57, (now that’s more like it,) degrees outside this morning. And it is going up to 70 again today. I have rearranged my plans for today so that I can be home and get back out in my garden and flowerbeds. I was supposed to go do a visitation today but I begged off and will do it tomorrow. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain all morning and clear off in the afternoon, but get cold again. That’s not good gardening weather but it is fine for visitations. 

Ms. Kate and I “did a thing” yesterday morning. We had a couch in our bedroom that we are giving away to St. Vincent de Paul charities. She and I had moved it into the bedroom several years ago and it was a bear to do it. We’ve been talking about how we were going to get it back out of there for a couple of weeks now and the pick up day is approaching. I think the guys that are coming to get it would have moved it but as tight of a squeeze as it is, I’m not sure. Besides, Ms. kate said she didn’t want any strangers in her bedroom. So, that meant either she and I try it or I wait until my son-in-law Jim could come over from New Albany. Julies had offered to help this past weekend but with her severe RA, no way were we going to allow that. So, —- Mr. and Mrs. Stubborn took on the job yesterday morning by ourselves. It took a while and it took a lot of \grunting and finagling, but we managed to get it to the front door hallway. We felt quite accomplished and have decided to call ourselves “The Old Fart Moving Company”. LOL  Of course we weren’t worth a crap for the rest of the day. 

After the couch move we needed to go to Office Depot. Kate wanted to have a self inking stamp made to stamp “Hand Crafted by Kathy” on the back of all of these cards she makes. We were happy to find out that they can make them right there in the store and it only took about 30 minutes. So we shopped around and I tried out all of the office chairs while we waited. It was a good deal. 

Then, believe it or not, we actually went out for lunch. Keep in mind that this is the first time Ms. Kate has been anywhere except for a doctor’s office in about a month. Granted, she has gone on a quick trip \when we would order food out and go pick it up and go right back home. But — we actually went to Logan’s Roadhouse and went inside and had our meal. It’s been five or six weeks since we have actually “gone out” to eat. It felt wonderful. The take away from that story is that Ms. Kate is feeling that much better and is, (I hope) back to normal. All praise to God. Now we wait for the two ultrasounds to be done. The antibiotics seemed to have done the trick for her though. 

So, after all of those good things yesterday, I went downstairs to my office and I got some good work done down there too. So, all in all, Tuesday was an excellent day. I hope yours was too. Now, I need to get out of my pajamas and into my jeans and get outside. Daylight is burning and during this time of the year it burns quickly. 

Have a blessed day. Peace.  

 Okay, the weekend is over. Back to work. We can’t have any of this lazing around and enjoying life stuff, can we?? —— Well of course we can. In fact I plan to do some lazing around my self today. It is going to be 70 degrees and I plan to do some yard work today that needs to be done that I have been putting off because of this or that reason, mostly weather related. But today promises to be a perfect day. But, somehow I don’t think it is going to meet the “lazy” criteria. But it will be relaxing, at least by the time I plant my butt in my recliner sometime this afternoon, I’ll relax for sure. 

How was your weekend. Ms. kate and I had a good one. She is feeling better. The antibiotics have kicked in and most of the pain she has been feeling has dissipated. She still has the nausea, but I think that is mostly reaction to the antibiotics. And, if she sits very long, she has to go lay down and stretch out because she starts to cramp up. But, she is so much better than she was. Today is her last day of antibiotics. Now we wait for the two ultrasounds that she has to have. Maybe by then we can find out what is really going on with her. We know it is diverticulitis, but there is the possibility that there may be something else in the works. 

But, Julie came down this weekend and spent Friday night through Sunday morning with us. Ms. kate and Julie made two apple pies, and they are delicious. One is already gone of course and the other has a dent in it. I can’t imagine what happened there. I’d say maybe a mouse got to it but I’ve never seen a mouse cut a perfect wedge out of a pie like that. Hmmmmm. What can I say, pies are made to be eaten and I follow the rules. 

We had good fairly good attendance at the churches yesterday. It was really good at St. Paul’s\, we served communion to 32 folks at St. Paul’s. It is so good to see the attendance growing like that and it is especially good to see so many young children in the church. The cycle has come around at that church and a new generation is coming along, and we have two more babies on the way. Attendance at St. Lucas was good, but could be better We only served about 37 for communion at St. Lucas. I can think of at least 15 people that were out yesterday for one reason or another. But, we take what we get and I am grateful for each one that shows up. I just have to always remind myself that it isn’t about me and it isn’t about the numbers. It’s about serving those who do come, and praying for those who do not. Heck, Ms. Kate hasn’t been in maybe six weeks because of her health. And I have a few others that are sick too. 

Do you realize that we are only about six weeks from Christmas??  I was working on my schedule last night and wow, We need to get the churches decorated, probably on the 21st because Thanksgiving is the following Thursday and the first Sunday of Advent is the following Sunday. And I have a wedding to prepare for the Saturday after Thanksgiving; and Ms. Kate and I hope to be leaving for Myrtle Beach SC on the 1st of December to spend a few days with Lisa and all of her family. So, I have to prepare sermons and bulletins ahead of time so we can do that. Ms. Kate has been busy making the Christmas cards and has about 85 of them made. I’ll need to sit and address all of those and get them ready to go in the mail. Thank goodness people don’t do the family brag letters anymore or I would have that to do. I promised myself that I would write a dialogue Christmas reading this year for use at the churches but I haven’t even begun on that. Stuff to do, stuff to do. 

But first, I have coffee to drink and Backyard Buffet guest to watch on this beautiful morning. Have a great week. Peace. 

 Happy weekend, I hope you are having a great Friday and have a fun weekend planned. It’s a brisk but sunny 38 degrees outside and the feeders have lots of guests at them. The better news is that the temperature is going to keep climbing back up to “normal” for the coming week so we’ll be seeing 60 degree temps again.

Last night I fixed us a pot of “steel-cut” oats to have for breakfast this morning. They were really good and they do a good job of warming up the tummy. I had too much liquid on them though. The directions call for 4 cups of water to 1 cup of grain. But I deviated from the cooking instructions. You are supposed to bring the water to a boil and then put the oats in and turn on low heat and cook for thirty minutes. But, Julie says to boil the water, dump in the oats, stir, cover and remove from the heat and let them sit over night. That’s what I did.. Maybe next time I’ll use three cups of water instead of four. We chefs play with our recipes don’t you know. Bwahahahahha. 

I have a couple of counseling sessions going on this afternoon. I enjoy those. Actually, the first one isn’t so much counseling as just going over what my part is going to be in their wedding. They are getting married in her church and she is Catholic. I don’t know if he is gong to change over to Catholic faith or not. Bless him if he does, as long as they keep God as the center of their marriage, I don’t care what church they attend. 

Julie is coming down this weekend. She has to help the manager of the University of Evansville bookstore with an event this evening. She was just up in Indianapolis two days ago doing the same thing. That girl keeps herself too darn busy. It’s no wonder her immune system suffers a lot. Unfortunately, all of our girls are “work-a-holics”. Any way, she’ll be here this evening and work at the college. Then she will spend tomorrow with us visiting and then head home on Sunday because she has some more research to do for for her college class. She is down to just a couple of called until she receives her Bachelor’s  Degree. Ya’ see what I mean ——- a workaholic. 

That’s it for today my friends. I pray you have a wonderful weekend. I pray you will take the time out and observe a Sabbath with the Lord God who has provided your every blessing this week. Peace. 

 Happy Thursday. It is a feel-good morning, at least while I’m inside. It’s still freezing temperatures outside. But the sun is shining brightly, the leaves are falling from the trees in my yard so I have some more raking to do. I may mow the front yard one more time before I ask Jim to swap the mower deck for the snow blade. My trees out back are probably 60% nude now. I can always tell that the leaves are dropping because the afternoon sun gets in my eyes if I am sitting out there. During the summer that isn’t a problem because there are so many big trees surrounding my yard that it is hard for the sun to get through. 

I’m about 3/4th finished with my sermon for the 14th of November. I want to finish that up this morning while the thoughts are still juicing in my head. This afternoon I need to clean out the garden and get it winterized. The tomatoes need to be pulled up and the okra too. That’s going to fill up my garbage can quickly and I just got it emptied this morning. Gotta do, what I gotta do though. Just because it is 32 degrees out does not mean there is no yard work to do. Although ——- if I let it go for a bit, the cold and frost with dry out the plants and take up a lot less space in my cans. That’s something to consider. See how easy it is to justify not doing something. I just walked myself out of some work today. What a lazy butt I am sometimes. Of course I can also justify it by reminding myself that they weather is going to get even better for next week when the temperatures will rebound to the low to mid 60’s. Oh, this is just too easy. LOL

Ms. Kate seems to be feeling a bit better again this morning. It kind of goes that way. She’s better this morning but it is time for her to go lay down and stretch her tummy out. But she did have a bagel with peanut butter and a banana on it this morning so that is a major improvement. As she is getting better, it sounds like several others of my family are coming down with the flu or something that sounds like the flu. Youngest daughter Lisa is off work and sick with it and you gotta know she is really miserable because she never takes off work. Son-in-law Jim is home sick with the same symptoms, and no they don’t live anywhere close to each other so they didn’t contaminate each other. 

Tine for me to clean up and get the day going. I hope you can get out and enjoy the day and the sunshine. Peace. 

 Wow, Mother Nature got serious last night and woke us up to 30 degrees. With a little help from the sun we might reach 50 today. Not a day that you would want to go dip your toe in the stream.. 

Ms. Kate is still “doing okay” by her definition. This morning she is busy setting up future medical appointments for a couple of weeks out. She has to have a pelvic and kidney ultra-sound in two weeks so she’s working on that. I’m just glad to see her up and functioning. That is a major change. For those of you who have been keeping her in your prayers, I thank you. 

Yesterday was a really busy day for me. As I told you, I had a dental appointment and got that tooth repaired. From there I went and picked up a couple of things that we were needing around the house and came home for lunch. Yesterday afternoon I did some of the “to-do” list stuff and then went out and rearranged the sun-porch and brought in the patio plants. I’m glad I did what with it getting down to 30 last night. It wasn’t a “hard-freeze” per-se but it would have curled the leaves a bit. As long as we have been babying these five plants, I’d hate to lose then because I was too lazy to bring them in. So, the sunporch in in its “winter arrangement” until spring. 

I asked Ms. Kate what she wanted for supper and she said she had gotten some ground chuck out of the freezer and planned to make our version of “goulash”. Well, I knew that I could do that, (with a few directions), so I made supper and it turned out pretty darn well. There is enough for leftover for another couple of meals; at least for me. Kate doesn’t like leftovers. I’m like her mom though. Make a pot of something and eat it every meal until it is gone. 

Finally, last night I got down to my computer in my office and did get some writing done. I got a page and a half written that is pretty good and then I quit because I was beat. Maybe I’ll finish it this evening after I watch Survivor. 

That’s it for today. I need to get ready to go to the churches and run the bulletins, or maybe I’ll just wait and do that tomorrow. There isn’t a rush. Just have to wait and see how it all plays out. 

Have a blessed day. Shalomn. 

 November 2nd. Good morning y’all. I just got home from the dentist office. Had to get my broken tooth fixed. It took longer than I expected it to but when you look at my teeth, you can’t tell which one he fixed which is good because there was a gap there before. So I’m glad that I can smile without scaring folks again. LOL

The good news is that we finally got the results back from the doctors and the radiologists. Ms. Kate has some serious diverticulitis. It was classified as “several instances of diverticulitis”. They had put her on two different medications and then in two weeks she has to go for both a pelvis and a kidney ultrasound. I don’t know what else they are looking for but the good news is that she does feel a bit better today. We’ll smile about that. This isn’t going to be a quick-fix by any means but at least she is on the right path now. 

The temps were right down there this morning at 40 degrees. We are under a light freeze advisory starting tomorrow night through the weekend. Night temperature are supposed to get down into the 30’s. Winter is giving us a taste what what to expect this year I reckon. As you know, I don’t mind the cold, I just don’t want snow and ice. It used to be fun, but not any more. But, the cold means that I have to get the patio plants in the house either today or tomorrow. I don’t mind except that they are heavy because we have had rain and the dirt in them is soaked. It means I also have to rearrange the sun porch area. There is always a chore to be done. 

I got a good start on the service for the 14th of November last night. I had a hard time getting started but I think it is going to work out fine. I need to make some parishioner phone calls today and i also need to send my October mileage to the treasurer of each church. I also have some other church business to take care of today so it is going to be a busy one. Tomorrow I’ll go up to the churches and run the bulletins. Friday I have to go up for a marriage counseling session with a young couple that is getting married at the end of the month. It’s all part of the job and I love it. I’m happy to say that of all of the weddings that I have performed, only one didn’t last, and I admit that I had doubts about that one going in. But I’m getting to baptize the babies of some of my couples now and that is a wonderful thing. It is always a wonderful thing to see couple keep their promises to each other and to God. 

I guess I better stop here and fix lunch for Ms. Kate and me. My lip and gum is about fully de-numbed from the dentist so I don’t have to worry about biting my lip. Have a pleasant day, The sun is shining and The Son is watching over you. Peace. 

 Hello Monday, I see you brought along a new month. Hey there November, you look cold!!! It is pretty chilly this morning and it isn’t going to improve a lot this entire week. In fact, I’m going to have to go ahead and bring in the patio plants I guess. The forecast calls for below freezing temperatures this week. 

We’re having a busy morning. Ms.. Kate had an appointment with Dr. Jackson this morning, first thing to se what he can do about her health issues. He was able to get her in for the CT scan that we have ben waiting on right away so w went from there to Radiology Express and had that done. It didn’t take but a few minutes and now we are just waiting on the results to get back to the doctor and and for the doctor to call us with an answer. If I was a betting man, I’d bet he will call with a prescription for antibiotics. As long as he does it soon and we can get on with starting a cure, 

Yesterday I started my day off by breaking a tooth off while I was brushing it. I was getting ready for church so that was helpful!!!! But it doesn’t hurt because it just broke off an old filling. But it is a front tooth so I could go as “Gap-itis” for Halloween. I had been expecting it to break off because I could feel movement when I brushed my teeth. It will be a simple fix. I have a good dentist. I think he’s 12 years old —- LOLOL. Actually he has to be older than that because I just realized that he has been my dentist for almost twenty years by now. Wow, Time is flying by. Okay, he was probably 12 when I first started seeing him. 

I guess I will start on my November 14th service today since I have to stay close to the phone for Ms.. Kate. I want her to get all the rest she can. She has another bad night last night with getting up and down to walk out pain. Bless her heart. I feel her pain, I know what she’s going through because I’ve been there and had that. But it’s hard when you can’t do anything to help. 

Time to wrap this up and move on to something else. Have a great week. Peace.