A rainy Saturday morning; well kind of. It has quit for now and what we had was very light and pleasant. It’s warm outside and the air is still, making it very pleasant. The rain was light enough that I went out and dumped out the birdbath and cleaned it and refilled it. Between the tree flower petals blowing in the breeze and the silly birds pooping in their bird bath/water dish, it gets yucky pretty quick. But now they have some fresh water again. I have to admit though that they don’t seem to care one way or another. It can be filthy and they still get in there and take a bath and drink out of it. Gross. 

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting here trying to take a quick nap when suddenly there was a loud crash against my glass door. It startled the heck out of me. A huge hawk flew in and snatched a mockingbird off of a feeder and in the process the two of them hit my glass. It didn’t phase the hawk. It flew about ten yards out in the yard and ate the mockingbird. There was nothing left but some feathers. But, that happens around here once in a while. I’m used to finding a bunch of feathers of one variety or another laying out there. I used to blame the stray cats that sometime come through the yard, but when they catch one of my birds they quickly carry it off and hide to eat it. The hawk I had yesterday was one of the biggest I have seen here. 

I finished my service and sermon including the slides for April 25th yesterday. It’s hard to imagine that I’m going to start working on May services next. We’re almost at the middle of April. The great thing is that every day that goes by gets us one day closer to our Family reunion in Branson , Missouri. We all only get together every couple of years and it gets harder to do every time what with the grandkids all being grown now and having lives and jobs of their own. It means so much to Ms. Kate and I that they all look forward to our reunions and they do their best to schedule their vacations and work and school schedules around our vacation dates. Families that all live within a single area probably don’t really appreciate the blessing they have. But I hope they do. 

Ms. Kate and I are going up to the church today. Jacob and Trent got the cable run for the new camera system for our service filming. I am very excited about it, We’ve been a year getting to this point, In the meantime we have been using our phones or IPads to do our taping. It works well sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t. This new camera was part of the purchase from the technology grant that we got from the Lilly Corporation. We got almost $5K from them and have put another almost $5k with it for a matching grant. The congregation seems to really like the big screens etc that we have been putting in. This should be the final stage. Any way, today the guys are going to be trying out location to mount the camera. We’ll be no help of course but we will get our “nosey button” pushed. LOL

I reckon that is enough for today. I made a pan of cinnamon rolls and I need to refill my coffee cup and eat one or two. Have yourself a blessed day. Tomorrow is a day of worship and I hope that you will take the opportunity to do so. Peace my friends. 

 Happy morning to you! Here we are at the end of the work week, unless of course your work week includes a Saturday in it. As I look out my sunporch windows, the sky to the west and north is full of blue skies and fluffy clouds. However, the sky to the south appears to have much darker clouds that are almost grey. The wind is out of the southwest so perhaps it will “blow-over”. 

I did get some writing done yesterday but I’m not all that pleased with it. Some times I get these ideas in my mind and they sound good at the time but then I have a hard time actually putting them down on paper. It’s like my brain doesn’t connect to my fingers and when I go to write my thoughts, they get all caught up in a log jam. It gets frustrating and when I get frustrated, I might as well get up from the computer because  I will just be wasting my time putting words on paper. Then I go sit and read or do some other activity and maybe everything will start fresh and I can go back. I think I am about at that point today, but not quite yet. It’s a good thing I’m writing a sermon for a coupe of Sundays from now. I might have it done by then. LOL

The starlings and the mockingbirds are here this morning to fuss and g’night with one another. In between rounds, the finches and other smaller birds come ib for a bite or two. The squirrels are warming up for their morning Squirrel Olympics. They will start their morning running and chasing and  jumping shortly. The trees surrounding my yard are tall and expansive and the squirrels jump from one to another and cover three yards without ever touching the ground. It is amazing to watch them as they land on branches so thin that I don’t see how they don’t break. I may not particularly like the squirrels but they are entertaining and God created some amazing creatures when God made them. I’m just not sure what their purpose in creation is. I’m sure they must fill some role in the ecological system or God would not have created them. 

Well, I just had an interesting thing happen. My neighbor came and asked if she could “borrow” my “wifi”. Their’s went down and she was in the middle of teaching a class. So, I have let her in on the sunporch and set her up with a little table to put her stuff on and she is teaching her class via computer from my sunporch. Ya’ see how God gives us little opportunities to do something for somebody? Our opportunities to help one another in this life do not have to be grandiose.  Sometimes all it takes is saying “sure, come on over!”

I think that today I will mow the yards if I have time. It depends on what Ms. Kate has on her agenda, and of course if I can get my writing done. 

So, I better get on with my day. I need to start by cleaning myself up and getting presentable. Have a great Friday and get ready for a great weekend. Don’t get so busy that you forget to express your gratitude to God. God love sharing from us. 

Peace. 

 Wow, — no sunshine this morning. But I think there is hope for some yet today. My cousin Debbie, over in southern Illinois posts a picture of her sunrise most days and posted one today. We generally get the same weather as she does, just a couple of hours later. But, it is comfortable outside, 60 degrees and very little wind. I went out to the street and pulled my garbage can back up to the house in case it does rain. The lid was open and I didn’t want it to collect water. It has rained at some point during the night and the sidewalks are still slightly wet.  Accuweather forecasts another round coming in around 1300. 

The Backyard Buffet is fairly empty this morning. I’ve only had a few guests but I can hear birdsong in the trees around the yard and neighborhood. Every once in a while one or two will dash in and grab a bite and then take off. I have a pair of cardinals that are frequent visitors. It is neat to watch them. They are obviously a mated pair. He watches over her and even feeds her. 

Ms. Kate and I got the bulletins run yesterday after I took her for her bloodwork. Then we went out for lunch at a place called “Big Bang”. It is a Mongolian BBQ place and we go there several time a year usually, but have not been there since the start of COVID. The meal is always good. 

I went down to work on some writing and discovered that I wasn’t near as far along with my work as I thought I was. I thought I already had everything ready for the 18th of April but found out that I had not finished the sermon I had started no had I completed the bulletin. So —- I finish up all of that and then started on the 25th. I have the worship service done now for the 25th and I have a plan for my sermon for that day. I guess that with the extra two services last week, I lost track of where I was. But, I’m back on track now, or at least I think I am. 

I’m very disappointed with my garden so far. My lettuce came up, barely, and then hasn’t done anything. My radishes are way too thick but I knew they would be and I’ll have to thin them out. My potatoes are doing good though. They came up, and I pulled more dirt over them and they have now pushed through that layer and are looking really healthy. I had some okra seeds left from last year and I put maybe four or six seeds in a large flower pot to see if they would come up. If they do, I’ll let them get a few inches tall and them transplant them in my regular “okra spot”. It’s not time for tomatoes yet. I heard a tip yesterday concerning tomatoes. Ms. Kate said she had heard a gardener say to put sardines in the hole before you put the plant in. It adds nutrients to the soil. It’s worth a try. I’ve put fish that I have caught at the base of a plant before and it works well. I just had never considered buying a few cans of sardines to do that. 

That’s all I have today. I hope your day is filled with the joy of Jesus Christ. Peace. 

 Another beautiful morning greets me today. It is already 70 degrees, the sun is shining and there are very few clouds in the sky, — so far. We are supposed to have some rain come through sometime today or maybe tonight and I think into tomorrow. It will be what it will be I reckon. 

Yesterday I took my truck to the local car wash to have it hand washed and waxed. I run it through car washes frequently but they only get the dust off basically. My truck is a 2008 Dodge Dakota and I bought it in 2009. At the time it only had about 12,000 miles on it. Well, it still has only 48.000 miles on it. It looks great but had begun to have a layer of dirt on it that the car washes didn’t touch and I knew it would ruin the paint. So I took it to have it hand washed and waxed and now it looks as good as the day I bought it. I love my truck, I just don’t drive it often because the gas mileage is only around 20 mpg. But, a guy needs a truck and it is handy for things like hauling mulch and stuff. The neighbors across the street and the neighbors next door have both benefitted from me owning a truck several times over the years too. Any way, I’m glad to have “Big Red” looking shiny and new once again. 

Today is “bulletin day” at the churches. But first Ms. Kate needs to go have her blood work done. It will be a “fasting required” session. Which means that she can’t have her coffee yet this morning because she puts cream in her coffee. So, she better go pretty soon. LOL

I’m sitting here looking at the maple trees in the yard to the west of me and to the south of me and there are about a bi-zillion “Whirly-copter” seeds ready to fall from them. Pretty soon the air will be full of them. I reckon we’ll see how good my new “Leaf Filter” gutter guards really work. 

I finished another book last night. I have one more new one from this same author. I may wait to start on it. I need to get busy writing again instead of reading. But these two books I just read are good sermon source material so it isn’t like it was time wasted. I’ve already loaned out the first book to a parishioner and I’ll be interested to see if it made the impact on her that it did me. 

I think I’ll go throw a bagel in the toaster and pour another cup of coffee. Have yourself aa most wonderful day. Stay in touch with God and receive His peace. 

 Good morning and Happy Easter! Yes, I know “Easter” was yesterday but Jesus is still alive and that makes every day Easter. And it is an absolutely beautiful morning. It’s already almost 60 degrees outside and is going up to 79 today. How perfect is that. If I still had my convertible this would be a top-down day for sure and we’d do a road trip for sure even if it was just around the county. 

Our weekend was great. Julie and the pups came over Friday evening and stayed through lunch yesterday. Jim had to work all dat Saturday and decided to stay home and get some of his work done at the house. But it was a wonderful visit with Julie. 

Worship services went perfect this weekend. We had three services yesterday and all-told the attendance was about 130 people total. It was wonderful to see full pews again. We had lots of visitors and and also some members that I had not seen in a long time. Of course we all know that it was an anomaly and part of the Christmas and Easter attendance tradition but all the same, I was just happy to see folks there\. Starting this coming Sunday, we will be doing “COVID masks optional”. I know that our attendance will be back to “normal” and that still gives us ample room for social distancing. I expect that some may not come because we aren’t requiring masks and others that haven’t been coming will now come because we aren’t requiring masks. It’s the society in which we live these days. I will still carry my mask with me because even though the state will no longer require masks, many businesses still will. 

I finished the book that I was reading and have loaned it to one of my parishioners who loves to read. I’m betting she will be using it in some of her Sunday school lessons. It is a good source for that. I have started on another one of Simmons’ books, this one is called “The Power of a Humble Life”. It isn’t as thick of a book as the first one but is too is an excellent read. 

The sun is shining on the cardinals this morning and they are beautiful. Unfortunately my feeders are mostly empty si I need to get out there and fill everything. In the meantime, they can clean up some of their ground mess that they drop. As I sit here overlooking the backyard, the daffodils are just about done. The blooms are starting to die off and droop down. The tulips though are going strong and the lilacs are blooming. The azealias have  buds on them  and maybe will be open in a week. And all of the peonies are starting th get bigger and some even have bids on them. We are very blessed to have a continuation of beauty from the flowers all through spring and early summer. It does take a lot of work though. 

Time to refill the coffee cup. You have a wonderful week. Peace. 

 April 2nd, Good Friday. By Biblical chronology tradition, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, would have been hanging, nailed to a wooden cross for a full hour by now. The Gospel of Mark 15:25 tells us that “it was nine in the morning when they crucified him.” It would be six hours before he would breathe his last breath. I suspect that by the time he passed, most of the jeering crowd had gone on their way and only his closest family and a couple of disciples may have remained with him until the end, as well as the squad of soldiers ordered to carry out the crucifixion. None of us can even begin to imagine the pain and agony that Jesus must have suffered during those six hours. God’s mercy allowed him to die in that amount of time because it was not unusual for the crucified to hang there for days before death. But those victims weren’t actually nailed to the cross, but were tied. But the death of Jesus was especially cruel. 

I didn’t intend to write a sermon this morning with this but I think that we need to remind ourselves of the passion and pain of this day. Each of the Gospels condense the crucifixion into approximately 22 verses, —- and maybe that is really enough because I think it is impossible to portray the agony and pain that Jesus was going through. But we do need to not just “gloss over” those passages either. The pain was real. The sacrifice was real and we are part of the narrative, even now 2000 years later, every time we deny Christ by disobeying his word. Think about that today. 

Our Maundy Thursday service went very well although I was disappointed by the lack of attendance. We only had about 20-25 folks there. I’m hoping many more attended via their computer screen. It was a blustery evening and very chilly and being late evening time might have kept some from attending. Add to that — the farmers are starting to get out in the fields and we saw a few of them out in the fields either spraying or discing as we made our way to the church. It was still daylight when it started and the sun had not quite finished setting when we finished so they we’re still turning dirt when we left for home. But, the service went well. The music was nice and the two that did the Tenebrae reading did an excellent job. 

Julie is coming over this evening with the pups. Jim has to work a full eight hours tomorrow and will come over after that. They will go home after lunch on Sunday. 

I guess that is it for today. It’s cold again this morning, 31 degrees, but it should start warming up and and will be a beautiful Easter weekend. Have a blessed day. 

 April 1st and it was 31 degrees this morning and that was not an April Fool’s day joke. It’s a goof thing that all of my plants and flowers are cold tolerant. I would love hate to see them all wilt over now. 

This is Maundy Thursday in the Christian tradition. Maundy comes from a Latin phrase to do with the washing of the disciple’s feet by Jesus. The Latin word is “mandatum” meaning “Command”. At the last supper Jesus gave his disciples a “command”; “That you love one another as I have loved you.” See, we learned something today and that makes today a total success. And no, I’m not smart, — I Googled that. Anyway, —- So tonight we will have our Maundy Thursday service and it will include a Tenebrae Reading and Holy Communion. Many churches will do a washing of the feet ceremony in honor of Jesus’ actions. I’ve never done that nor had a church that practiced it that I know of. 

Yesterday was a busy day around our house. We scrubbed floors, did laundry, went and did grocery shopping; brought that home and put it away and then went to lunch at Dennny’s. Came home and took a short snooze and then I started working on my April 18th service and sermon. Got the service created and the sermon about a 4th written. So, all is good. Today will be busy too. I think I need to go to the store again and then we need to go to the church early so we can run the bulletins for the Easter late service , and then we have the evening service at 1900 hours. 

Right now I need to go over my service for tonight one more time, read my Sunday sermon one more time and then do some writing. With that I will bid you adeu’  Have a blessed day.