And a glorious morning to you on this 5th day of February. It is sunny but colder than a polar bear's rump. The birds have fluffed themselves up and the squirrels looked all puffed up too. It is 18 degrees with a windchill that walks right through you. I have to go to the office today and do three hours of office duty. I think I'll take my Surface Pro and a flash drive and work on my sermon for the 25th of February. I have it started but have reached a point that seems to be a dead end road. That happens sometimes and then I need to back up and re-look at the directions that I thought I was starting from.

We had a relatively quiet Sunday. Of course we started the day at church and it was my first Sunday as co-pastor of Zoar church and I delivered the sermon. I think it went over well and they didn't decide to fire me even though I went long. I was thinking one day that I wonder what would happen if I got up to give a sermon and all I said was; "God said to be good!", and then sat back down. If nothing else, it would be memorable. After church we went to New Harmony, IN for a very nice lunch at The Red Geranium Restaurant. It is a nice place and the menu is a little "foo-foo" and sometimes pricey, but it was a nice quiet meal and we enjoyed it.

Yesterday was also Super Bowl Sunday for football fans across the nation. I am not a sports watcher and haven't watched a football game all year. Part of that was out of protest because of the players refusing to stand for the National Anthem. I know Julie and Jim were in full Patriots gear for the game and I understand that since they lived in the Boston area for over two decades. So, while I didn't watch the game, I was hoping their team would win. But --- twas not to be. The Philadelphia Eagles won their first ever Super Bowl so I feel good for their fans; except for the ones that had to celebrate by rioting and destroying public and private property. I've never understood the concept of expressing one's joy through destructive actions. I mean, who thinks like that??? My take on the whole thing is, regardless of who won the Super Bowl, the world is no better or worse off than it was before the game was played. I understand the hype over the game and it is a national thing, but on the other hand, I don't understand people paying thousands of dollars to go sit in a crowded stadium to watch a game that they could watch on television.

I need to refill the bird feeders again today sometime. I guess I'll wait until I get home from work. Maybe it will be a bit warmer. I think we are supposed to go up to around thirty degrees today. The Accuweather app is warning that we may be having an ice storm tomorrow night into Wednesday morning. Of course the reports all all over the place at this point. But if it goes as predicted we could get a couple inches of snow and maybe a quarter of an inch of ice. The snow I don't mind, the ice --- I'm not a fan. But, I'll for sure put down some ice melt ahead of time and hope we don't need it.

That's it for today my friends. I need to get ready to go to work. (What a strange concept that still seems.) I pray you will have a blessed day and feel your life filled with the love of God. Peace.

It is another cloudy, dull morning out in the back yard this morning. Patches of snow remains over maybe 50% of the yard. The rest of the yard is brown and “dirty” from all of the sunflower seed hulls tha are on the ground. But, there is obviously a lot of good seed down there too because the little birds rummage through it constantly eating leftovers.

Speaking of leftovers, Ms. Kate and I debated going out for dinner again last night but we decided that we would rather stay home and heat up the left over veggie soup she had made the day before. Ms. Kate is the soup queen in my life. Her mother used to make some marvelous veggie soup too, but I think Ms. Kate has surpassed her mom. She also makes some marvelous cream types of soup; asparagus, mushroom, chowder, potato, you name it, she can make it and it is always delicious. She has been known to have soup parties and has made several kinds of soup for those. They have always gone over extremely well. And when she makes a pot of soup, she make a large pot of it, so we sometimes share it with the neighbors.

We went to the movie matinee yesterday and saw “Hostiles”. I had been waiting for it to come out but we held off until the crowds weren’t a factor to share the flu. We even took Clorox wipes with us and wiped down the arms of our seats. But the theater only had four other couple attending the movie and we all set far apart so it worked out well. Hostiles is a good movie. It was much “slower” than I expected it to be but it developed a very good story. It is about a battle hardened cavalry captain who was given the task of escorting a Native American chief and his family, who are prisoners of the US government, to Montana. The chief is dying of cancer and has asked to be able to go there to die. The captain hates all Indians but as his last duty before retirement, has been ordered to do this task. The question looms as to who are the real Hostiles.

Yesterday was Groundhog Day and the rodent allegedly saw his shadow. That is supposed to indicate that we will not be having an early spring. In reality of course it means nothing. But it gives people something to talk about. What I know is that my daffodils are up about an inch now and as I look at the pussy willow tree outside my sunporch, I can see the first hints of budding pussy willow blossoms starting to come out. So I say, the heck with that stupid rodent; I’ll signs of God’s promise that slowly but surely, this winter shall pass and once again spring will be in full bloom.

With that, it is time stop and read my morning devotional and express my gratitude for yet another day upon this earth. How about you joining me?  Peace.

That beautiful clear blue sunny sky out there certainly disguises the fact that it is seventeen degrees with a “real feel” of five. My backyard buffet guests though don’t seem to mind it too much. They are busy flying in and out stocking up on energy to keep them warm. I put some bread out there yesterday morning for them but them we got about a half an inch of snow that kind of covered it up. But they have discovered it this morning, mostly the starlings are eating it. The small birds wait until the starlings leave and then they swoop down and clean up the crumbs that the starlings make and leave. I’ve had a wren or two and some sparrows hopping around the bread grabbing bites. I guess the squirrels are sleeping in this morning because I haven’t a seen any yet. That is great because theCardinals are at the feeders without interruption for a change. They sure look beautiful with the sun shining on them.

Our snowfall was what I call a convenient snow. It stuck to the trees and grass and roofs but not to the streets and driveways or walks. It was a wet snow too so it made for some very pretty scenery. By now, it is already gone from the trees. We are maybe going to get some more again tomorrow night and into Sunday. I really hope it holds off on Sunday. That is Super Bowl Sunday which means that there will be a lot of people out there driving to parties etc and they will be drinking and that is not a good combination with snow or icy roads. Speaking of Super Bowl, I haven’t watched a single football game this year but the Patriots are playing again in the game so maybe I’ll watch some of it. Julie and Jim are die-hard Patriots fans so itt will be incredibly noisy over at their house. When they come here and there is a Pats game on, Ms. Kate tells Jim he has to go to the basement if he wants to watch the game because he gets so loud. LOL. I have to laugh at the die-hard fans and their emotions during the game. One would think they personally own the team or something.

Happy Friday to you! You’ve almost made it through another work week. I hope it has been an excellent week for you. My new position officially started yesterday although I went in for office hours early in the week. This Sunday I give my first sermon as the co-pastor of the church as opposed to being a “guest pastor”. I’m excited and feeling blessed.

I think Ms. Kate and I are going to goto the 1245 matinee today to see “Hostiles”. She is feeling much better from the whatever crud she had and I think the theater should be relatively empty so not too many people sitting there with the flu. Maybe we’ll take along some alcohol wipes to wipe down the arms of the seats so we’ll pick up a few less germs.

Today is Groundhog Day. I haven’t heard whether the groundhog saw his shadow or not. It’s important because whether a rodent sees its shadow is critical to whether we will have an early spring or not. What a silly tradition that is.

My coffee cup is empty and I must refill it and get on with other things. Have a wonderful Friday. Have a talk with your Creator and Savior. It will brighten your tire weekend. Peace.

Good morning! Welcome to a brand new day, produced by, directed by, and brought to you by God! How neat is that. You and I were allowed yet another day to be alive on this earth and now we have to decide what to do with it. I don’t know about you. But I’m dstarting my brand new day off with another one of God’s most wonderful creations, —- coffee. After I finish writing my blog I will play a couple of my computer games that I play every day, — Criminal Case, (two versions) and Bingo. Then perhaps I will be ready to get up and get busy. In the meanwhile, I’m also enjoying my birds and other critters out there at the buffet. For the most part I have had an empty yard this morning with the exception of the long-haired black and white cat that wanders through. But all it did was look around for a bit, poop in my flowerbed, and leave. (Thanks for the fertilizer dude!) Now, I have one squirrel out there and a couple of cardinals have flown through but that is about it. It is a windy day but forty-seven degrees. I filled all of the feeders last evening so I don’t know why my guests have not arrived as of yet. But —- they will; they always do. Perhaps the cat is sitting where I can’t see it but they can. This cat chases squirrels right up the tree.

Yesterday I had a good meeting with pastor Art and Karen, our secretary. I think we got most of the month’s events lined up and on the calendar. February and March are busy months. The Lenten season begins on February 14th and that brings extra events like Lenten meals and a Bible study every Wednesday evening. I’ll be preaching the Ash Wednesday service and we will do the Imposition of Ashes and Holy Communion. Art has also started a Wednesday morning Bible study, and the local church association will be having Saturday morning Lenten breakfasts. Our church will host one of those. So, the next seven to ten weeks are going to be busy, especially for a couple old guys like Art and me who have come out of retirement and are supposed to be working only part time. The silly thing is —- we create most of our own extra work. He has started this new Bible study and I have begun writing a Tenebrae Service for Maundy Thursday service. Loving what you do can be exhausting.

This coming Sunday we are bringing two new members to the congregation. That will make five new members in the last six weeks or so. What a joy. The attendance is up. Every Sunday in January we had a higher attendance than we did a year ago. God is blessing our congregation.

My buffet guests are finally arriving in full force. I have lots of cardinals and goldfinches at the moment as well as junkos, sparrows, and a couple of mockingbirds. I think it is time to sit and sip my coffee and just enjoy the blessings God has sent my way. May your day be filled with God’s grace. Shalomn.

Happy mid-week! I woke up in time to see the announced celestial events; the “Blood Moon” and lunar eclipse, but the clouds prevented that. Oh well, There will be another chance in February at least for a Blue Moon. Those occur when there is a second full moon in a month. I probably would not have seen the eclipse anyway because it was to occur just as the moon was setting and we have too many trees and houses to see the moon at horizon.

But the morning wasn’t wasted because the Bluebirds are at the buffet this morning again. They have been here steady for over a week and that gives me hope that they will maybe hang around. My sister-in-law, Karen has some that stay around her place during the summer and I have a house just for them. She does too because I built hers.

I have short office hours this morning. Art and I have agreed that on Wednesdays we will both go in to the office so we can meet and compare notes and calendars with Karen, the church secretary. I think that arrangement is going to work out well. He is starting a new Bile study this morning at 0900. I think he has about six people signed up for it. They are studying the book of James.

The President of the United States gave his State of the Union address last night to the nation. I didn’t watch it. I get so tired of politicians. I don’t generally talk politics especially in this forum but I just want to say that I think the President is trying very hard to do the right things for this country. True, he is about as brash and obnoxious a person as I have ever listened to but I think his heart is in the right place. The problem is that he is an outsider from the professional politicians that have been in Washington for decades and he goes against their programs that are built to just make them money and keep them in office. The opposition party, the democrats have had only one agenda in the last twelve months and that is to obstruct anything he wants to do. They have no agenda to help America, just an agenda to derail anything he wants to do. Frankly, this country is in a hell of a mess with all of the division and hatred that is spewed by both sides politicians and it is spilling over into the streets through social media. But —- I keep praying and people of faith keep praying. Again, the problem there is we are all praying for a different outcome. God’s gonna’ slap us all one of these days.

Well, it is shower time and get to work time. I pray your day will be full of warmth and love and blesssings from God. Peace.

It looks like I just jumped right over Monday and here it is Tuesday morning. And —- it is a bright and sunshiny morning at that. However, at twenty seven degrees, it is a cold one too.

I did have a Monday but it was spent doing something I haven’t done in seventeen years; office hours. Yep, I have officially gone back to work, albiet part time. The congregation voted Sunday to hire me as their co-pastor. While they continue to search for a permanent pastor. So, I’ll be sharing duties with Pastor Art for some unknown period of time. Hopefully we will be able to get a good candidate for a full time pastor some time this year. But, in the mean time, I’m thrilled to be serving a congregation again. I really needed the year off that I took. I dearly loved my last work situation but after being there twelve and a half years, I was tired and felt I wasn’t doing them the job they deserved. Now I have been refreshed and rested and the brain cells are operating once again. The fact that it is part time makes it very palatable. But, I do have office hours on Monday morning and on Wednesday morning. It’s not a big deal. I can use the time for sermon writing and working on other programs.

I need to fill feeders again today. I can see ten of them that are empty. Tat still leaves none. That have food in them but we are expecting to have cold weather along with rain and maybe some snow ost of the week, so I need to make sure everybody has food. I have a half dozen squirrel out here this morning running around from feeder to feeder trying to get an easy bite of food. They are res[ponsible for the fact that most of the food is gone in the first place. But, once the “easy feeders are empty then they start on the harder feeders to eat from and they either knock then down or tear the up. They are relentless in their determination. I’m watching a squirrel stretch itself like crazy to pull a feeder up to get a sunflower seed. It manages to get one but what it doesn’t realize that while it has the opening to him, it was pouring send out the other side to the ground. Sigh!!

Ms. Kate and I need to go to Office Depot today. We are both out of printer ink for our respective printers. I started to print a document last eveing and couldn’t. I need to stop by the bank on the way cause ink is expensive,

That’s it for today. I hope your day is blessed and full of love. Be grateful for your blessings and share them with someone who needs an extra smile. Peace.

I would like to call this a sunny Saturday but no such luck today. Instead we’ll call it a soggy Saturday. I’m not site when it started raining but it was raining when I got up. I think it is supposed to be this way for a good portion of the day. But, it isn’t storming or snowing or anything like that. It is just rain. The only danger involved with it is the hypnotic affect of the rain drop hitting my sun porch roof and possibly causing me to drift off to snooze land.

Apparently Mr. Mole only got a headache out of his stomping yesterday because I see a fresh run this morning out in the yard. Maybe I should take my potato fork and jab along the run and possibly kill it that way. There are all kinds of methods listed on the World Wide Web on how to get rid of moles but  who knows if they work. My folks used to use those steel trap things that you put down in a run. I’ve had them in the past but I don’t think I ever actually killed one. There is also some poison that one can buy and drop down in the run but who knows if they are still using that same run. It’s frustrating.

Ms. Kate needs me to take her to GFS this morning for a little grocery shopping. She has to bake a cake for the after-service luncheon tomorrow. I know she is making a pineapple upside down cake and I thought she bought all of the ingredients for that that other day. But, she said she wants to make a second cake and I suspect it might have something to do with a kind of cake I asked about the other day. I’ve been hungry for what I would call a “celebration” cake. You know, one of those commercial bakery cake that say congratulations or some such and have that delicious icing on them. Sometimes a fellow gets an idea in their mind about something that just sounds so good, —- and it is all you can think of. I don’t want a lot, just a piece. I know Sam’s Club makes them but I don’t want a huge cake, just a piece. But, Ms. Kate makes a delicious pineapple upside down cake too and I’m looking forward to that.

Despite the rain, I have a lot of guests at the buffet this morning; several cardinals, junkos, finches, sparrows, wrens, woodpeckers and of course a couple of squirrels. The only ones that haven’t been here this morning is the starlings and they aren’t welcome anyway because they don’t behave very well. It is nice that all of the other birds get a chance to eat without the starlings bullying them out of the way. The rain is light enough that some of the birds are actually singing which just adds another level to the beauty and blessings.

Ms. Kate and I were going to go to the movie last evening but we decided that with this terrible flu epidemic that is sweeping the entire nation, we probably didn’t need to be cooped up in a theater with possible flu carriers. This thing is like the plague. Some people show symptoms of having it and two days later they are dead. It has taken the lives of thirty nine children so far. I don’t think they have a number for the adults that have died from it yet. But it is dangerous stuff. Ms, Kate and I got our flu-shots early in the season and they say that will help. But people our age are particularly susceptible to it. There are placeone needs to go but a movie can wait.

Tomorrow is Sunday my friends. If you aren’t down with the flu or some such, I hope you will take time and go to your favorite house of worship and spend some time giving thanks and praise to God. You’ve made it through another week and any difficulties you may have over come were done so with the help of God. Any blessings you received, came from God. So take some time to give God the glory God rightly deserves.

Until next time, I send you God’s peace.