I need to pick up a hundred pounds of sunflower seed as well as several other types of stuff. I must keep the critters happy or they will find somewhere else to dine.

We had a well attended Maundy Thursday service last evening. There were more folks there than I had thought might be; maybe fifty or so. I sang my solo and I guess it went alright. Ms. Kate said it sounded good. Our next thing will be the sunrise service on Easter Morning. I'm really looking forward to the Cantata. I think it is the best one we have tried to do and it is one that we pulled out of the filing cabinet from about twenty five years ago. I woud love for the choir to sing a couple more times before they quit for the summer.

Today is a cold and grey Good Friday. Very appropriate conditions for the occasion that we acknowledge; the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion on a cross. Of course on the secular side of this week, kids from kindergarten through college are on spring break. The stores are packed with "Easter Bunny" stuff and spring clothes for Easter wear. Walmart, Sam's, and Target will be packed today as people buy the eggs and candy for the bunny to leave, and they buy the traditional Easter ham for Sunday's dinner. Julie and the pup will be coming over yet this afternoon. Jim is not coming. He says he has a problem with his allergies and he also has to work. Julie says he is miserable from the pollen and stuff in the spring air. Personally, I suspect it might be a bit deeper than that. This is a "religious" weekend and Jim is not a person of faith for I guess a variety of reasons. I know none of his family was raised in the church. Ms. Kate and I didn't do a very good job of bringing our kids up in the church either but our children grew up with a knowledge of our beliefs. It does make a difference I think.

Lots of cardinals, finches, junkos, and woodpeckers are here now to dine at the buffet. I'm thrilled that I also have a bluebird checking out the bluebird house. I would love it if it decided to nest in there. I've had that bluebird house up for a couple of years and nothing has moved in. I've heard that it usually takes two or three years to get bluebirds to come to a house like that.

Time for me to get busy. Ms. Kate is filling her pill containers this morning and that takes quite a long time because she does a month or six weeks at a time. I'm helping with the laundry, a job I have never minded doing. Now I must read my Max Lucado devotions for the day and say my "gratefulls".  If I don't get around to writing tomorrow, know that I pray your Easter will be filled with the Holy Spirit of a Risen Savior. Blessings!

It is warm and rainy this morning as a spring storm passes through today. I laughed at the weatherman's description this morning when he said there will be buckets of rain coming down. But most of this is supposed to be through us by afternoon. Hopefully it won't still be raining this evening. We have our Maundy Thursday service at 1900 hours and bad weather tends to keep people away, especially our older crowd.

We have had a relaxing morning around here. Ms. Kate fixed us a great brunch of eggs, fried potatos, milk gravy, bacon and toast. It just doesn't get better than that for a brunch. I could eat a breakfast meal twice a day and be happy. When we lived in the Philippines we had a house girl (a live-in maid) who had no experience really with cooking food for American's. But -- she was engaged to one of my young airmen and he asked us to hire her and would Ms. Kate teach her to "cook American." I hired her for a smaller than usual salary and told her that as soon as she learned to cook me a "proper breakfast", I would give her a raise. It didn't take her long to master the art of over easy eggs, biscuits, milk-gravy, fried potatos and bacon. She got her raise and proved t be a very capable house girl. They eventually married, he went on to get his comission and become an officer. I saw then many years later and they were happily married and he was gaining weight! LOL.

I failed all of my outdoor friends yesterday and did not get the bird feeders filled. As usual there is still plenty of feeders that have food in them, but they can't go to their favorite feeders. I guess sometimes they have to resort to being "wild birds and squirrels" instead of my back yard pets. I had a new cat in the back yard this morning. It was well groomed and probably someone's pet. It seemed very comfortable around the house and even stopped to look in at me with out fear. I had heard the squirrels chittering at something earlier and I suspect that was the cause. This cat seem very interested in the squirrel that was sitting there chittering at it. I was hoping the cat would climb up the tree after that squirrel, but eventually they came to an "Obama agreement" and did nothing.

Ms. Kate and I now have all of the bulletins for the week run and cantata practice went very well last night; --- except for the walking part. Now, ---- we only have a dozen choir members and they need to walk down in six pairs of two to their chairs. It took ten minutes to figure out how they were going to do that. We can master singing Bach and Beethoven --- it's just walking we have a problem with. I just sit and laugh about it.

I guess I have milked reelaxing for its full benefit by now so I need to get to my office downstairs and do some work. Have a blessed day; stay in touch with God.

The fat old squirrel is sitting in the Pussy Willow tree just outside my sunporch and he is working himself to death to get sunflower seeds out of a feeder. I've said it before that I get amazed at these critters. If every American had the work ethic, determination, and stamina of a squirrel, there would be no unemployment in this country. However, the fact that he is trying to eat out of this particular feeder tells me that all of the others must be empty. I reckon I better do something about that today.

Welcome to another Wednesday. I have been kept busy so far this week and today of course will be no different. I have an appointment way out on the west side of town in an hour. Then this afternoon I need to go run the bulletins and the newsletter for this week. There will be extras to run since this is Easter Sunday and the C&E crowd will be out. That is the folks that come only on Christmas and Easter. I went up Monday and ran the bulletins for tomorrow night and for the Sunrise service on Sunday. Then I have to meet Ms. Brenda, our keybor]ard player at St. Lucas and rehearse my solo for the service tomorrow night, and after that we have a full rehearsal of the cantata.

Yesterday I decided that I could probably swap out my snow blade from my John Deere and put on the mower deck by myself. I got it done; ---- although I should spend some time in the "confession booth" for the language that came out of my mouth trying to get that last pin and cotter pin in place. I really needed someone on the other side of the mower to just hold it in place, but when there is no one --- ya' gotta just hold your math right and improvise.

It is a cloudy, 57 degree morning with a slight wind. Rain is moving in for late tonight and part of the day tomorrow. But, then while it might get a little cooler, the Easter weekend looks pretty good. I think the Easter bunny will probably be able to do his job.

Time for me to get ready and get to my appointment and start my day. I'm sorry this is short but know that it comes with prayers for you my readers. I pray you will have a blessed and peaceful day. Shalom.

A happy Tuesday morning to you. It is sunny and 46 degrees and the world is bright. I hear a fire truck running down the road two streets over, and now it sounds as if a second has joined it. Hopefully no one is hurt and it turns out to be nothing more than smoke from burnt toast. Alas, I suspect it will be more than that.

Tuesday of Holy Week. This is the day that Jesus is alleged to have gone into the temple and turned over the money tables I think. I don't know why we say that or believe it happened on Tuesday of thee week because there is nothing in the gospel about a timeline for the events of the week. In fact the event of turning the money tables over occurred early in the ministry according to one of the gospels. So, in reality, we don't know what actually happened. I know I sometimes wonder about the events that are portrayed in the Bible and I contemplate the significance of their reporting. In this instance, for example, Jesus had been going in and out of the temple all his life, so, -- what ticked him off this particular time. What caused him to suddenly decide that he was tired of the system as it was? I have an idea about that but --- you will just have to come to my church and hear it when I put it in sermon form. LOL

I went to the churches yesterday and ran and stuffed the bulletins for my first two services this week.  Then I came home and got started on my services for April. I also took my truck in for servicing So now both vehicles are spring and road ready. According to my odometer I wasn't due for an oil change in the truck yet but I last had it done in October. I don't put but about five thousand miles a year on my truck so it should last me a long times. It is eight years old and just does have 40,000 miles on it. We've had the Caddilac for only a year and a half and already have half that many miles on it.

My backyard guests this morning have been mainly starlings, You can tell I filled the bark butter paste feeders yesterday because they have been all over them. Only a couple of downy woodpeckers have come in to challenge the starlings. But, now, the cardinals are arriving for breakfast They always look so beautiful when the sun shines on them. Mr. Fuss-a-lot was here earlier making all kinds of racket. He didn't stay long. He basically came in, announced his presence and left. I guess he didn't like the company, I don't know. And of course, there are one or two squirrel out there to help themselves. I saw my rabbits running around in the yard again yesterday so I know they haven't gone too far.

I have prayers to lift up for some specific people today that have some challenges in their life at the moment. So, I pray that God will give them the strength to accept what must be and know that God walks beside them at all times. I also pray that anyone who reads this will find the peace that can rest in your soul because of a solid relationship with God. This is "the season" that we celebrate the sacrifice and death of Jesus Christ. As Christians we believe that Jesus was in fact the Son of God who came to earth specifically for the purpose of providing a path for our souls back to God's heavenly realm. Yet, if we focus on this during "this season", then we let our faith grow weak. Salvation is an everyday goal. The Resurrection is an everyday event. God is always present in our lives and is never further away than a prayer. Have a blessed day.