Wow! I actually saw a squirrel take on the starlings this morning over feeders possession. That is the first time I have ever seen the squirrels actually jump at a bird to get them off of a feeder. So, it has been a busy morning here at the buffet. I filled a bunch of the sunflower feeders yesterday afternoon. Today I need to fill the barkbutter paste feeders and suet feeders as well as the thistle seed feeders. We actually have some really good weather on tap for a couple of days so it will be good to get out side and spend some leisure time filling feeders instead of bundling up and shivering while I do it. The ground is fairly dry to walk around on for the first time in I don’t know how long. I’m gong to spend some time raking up bird seed chaff from under the feeders today. I’ve been waiting for it to get dry enough to do that.

I did parishioner visitation yesterday after my office hours. The family I went to see is my fellow with the new knee. He is doing really well. His actual physical therapy begins tomorrow I think., but he is doing what he needs to do at home so he will mend quickly.

Last night we had the church council meeting. There is nothing exciting to report from that. Our council works very hard. What I find amazing is that we have so many committees at this church. I know we aren’t supposed to compare churches but at my last parish, one church only had a congregational meeting twice a year and I never in twelve years saw a “council meeting” as such. The other church had a five person church council that met once a month and that was it besides the two congregational meeting a year. At this church I think there are eight council members and maybe eleven standing committees and the churches are very similar in size. It is interesting, not better or worse, just interesting.

I think the cold snap a couple of nights ago did a number on my daffodils. They aren’t near as bright and pretty as they were. Of course it could be that they are simply getting “past bloom”. I have a really nice bunch of yellow tulips out by the west fence that are blooming now. My new tulip beds out front are growing well but have yet to bud or bloom. I guess they are a later variety. I’m anxious to see what they are going to do.

I have two cats out here on patrol this morning. Both are black. I’ve not seen them together before so that is a new something. The squirrels are going nuts fussing at them so that is a happy thing. LOL Other than that, I’m out of news with the exception that I need to tell you once again that God loves you very much. If you haven’t taken time to talk to God yet today, why not stop right now and do so. That’s what I’m going to do. Peace.

It's a fresh new morning, it's a fresh new day, and it's a fresh new week that God has provided for us to find ways to be of benefit both to God's world and God's people. I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was to check out the window to see if we had actually gotten any snow last night. As I was closing up the sun porch last night my weather forecast was predicting rain and snow starting any minute. But, it appears we stayed dry. We can use a little dry weather now for a week or maybe even two.

Saturday Ms. Kate and I went to St. Lucas church in Ft. Branch to help the folks with their chicken pie making day. We made over two hundred pies. My job was to stir the pots as we make the filling for the pies. We were making large kettles to make it, and I think I made seven kettles of it.. Three of us were assigned to do that job and we each had a kettle going most of the time. We catch a break while we were waiting for the broth and water to come to a boil before adding the chicken. Then you stirred again until it came back to a boil, the it was time to add the thickening which was flour and water. It took about seven cups of thickening per kettle so one lady was busy doing that all morning. Once the kettle of filling was thick enough for the wooden spoon to stand up straight by itself, it was ready to hand off to the guys that were filling the pans with a bottom crust in them. From there, they went to the ladies that I call the "Crusty Crimpers" who put a top crust on them and crimped that down. Ms. Kate was a Crusty Crimper again this year. That has been her task every year. The event is such a great social fellowship event  and everybody works hard but at the same time has a really good time. They broke for lunch around noon and that is when Ms. Kate and I took off.

I saw that the birds and the critters have emptied most of the feeders again by this morning. I'll wait until I get back from my office hours this morning to refill all of them. I had to laugh this morning at he neighbor's black cat. It was hiding down among the daffodils waiting on an unwary bird or squirrel. I could see what looked like a black spot sitting just where I couldn't really tell what it was. I opened the back door and bent down and could just see it's eyes looking out. As soon as I did that, it shot out of there and headed home. As the cartoon character used to say; --- "Curses, foiled again!"

While I'm out today I plan to go see my parishioner that had his knee replaced last week. Frankly I was surprised that he didn't show up in church yesterday and his daughter said that they didn't know until the last minute that he had finely decided that maybe he should stay home.

That is about it today. I must get to the office. I hope your weekend was wonderful and I pray your brand new week will be filled with nothing but good things. However, if you do get to feeling that the week is "going south" on ya', just never forget that you are never alone. Stop and ask God for some help and guidance. And, --- if your week is going well, -- stop and give God thanks for that. Peace.

I'm running late today and just stopping in to say "Hello" and "Happy Beautiful Morning". I went out to the mail box around 0730 and it was already forty five degrees and felt even warmer than that.  I texted my neighbor, Dan, and told him he was invited over for "Coffee & Cardinals" this morning. Ms. Kate had agreed that if he was going to come over, she would make us some breakfast rolls to go with our coffee. It took him about only five minutes to be at the sun porch door. We sat and solved all of the world's problems, had a pot of coffee and watched all of the guests at the backyard buffet. Finally, his wife texted him and told him that if he wanted lunch, he better be heading back across the street. So off he went. About three minutes later here he was at the front door holding two plates of fried rice that his wife had made, one for me and one for Ms. Kate. It is so great to have great neighbors and better than that, to have someone that I would call "my best friend". Beyond Ms. Kate, I've never had that. Oh, I've had a lot of close friends that come and go and have known for years. But Dan and I have become fast friends since the day we moved in to this neighborhood seventeen years ago.

I filled the feeders yesterday and went and bought a re-supply of stuff. The only thing I can't seem to find is the stuff called "Bark Butter. I've seen some "like products" so we'll have to see how it goes for trying it out.

We were under a winter weather advisory and watch for tonight but all of that has been dialed way back now. We might get a dusting to half an inch but it will all be gone by tomorrow afternoon. Everybody is so ready for spring to get here and stay here. Even the people that like winter and snow are ready for this weather to change. 

Okay, I need to get on with doing my work. I have a sermon to finish and a worship service to prepare. I probably should have done it this morning but I dedicated this morning to just relaxing and visiting with my buddy. Don't worry, I'll get it all done. I may not write tomorrow because Ms. Kate and I are going up to St. Lucas church in Ft. Branch, (my former parish) and help those folks with their chicken pie making. So, oif I don't get to you tomorrow, I pray you will have a most blessed weekend full of God's blessings and love. Peace.

It is April 5th and I’m looking at an Accuweather forecast for a winter storm. What is up with that???My daffodils are already drooping from the frost last night and we are supposed to have a gard freeze tonight. I have the robins of spring and the junkos of winter both hopping around my back yard. Even the birds are confused. My bird baths have an ice glaze over them yet the trees are leafing out. Unless we get some warm and windy days pretty soon, the farmers won’t be out working the fields until the end of April because the ground is too wet and cold.

I still haven’t filled any of the feeders and by now thee squirrels are going through all kinds of gyrations to claw and grab and hang in all sorts of positions to grab the last vestiges of food that is in them. I will get things filled up today because we are supposed to have snow either tonight or tomorrow night. Then I need to go looking for some of my foods that go in other feeders. I haven’t tried Menards yet and I think they maybe have a good assortment of bird foods. At least they advertise that they have bird food and I hadn’t thought of going there before. Some of what I need is simply things like thistle seed. Rural King has thistle seed in bulk but the problem with that is that if it sits out in the open, the oil in it dries out and the birds won’t eat it. Then it just sits there in the feeder and molds.

I’m glad to report thaat my parishioner made it through his knee replacement quite well yesterday. The family was all there for the surgery and we prayed together I had to laugh though because his daughter posted a picture of him laying in bed working on a piece of equipment that the nurse was having a problem with. But that is just the kind of guy he is. If ya’ need help he will help you regardless of what condition he might be in. He is always doing things around the church that need doing and never expects or wants any recognition for it.

So, I stopped writing my blog and went out and filled ten of my feeders. I wasn’t quite back in the house before I had guests arriving. Now I have happy squirrels and cardinals and finches and starlings all out there. I have another nine to fill but this will get them through their “starvation” because obviously they can’t find anything else in the whole world to eat. I do have some very spoiled critters and guests at my buffet. BUt that is why I get to enjoy them. They know this is the place to come to always find food. I Istill have the eighty pounds of sunflower seed in the trunk of the car that I need to take to the shed and put in the can. Then I can fill the rest of the feeders.

It is time to refill the coffee cup so I’m out of here. It is sun shiny out there and the temp wasn’t all that uncomfortable while I was filling feeders; so if you can, get out and enjoy a little fresh air on your face and enjoy this world that God has created. Let the sun shine on you and let the Son shine in you today. Peace.

The temperature figures are reversed today. Yesterday it was 63 and today it is 36. There is also a stiff breeze blowing this morning which is a continuation or residual from the weather pattern from yesterday. But, we lucked out with the storms. They kind of fell apart as they hit the Evansville metro area. Others over to the west in Illinois were not so lucky. There were pictures of the little town of Galatia where several homes were hit hit by a tornado and destroyed. My prayers go out for the people that lived in them. Fortunately, I have not heard of any injuries or deaths from the storms though. Again I give praise to God for that.

I’m up earlier this morning. I wanted to get my blog written and my silly computer games of Bingo & Criminal Case played before I head out to the hospital to sit with a family from church. A parishioner is having a knee replacement done this morning so I’ll be there with them for prayer. It is a part of the job as pastor that I enjoy. The one on one time with families always gives me a chance to learn more about the families and I can watch the interaction between the family members. The picture one sees in church is sometimes much different than one sees when a family is under stress. People let their guard down and true relationships come through.  When I’m doing marriage or relationship counselling I often will arrange the chairs a certain way and then watch to see how the couple react to the chair placement. It is also interesting to see who sits next to who at the hospital. I may not always interpret it correctly but, there is a lot of information that can be gathered about family relationships just by watching them with one another.

I see I have some feeders to fill this afternoon. I bought eighty pounds of sunflower seed on Saturday but it is still in the car. I guess I’ll put on my yard boots and traipse through the muck to carry that around to the shed and then fill my feeders. It is going to be cold temperatures yet for a few more days and we are told that we might even get more snow before the week is over. Winter will just not go away this year. Perhaps it is no different than any other year but by this time folks are so looking forward to a week or two of just nice warm spring days. I’m already hearing grumbling about planting season being late etc, etc,. I certainly can’t get any spring vegetables in the ground because the ground is so wet. I’m one of the few thaat actually got garden ground worked up. But, God will provide and by July I’ll probably be griping about the lack of rain.

Enjoy your day whether it is rainy or dry, cold or warm. Remember that God will provide for your needs and God’s love is always around you. Give thanks for the wonderful Good News of the gospel that Jesus is raised from the dead and therefore we will be too for eternity in the peace that come from God. Shalomn.

Deceptively beautiful is what I would call this morning. The sun is shining beautifully, It is sixty three degrees, the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming; — it all looks great. However, off to the west there are dark clouds approaching and the wind gusts are getting a little stronger as the morning goes on. The weather dude says that severe storms are on the way and looking at the radar it looks like he is right. The entire midwest from Dallas to Michigan is in for an afternoon and evening of it. Rain, storms, lightening, tornadoes, and fifty mile an hour wind gusts are all in the play book for this one. My prayer this morning then is that there are no injuries or deaths from it.

Ms. Kate and I had a great day yesterday. We did go to Louisville as I told you yesterday in my blog. I took her to PF Chang’s for a late lunch/early dinner. The food was excellent as always and not only that, Julies surprised us with an e-card gift certificate which cover3d the cost of the meal. We went over to retake her something that she needed for her business trip this weekend so she bought us the certificate. And it worked out for too because our order was huge and we had enough left over to take her dinner too; — triple win all around.

I have a real squirrel battle going on in the back yard this morning. I have seen squirrels chase one another around this yard forever but this morning they were making actual physical contact viciously fighting, rolling around on the ground clawing and biting. And these two have chased one another around the trees and the yards and back and forth all morning. I don’t know what it is all about but it is interesting to watch. Of course, I don’t really know one from the other so I won’t know who won. But the chase continues as I write. The other squirrels are paying no attention to them so it must not be a family issue. I have seen groups of them gang up and chase another squirrel out of the yard.

This evening I have a Music and worship committee meeting at the church, assuming we don’t get blown away by the storms. This will be the first one of these that I have been too. We didn’t have a committee like that at my last parish so it will be interesting to see what they do. I know they have had this committee for as long as I can remember but I was never involved with it.

Tomorrow I may be doing my blog from the hospital waiting room. We have a parishioner having a knee replaced tomorrow and I’ll be sitting with the family. I’m so glad he is finally able to have it done because he can hardly stand, let alone walk. So, I would ask you to offer a prayer fro him. You don’t need to now his name, God already does. You know, I marvel at the skills that God has allowed man to learn and do to keep us humans going. Hearts replacements are a routine matter any more. I remember the first one being done. Ms. Kate has had w double by-pass surgery, and a knee replaced. How marvelous is that. I just give all praise to God because while it is human hands that perform these miracle surgeries, it is God that guides those hands and permits the healing. There is no way, in my opinion, that man could have the knowledge to do these things with out the intervention of God.

That’s it for today. I think I will fix myself a bagel and cream cheese breakfast and then head downstairs t my office. I pray you will have a good day and will not be affected by the storms; and if you are —- I pray you will be safe. Peace.

A brand new month! Welcome to April and all that this fourth month of the year shall bring us. The old saying is that April showers bring May flowers. Well, most of my May flowers are already blooming and we are seven and a half inches of rain fall above the yearly average to date. And --- it appears we are going to have another week of on and off rain which will bring the totals even higher.

Easter Sunday and Holy week have come and gone. We had ninety one for the late service yesterday and thirty two for the sunrise service. Those are acceptable numbers. Of course some of those were the "Creasters" as we call them; the people that only come on Christmas and Easter. And of course there were relatives of members that came to church too. Next Sunday we will be back to the normal attendance. But, the services were really good and the church looked beautiful with all of the lilies in the chancel area forming a large cross. The bell choir played a nice song and the Chancel Choir sang the Alleluia Chorus. I think I have told you that we only have a twelve person choir but they sang that Alleluia Chorus as beautiful as any choir I have heard.

Julie and Jim and the pups came over on Saturday afternoon and stayed through lunch yesterday. Julie had to go to Indianapolis first to do a blood draw. She came on down after she finished with that. Jim and the pups came a little earlier. We didn't have a fancy traditional lunch but what we did have has become tradition with us. Easter Sunday we do brats and potatoes and another vegetable or two. We started doing that about six years ago and it satisfies the need without Ms. Kate having to go to great lengths to fix some meal that will leave us having leftovers for two weeks. Yesterday Ms. Kate also fixed Bock wurst sausage with sauerkraut. Bock wurst is known as an Easter sausage for some reason and it is usually fixed with kraut.

I have office hours this morning at the church and then Ms. Kate and I are heading to Louisville, KY. We need to drop off a couple of things that Julies left here yesterday and needs for her upcoming business trip to Florida his weekend. And, I'm taking Ms. Kate to her favorite restaurant, PF Chang's, for a late lunch / early dinner. She deserves a reward for all of the extra work she had to do during the Lenten season and Easter. I figure since we had to go to New Albany, we might as well drive the extra mile to go go to he other side of Louisville. Hopefully we will beat the rain and cruddy weather that is coming our way yet tonight.

That is about it for today. Time to go to work and get this day going, although --- boy could I crawl back in the sack for another hour or so. Have a blessed day. Don't forget the message of Easter still needs to be spread today and tomorrow and every day. Easter isn't a one shot and done. God's message is always out there to be delivered and God relies on you and me to continually be disciples of His Word. Peace be with you.