Welcome to a blessed Thursday morning. I hope you have had a good morning so far. I have. I’m on my second cup of coffee and just finished a bagel with creamed cheese. I do love bagels in the morning or actually most any time. They even make a good snack when paired with either Philly Creamed Cheese or maybe even a litttle honey butter. It is actually justthe last coupleof years that I have gotten in to eating bagels. But, you know how people’s taste buds change, and I guess that is what happened with me. I used to be a cereal eater for breakfast but now, cereal is my midnight snack. Of course a real breakfast is and always has been a “big breakfast”; eggs, bacon or sausage, biscuits, gravy, hash browns or fried potatos, coffee, and maybe some juice. Top it off with a couple of pancakes and I’ve gone straight to heaven for breakfast.

I had a busy day yesterday. We had our staff meeting and then I did some parishioner visitation and home communion. Then late afternoon I had a couple come in to discuss their wedding that is coming up. Today I need to put together their wedding ceremony. It was interesting to sit and meet with them.  Sometimes, I think I need to read “behind” the words being said. I just pray for them to have a successful marriage.

I have empty feeders out there that I need to do something about for sure. And it appears that I also need to mow my back yard again. That fertilizer that I put on when I replanted the grass is really working. The back yard looks better than it has in a couple of years. I think Ms. Kate is going to want to go to the grocery store today too so I’m not sure what all my day will bring to the table. The wedding service writing is what will take the longest. But, I can save that for this evening if I need to.

I was out in the yard looking around earlier. The peonies, the iris, the snowball bush, the climatis are al becoming the stars of the yard now. The daffodils are done and are at the stage where they just lay over and dry out. In a couple of months I’ll be able to pull the tops off of them. The tulips are also about done. They have dropped most of their petals by now. The lilacs are blooming and making the yard fragrant and the pink and the white dogwoods are also in bloom. My yard just looks fabulous. Every time I walk around in it or work in it, I feel so very blessed. Yes, it is a lot of work, —- but God has enabled me to still be abl to get out there and tend His garden, and I give God all the praise for that. I can’t imagine our yard without flowers.

Tine for me to finish up this cup of coffee and move on to another job of the day. Tomorrow is TGIF day and I pray you will have a wonderful weekend. Go in peace.

Let’s call today “Wonderful Wednesday”. It is a little overcast and promises to get a lot more so with thunderstorms later today. But, that’s all good. It is sixty-one degrees outside and the flowers are blooming, so what is not to like.

But — I want to tell you about our Elephant Encounter at Wilstem ranch that we had yesterday. We were up by 0500 to get ready because the rive was going to be at least an hour and a half and we would lose an hour due to time zone change. We found the place with a little difficulty. There are simply places that you don’t use a GPS to find.

We arrived in plenty of time, checked in, and then went and petted some alpacas and dwarf brahmas and fed them some oats and stuff. Then we went up to the elephant barn. There were maybe fourteen people there. The owners brought in three elephants, one by one and they had us hose them down, scrub the mud and dirt off of them, hose them down again, and then they had the young kids paint their toenails with somethiing. So, Ms. kate and I got to wash three elephants. It was so much fun. The elephants ranged in age from 33 to 44, and were totally relaxed and gentle, and it was very obvious that they had been doing this for a very long time. It took us an hour just to get the three of them washed and then we had another hour of education and an opportunity to take pictures with them.

From there we went to the giraffe barn where these folks had two giraffes. There was an educational session about giraffes and we all had a chance to feed them carrot sticks and take pictures with them. It was a day that we will remember for the rest of our lives. I’ve said before that there is such a thing as having a “spirit animal”, mine would be the elephant. I have always been facinated by these huge gentle beasts. It breaks my heart and makes me furious that poachers kill these animals to the point of extinction just for their ivory tusks.

After we left the ranch, we drove over to Montgomery and had lunch at the Gasthaus Amish Village and restaurant. The food of course was delicious, and it almost always is when eating at an Amish place.

I have a long day today with office hours, in-home visitation and communion, and then a wedding preparation counseling session this evening. The wedding is the last Saturday of the month and I really don’t know the couple or what they have planned or want to plan. So, I’m earning my money today for sure.

I pray your day will be blessed. Well actually, —- I know your day will be blessed; I pray you will recognize the blessings as they flow from God. I wish you peace.

Bright and beautiful are the words to describe this Monday morning. It is fifty-seven degrees and going to seventy-one, there is no wind and there are no clouds. My early morning Backyard Buffet guests are Cardinals, Grossbeaks, and finches so far. The rest of the yard is quiet. It just is 0700 and Ms. Kate and I are both up. I have to be at the office in a couple of hours so I thought I’d get my blog written now. I could probably do it at the office but the wifi is sketchy at best there. I certainly have the time because it is rare that anyone actually comes in. And —- if they do come in, it is because they need to talk to our secretary Karen. I could be using the time for visitations but there is an expectation from the congregation that Pastor Art and I spend a couple of morning actually at the office. So, I do four hours on Monday, he does four hours on Thursday, and we have our Wednesday couple of hours together and meet with Karen. It’s all good.

We had an uneventful but productive weekend. Saturday afternoon I got the yards all mowed and then Nick came over and we put down the last twenty bags of much. I think that comes out to four cubic yards of mulch that I have put on the flowerbeds. The yard really looks good and so does the flowerbeds. My next chore out there is to try again to kill these dang dandelions and morning glory vines. Both of those plants have roots that reach China and I don’t care what Round-Up says about their products killing them down through the root —- it ain’t happening.

I got the potted plants all taken out of the sunporch and some of them replanted into new pots. We also planted all but two of the new plants we’ve bought. It now makes for a very nice looking patio garden which blends in well with the rest of the yard. I’ve put a lot of pictures of my yard on the Facebook and I get comments and compliments on it all of the time.

Saturday morning I spent in a meeting of our local chuch association. We have two meetings a year and they are about as exciting as watching paint dry but I guess they are necessary. There are a lot of presentations by local organizations offering opportunities for us to get involved with them  and support them. It’s all God’s work and it is all work that needs to be done to help people. I’m just not a person who likes to attend meetings especially when they seem to drone on and on. Our church is involve with several charities that we support and sometimes I feel that as pastors we spend too much time asking for more money. But, that is how God’s work gets done.

I will maybe write tomorrow but if I do it is going to be late. Tomorrow Ms. Kate and I head out early for our “Elephant encounter”. We have to be there at 0900 and it is on Eastern Time Zone which mean we have to leave here really early. We don’t have a good feeling about where the place is. So, we need to be out of here by 0600.

I hope your day has started out happy and I pray your week will be full of joy and God’s blessings. Take some time and look around you at all of the flowers and trees that are blooming and listen to the birds sing. Those are just examples of the blessings that God has sent to you this week. Shalomn.

Let’s welcome Friday to the week this morning. It good to see you Friday as you enfold us with all of your sunshine and blue skies this morning. It is a very comfortable sixty-eight degrees this morning. The rain has stopped for awhile at least although we only got about three quarters of an inch. Thankfully that won’t be enough to to keep the farmers out of the fields. It will basically just keep the dust down as they work the ground. And, — it got all of my plants watered. So once again, I have something to give God praise for. I think today I will get all of the pots of plants moved out of the sunporch and on to the patio. I’m not sure where I’m going to sit them all but I figure I’ll receive some direction on that matter. The frost danger has passed so it is time to let them get some natural watering and unencombered sunshine.

I’m also thankful that my temporary guests, the Red breasted Grossbeakss are still here gracing the Backyard Buffet. There aren’t as many as there usually are. Some years we will have a migration of up to a couple of dozen. So far this year we’ve only had a couple. But, I need to make sure I fill the feeders again today so I can keep them interested. perhaps here are just the advance party. I also haven’t seen our hummingbird for a couple of days.

While you are lifting up your prayers this morning I’d ask you to include my sister. She’s had a rough three months since she took a fall several weeks ago. She currently going through PT & OT trying to rehab a shoulder. Then she is facing a shoulder replacement on the other shoulder and a knee replacement. She’s eighteen months younger than me and I think her warranties are expiring so she needs new parts. People say that growing old ain’t for wimps, and I think they may be right.

I also give thanks that Ms. Kate continues to improve from her bout with Bronchitis. I’m so glad she is not going through those terrible coughing spells any more. She had me very concerned.

I sit here amazed at how the trees and foliage and bushes have filled in with leaves just this week. Within a week we will be under a full canopy of tree leaves again for the summer. The neighbors houses are slowly disappearing behind the branches and we can again feel like we are being closed off by the forest. I think it is wonderful and it is peaceful.

Tomorrow I have a meeting first thing in the morning that will steal a good part of my Saturday. I wouldn’t mind if I thought it was going to be interesting or exciting but it won’t be. It will just be hum-drum and probably full of self-importance. These kinds of gatherings usually are, but, it goes with the territory of the job.

It is time for a coffee refill and also time to do a bit of meditation. I hope you have had a wonderful week and will have an even better weekend. Keep the faith alive and share your love. Shalomn.

And again it is afternoon before. Get to sit down and write. What’s going on here in my life? Well, my mornings have been taken up doing one thing or another and next thing you know, lunch time is over and the morning has been used up. Today it was staff meeting that took up my time. That should have occured yesterday but I was at the doctor’s office yesterday so we postponed it until today. The only bad thing about doing my blog in the afternoon is that I get sleepy. I’m sitting here having just eaten a large Taco Salad from Wendy’s and my tummy is full. Add to that, the gentle raindrops that are falling on the roof of the sunporch. It is a great combination if one wants a nap, but my nap has t wait for another couple of hours.

Our weekly planning session and staff meeting went well again today. Even though we have been waiting on spring to arrive, it seems impossiible to believe we are into the month of May already. Mother’s Day is just ten days a way. Two weeks after that will be Memorial Day and the summer will be off and running. We are going to have some construction work done at the church over the summer that will, I think, greatly improve our grounds and facilities. Much of it has to do with laying a lot of yards of concrete to put new steps an path in the outdoor chapel. Currently we have a thick layer of wood chip barks out there and it gets soggy and slippery. When we have weddings out there the bride’s dresses get dirty as they walk down the hill to the altar area. This also eliminate some of the worry about our senior citizens slipping or tripping in that mulch.

As I said, it is raining here today so that means I won’t be getting my mulch here at home put down. It isn’t raining hard or steady, so if young Nick does have time this afternoon yet, I’ll work out there even if it is sprinkling.

I’ve made a commitment to play a trumpet solo at church late in July. That means I need to get started now making my lungs and lips ready. I’ve been saying I was going to do that but I keep putting it aside. So today I signed the list for special music. That gives me ten weeks to get ready which isn’t a lot of time. The things I get myself in to sometimes is redonkulous.

Time to head downstairs to my office and quit sitting here watching my buffet guests. I pray the rest of your day will be filled with love and good thing. Peace.  

It is another afternoon posting of my blog. Today though would normally have been an office day but I had a physical this morning with Dr. Jackson. To the best of my knowledge everything is fine. He asked me how I was doing and I told him that everybody felt as good as I do, —- he would be looking for work. LOL

After my doctor’s appointment, I came home and picked up Ms. Kate and we went to brunch. It was her first anything out of the house except for doctor’s appointments in ten days. It ws wonderful to have her out and breathing outside air. After brunch we went by Karen’s house and looked at her flowerbeds. She has a couple of tree peonies that she wanted us to see. They are magnificent. The blooms must be eight inche across. I hope our new one will grow and get to that point. Of course that just energized Ms. kate to want to get another one.

I finished my Mother’s Day sermon late last night. I still have some tidying up to do on it and the worship service yet to tailor but I ‘m glad to have it done. The sermon has nothing to do with Mother’s Day and I didn’t want it to. After all, there are women in the church who are not mothers, or can’t be mothers, or maybe even who have lost children. I think a pastor has to keep those kind of things in mind when acknowledging special days and anniversaries like that. I call it situational awareness.

It is a warm but windy day and we are supposed to get rain this evening and maybe tomorrow. I want to get my back yard mowed today before the rain. We need some rain again. It will water all of my plants and my garden. I’d like to get the mulch put down before the rain but that may not happen. I have a meeting at 1800 hours today and that is about the time young Nick will probably finish his homework and be available to help me. It isn’t critical that the mulch go down today, but if it sits out there in the truck bed it is going to get wet and that will make it heavier and may even cause it to mold some. I’d like that not to happen.

Time for me to get busy. This is “hump day “ and the work-day is now half over. I guess that means we are “over the hump”. Enjoy the rest of your day. Peace.

Happy lovely Tuesday. It is lovely because Ms. Kate is feeling so very much better and her cough has become productive instead of just being a dry heave and taking her breath away. So I offer thanks to God and also to Nurse Stephanie at Dr. Jackson’s Office for giving her that shot of antibiotics yesterday. It appears to have done the trick and she is smiling today for the first time in ten days.

I have a few guests at the Backyard Buffet this morning. There are a couple of squirrels out there and a few starlings and a couple of woodpeckers. It will be another fifteen minutes or so before the cardinals come back for another round. I see that I need to put some more suet pellets out and also a couple of suet cakes. And if I’m going to be out there, I might as well fill the sunflower feeders up again too. It has been warm enough and sunny enough thata the birds are starting to use the bird baths  for some splashing and splashing too. Those need to be refilled again. A squirrel was up there drinking a few moments ago and a starling run it off. They are some nasty tempered birds. No wonder Alfred Hitchcock used so many of them in his movies.

We were supposed to go have our Elephant Encounter and Giraffe encounter today but I postponed that until next Tuesday due to Ms. Kate’s bronchitis. While she is a little better today, it just wouldn’t work to do it today for her. I’m very excited about this adventure. I’ve probably said too many times already but my favorite animal is the elephant. While I know they can be extremely dangerous, they appear to be so serene. The are smart and loyal to their family groups and the saying of having a memory like and elephant has great value. I anthromorphize them with some of the better characteristics that humans are supposed to display. However, I sometimes think humans couple learn a lot from elephants. It will be a sad day indeed if man ever hunts those magnificent beasts into extinction. Programs like this elephants sanctuary are doing their part to bring awareness of the plight of the elephant.

I finally have begun to narrow down what I want to do my Mother’s Day message on. So today, that will be my focus. I could bring my laptop out here to the sunporch and write but I know me well enough to admit I wouldn’t get a lot done. It takes me forever to just write my blog because I’m constantly looking outside at my guests. A big ol’ robin just flew on to the branch outside my window and is starting to prune and preen himself. Of course I will have to stop and watch him and see if he moves over to the bird bath. —- that’s why it takes me so long to write when I’m out here. So. -no; I can’t do sermon writing out here in the sunporch. LOL

I hope you have time to get outside today and enjoy some beautiful weather and while you are there — just stop and look around you and take in all of the beauty and glory that God has to offer. Then, bow your head and give God praise and thanks for it. Peace.