One chicken is in the coop and another one is coming this evening. Lisa arrived right on time yesterday and we had a great visit with her during the afternoon and evening. We are up earlier than usual this morning because we knew she was up. The kids of mine that come from the eastern time zone operate on a different schedule than we do. And since they come so infrequently, we don’t want to miss any visiting time, so it is absolutely worth losing a few minutes sleep and getting up a little earlier. Julie gets out of work around 1400 hrs and will go to Indianapolis for some blood work then come down here. We expect her and Jim around 1800 hrs or so. Then the gab-fest will begin in earnest.

It is warmer this morning and the humidity is on the rise. It is supposed to go to about ninety-three today. We are hoping for a sunny weekend but it sounds like we in store for a stormy weekend instead. The sad part of that is that Julie and Lisa want to go to the zoo tomorrow. I really hope it doesn’t rain because they are zoo-people and our city does have a nice very nice and accredited zoo. It generally takes about an hour and and to two hours to do our zoo. There are enough hills to make it a healthy and challenging walk.

I think we are going to do some shopping around town this afternoon yet. We have a store here called Libs that makes some of the best chocolate candy that I’ve had. Lisa wants to pick up some to Libs to take back to the family. They will be some happy campers.

I need also to finish my sermon today. I have it about half finished and had a good train of thought going but stopped so now I’ll need to regenerate and start again. I had it half written already once but didn’t like it and deleted it. Now I’ve gone in a completely different direction and I think it will go well.

Time to quit and get on with other stuff. I pray you have a wonderful day. Peace.

A blessed Thursday morning to you! Yes, I know, I missed writing yesterday but it was an activity filled day and I just never got around to it. I normally do my blog first thing in the morning but I had a Bible study first thing yesterday, followed by dental cleanings, grocery shopping, lunch out, home to mowing the yard and hoeing the garden and then starting a complete re-write of my sermon for the Sunday after we get back from vacation.

Today though, we are counting minutes until Lisa arrives at the airport and starts a four day visit. It is neck hugging time once again. I do so enjoy it when my girls come for a visit. we are very fortunate that Julie decided to move to southern Indiana from the Boston area several years ago. We get to see her about once a month and those visits are such a blessing. It has been, I think two years, since Heather has been here. Her husband has yet to come to our house. Their work schedules have not allowed them the time since they got married a couple of years ago. Maybe now that he has retired and they only have to shuffle one work schedule they can make it. But, Ms. Kate and I know what that id like. For thirty plus years the only vacations (military leave) we took were to go home to see parents. Then it was rush, rush to see this one and that one and then drive back to wherever we were stationed. By the time we got back to our base we felt like we hadn’t had a vacationat all.

It has been health check-up month for me. I had my physical a couple of weeks ago. Then I went to the optometrist; that cost me $850.00. Yesterday was dental. So, I should be good to go for another six months until we do it all over again. I do have to go back to the dentist because I have a filling that has broken and need to be replaced; yuk!! All said though, I am extremely blessed that I have good health. People may have to put up with me for a lot more years.

Okay, just got a text that Lisa is on the plane and heading this way. I need to scurry and get my shower and get ready to go get her. Have a blessed day. I already am. Peace.

Let’s see how well this works. I’m sitting in an uncomfortable chair at the Orthopedic office as we wait for Ms. Kate to get her cortisone shot in her hand. We started here on time but arrived a few minutes late. Summertime is “orange barrel time” in our fair city; we only have two seasons, —- winter and construction. We’ve been back here in Evansville for seventeen years now and there has not been a single year that our main road, 1st Avenue, has been torn up most of the summer. So, I wonder, —- is it road construction or just job security for the construction crews. Secondly, the office we thought we were going to was not the office we needed to be at. It has moved to the other side of the Deaconess Hospital Main Campus complex with zero signage or directions. But, we made it here and now we wait. Ms. Kate is in no hurry to have that needle stuck in her hand anyway.

It is another glorious morning. I was only able to be in the sunporch briefly but the woodpeckers were busy at my peanut butter feeders. They have really adapted to me using just extra crunchy peanut butter instead of the bark butter paste that I used to use. I’m glad that I tried it since I can’t get the paste anymore without paying an arm and a leg for it and waiting for it to be shipped to me. I get two large jars of peanut butter for a fourth of the cost of a container of the bark butter. And since I have found an outlet for getting the pellets that they like —- I’m not missing Wild Birds and Things at all.

Tomorrow I will lead the morning Bible study for Pastor Art, then have a brief meeting with the secretary and head out for my dental appointment and cleaning. Ms. Kate and I are getting all of our “health stuff” taken care of now and will be good to go. For the summer. I had planned to take communion to a parishioner tomorrow but the opportunity for my dental appointment popped up so I wanted to get it out of the way.

Lisa arrives Thursday morning and Ms. Kate and I are anxiously awaiting for some neck squeezing. Julie and Jim will arrive on Friday and the jibber-jabber will commence. I do miss that sound in our home. When all of the girls get together, —- it is non-stop talk. I just sit back and listen and enjoy. Sitting there listening to them is the pure sound of family love. Ms. Kate and I are so fortunate to have the loving relationship that we do with all of our girls. We must have done something right, and we are certainly blessed by God.

Time to go. Ms. Kate is done and now we can go for breakfast. Have a wonderful day. Peace.

Where did this beautiful spring morning come from? A little over sixty degrees, sunshine, calm winds, and not a cloud in the sky. It has been two months since we had a day like this. Yesterday was the same and tomorrow is supposed to be the same. So, --- thank you Lord for these spectacular days.

We had a good attendance at church yesterday and Pastor Art brought a great message. We have entered the summer Sunday school schedule which means we had a combined class of all the adults and then a class for the youngsters. It was a fairly good class and there as a lot of participation from the members of the group. I was disappointed that the older members of my usual class did not chose to show up. Ms. Kate and I were definitely the old people of the class by probably at least twenty years. But, it is what it is.

Yesterday afternoon I did a hospital visit for one of our parishioners and took communion to her and her family. I got a text late last night that she had been released and was doing better. Today I need to go back to the same hospital and say prayer with a parishioner and family as the lady goes in for shoulder replacement. It is just the beginning of a busy week of events. I'm in the office this morning getting a little work done but mostly just "being present" in case someone needs a pastor this morning. Ya' never know, it could happen. LOL Tomorrow I take Ms. Kate to her orthopedic doctor for another cortisone shot in her wrist. She needs that done about twice a year for her arthritis. The shots hurt like the dickens when she gets them but they do so much good for her for about five or six months. Wednesday I have office hours again and I also have to cover the Bible study for Pastor Art. That means I need to take some time to catch up on where they are. He told me that last week they only got through one verse. Well, I've read that verse and I would be hard pressed to spend an hour on it which tells me they got derailed on another subject. That happens a lot in small group sessions with no particular schedule, and I think it is a wonderful thing that happens. That gets me through Wednesday. Then Thursday Lisa comes for a four day visit. Yay!!!! Julie and Jim will also be coming over so they can visit with her. It will be wonderful to have a house full of laughter and chit-chatting daughters. It happens so very infrequently.

I'm sitting here in my office at church and I have a cardinal that keeps coming back and sitting on the park bench just outside of my window. God has sent blessings to follow me to work; what a beautiful thing that is. Of course, it could have been one of my Cardinals coming to tell me that the feeder is still empty and I need to get home and fill it.

That is it for today my friends. If your weather is anything like mine today, try to get out and breathe in some of God's wonderful creation and enjoy the bounty of blessings that God has sent your way. Then take the time to be humble and give thanks for a God that loves you and will never forsake you, Give thanks for a God that loves you so much that He sent His Son to not only teach us how to live but to actually suffer and die for us to pay for the sins that we commit. Have a blessed day.

Lots of sunshine this morning and the “feels like” temperature is already eighty-eight degrees with a matching humidity level. That doesn’t fare well for the day. I expect we will have more thunder-boomers before this day is done. But, I’m hoping the grass will dry out enough that I can mow it without it clumping up and being ugly. Yesterday afternoon I went out and picked up a lot of twigs and small branches that had broken off with the wind. I had just finished when it started to rain again and now I see I get to do that all over again.

The Ladderback Woodpecker is taking on all challengers this morning at the suet pellets feeder. The starlings and the cardinals and the finches are all trying to eat from it but the Ladderback and its long sharp beak are doing a fairly good job of persuading them otherwise. That feeder along with several others is just about empty this morning which gives me another task for today.

You may recall that I said Ms. Kate and I each had optometry appointments yesterday afternoon, and I had hope that if I got out of there for less than a $1000.00 I would be lucky. Well, it cost me $850 to get out of there and I was the only that needed new glasses. Yikes!!! I bought two pair, one of them being sunglasses; and they are both “no-line” bifocals, and I got one new frame for the clear ones and am having the sunglasses put in the same frames that I already have. It will take seven to ten “business days” for them to arrive. I just don’t understand that because there are places that do your new glasses in an hour. But our doctor doesn’t have an in-store lab. There was a time when we used to go to “LensCrafters for our glasses, but I don’t know if they are even a business anymore. Anyway, I had a significant prescription change, especially n my right eye, but lens correction is better than cataract surgery. That unfortunately is in the eventual forecast for Ms. Kate and me.

Our contractor came yesterday and recalled around the vents up on the roof which is where he suspected the ceiling leak was coming from that was dripping in our bathroom. While he was here, I asked him about the possibility of putting a bathroom down in my basement. He said it is certainly possible. We’d be talking about just a toilet and a sink, and it would probably run about $5000.00 to do it. I need to “Google” it and do some reading about it, but maybe that would be a good use for my crop check this year. It could be a winter-time project for them. I have a lot of thinking to do about that first. I can make a lot of trips up the stairs for five grand.

Tomorrow is Sunday and it will be communion Sunday. I always enjoy that. I hope you take the opportunity to go to your house of worship and start your new week off properly. Give thanks for the blessings you have received this week and pray for guidance in the week to come. God always walks with you but God also likes to be acknowledged. Peace.

TGIF, Thank goodness it’s Friday. The rain and the storms are over at least for now. But, — it is going to be a hot and muggy day because the air is still saturated with moisture. I don’t know how many inches of rain we got over the week but it was maybe as much as three or four. The yard os soggy and I have a lot of little limbs down that I need to pick up before I can mow. But — I won’t be mowing today because it is simply too wet.

This morning I’m waiting on a fellow to come evaluate a roof leak problem that has developed. I suddenly have a very slow drip of water coming from the overhead light in my shower which is not where water should be coming from. My roof is less than ten years old and has a thirty year guarantee. I called the general contractor who handled our renovation after our house disaster in 2008 and he is sending his son out this morning to take a look at it. His first inclination is that there might be a leak around some flashing on the roof. Hopefully that is all is amounts to and can be fixed quickly. The problem with water leaks is that they are never where they appear to be. It might be dripping in my shower but the actual leak could be half way across the roof. And —- as I always say: water always wins. If you don’t believe it —- just look at the Grand Canyon.

I have new lights in my basement and I love them. I had ordered them from a friend at church who does electrical design and sells fixtures etc. Once they came in, I called a local top rated electrical construction company and they came out and installed them for me. I was really pleased with them. It was two young fellows, I think one was an apprentice, but they came in, worked quickly with no chit chat, were professional and polite and totally cleaned up after themselves. Any future electrical work I need done will certainly go to that company.

This afternoon Ms. Kate and I each have optometry appointments. The sad part is that I’m sure we are both hoping to need new glasses. That means four pair of glasses because we get colored glasses too. If we get out of there for less than a thousand bucks I will be very happy. I know my right eye vision has changed because I have a hard time reading the TV screen if I close my left eye. It’s just one more thing to bite at my bank account.

I can tell my neighbor is home from vacation. Their black cat was making a beeline for my flowerbed and bird feeders this morning. I haven’t seen that cat since they left for vacation. Unfortunately for it, I spotted it as it was coming in the yard and motivated it to move on.

I think I’ll quit here and go have some breakfast before the repairman comes. There is some strawberry pie still left over and I think it needs to be eaten. I hope you have a blessed day full of sunshine and love. Peace.

I did say in my last post that it was going to be a confusing week and that fact has held true. I didn’t realize until late last evening that I had not taken the time to sit a write my blog for the day. So today, except for getting my first cup of coffee, it is the first thing on my list.

So, — Good Morning! Happy Thursday  to you. I hope your day has started off  with sunshine and the sound of the birds singing. Mine has, which by the way is certainly different from yesterday. Yesterday morning began with rain left over from tropical storm Alberto. That has now moved way north, however, we have another front rapidly approaching from the west and no matter how nice it looks out there now, we have a chance of severe thunderstorms moving in for this afternoon and evening. It has been a crazy weather week all across the nation with everything from 100 plus heat in the southwest to tornados in the midwest, to Tropical storms in the south and dangerous flooding in the east. And —- out in Hawaii, the earth continues to erupt from volcanoes wiping away homes one after another. So, I offer prayers that all of those who may be suffering as a result of these weather related disasters may be safe and find comfort in the Lord.

The Robins are splash-splashing taking their bath and the Cardinals are busy having breakfast before they have to fight with the black birds or the squirrels for it. It won’t be long before the Starlings get here. They will have to battle with the Woodpeckers though for the feeders with the peanut butter in them. Buffet breakfast may be cut a little short this morning though. I just had a huge thunder-roar and then a weather-notification flash across my screen that rain will be starting in about ten minutes. So much for my sunny morning.

The hydrangias are blooming like crazy now and the Stella-Dora lilies are just starting to bloom. There are lots of other lilies that will be following long shortly behind the Stellas. I do love the rotation of the flowers as they each take their turn blessing our yard. This will continue until probably July and then everything will just “be green” until fall. The daffodils are just about ready for me to cut them back as are the tulips.

The rain has started now. The trick is to not let it lull me to sleep as it falls on the roof overhead. I have a little gazebo shaped feeder out there that I fill with safflower seed for the Cardinals. A couple of finches have taken refuge under the roof of it to get out of the rain. It’s cute.

That’s it for today. Again I pray your day is peaceful and your life is full of blessings and love. Keep the faith and remember that God walks with you every step of every day. Shalomn.