And a glorious Monday morning to you! Throw away all those "Aww man, its Monday" thoughts and put on your glad and happy face. "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

My sidewalk is damp this morning. It was barely sprinkling when I finally turned into bed last night. Ms. Kate and I sat and watched that silly Alton Brown and Cut Throat Kitchen last night untill midnight and then she went in and played some computer games while I fiddeled around updatin my laptop computer. Ms. Kate and Julie want me to take it on our vacation this weekend. I haven't used it in maybe three or four months. By now the battery was dead and it needed about seventy five updates. But, it is fully charged now and all caught up. I seldom use it except when Ms. Kate aand I travel and now that I have this new IPad it gets used even less. ---- None of which has anything to do with my damp sidewalk. As I was saying, the sidewalks are damp this morning which indicates to me that it must have rained more than just a litte bit. The sun is coming is and out now as the clouds pass over.

We had great worship again yesterday. I had invited one of our young girls to do one of her dance routines as part of the worship service. To the best of my knowledge, that was a first and I wasn'r sure how the congregaion would react towards it. The young girl asked her friend to do the dance with her and they did a good job and it appeared to be well received. I am encouraging members of the conngregation to demonstrate their talents as part of the worship this summer. After all --- God gave them the talent, why not demonstrate it through worship of God? I think we were all also inspired by our organist once again yesterday becaue her music seemed to be especially beautiful yesterday. Ms. Brenda always does a great job, but I will tell you that there are Sundays that I believe the congregation comes to church especially prepared to worship and the Holy Spirit just lifts us up and carries us to a new level. We sing louder, we sit quieter, and after the service is over people stand and talk and laugh and enjoy the fellowship of one another's company much longer. For those Sundays; I say "Thank you Father."

It appears that I need to refill some feeders yet again. The flying pigs and the bushy-tailed rats have eaten well this weekend leaving me to do the dishes and fix their next meal. They better enjoy this week because next week they are on their own.

Our grandson, Jon, competed in his first "scooter" competition yesterday out in California and did well. The kids these days have a whole new version of the little two-wheeled "scooter" that we had back in the '50s. You rememeber those; you stood on it and pushed with one foot  and then rode it until it slowed down and then pushed with one foot again. The Amish have a version of the same thing that they use to get around on for transportation. But these thing the kids ride are much smaller and have tiny little wheels, and they do all kinds of tricks and jumps with them. It has become a sport much like riding the skateboards of the 90's. We went to the skatepark with Jon while we were out in California and watched him ride. He is really good on that little thing and scares the bejeezus out of us with his dare-devil tricks.

Time to vacate the recliner and get some work done around here. Or maybe it is simply time to sit and enjoy my cardinals and flowers a bit more. Either way, I'm done for today. I hope you have a blessed day; I already have.

Ta-daaaaaa! We picked our first three tomatoes yesterday. Okay, so you have tomatoes already from your garden --- but that first tomatoe is just the best. As Martha Stewart would say; "Its a good thing."

The storms rolled through last evening. We were still up when they first began; I sat here in the sunporch and watched them and listened to them. I don't know yet how much rain we got from that round. I went to bed and never heard another rumble. I do sleep the sleep of the dead so it was probably hard for Ms. Kate to tell the difference between thunder and my snoring. Right now it is 72 degrees and a little overcast. This afternoon the cold front is to roll through and bring some much bigger storms. Hopefully they won't be as bad as predicted.

Ms. Kate and I went to the churches yesterday and did our office work. First we went to do our visitation at the nursing homes. I think I'm actually caught up with everything I need to do before we go on vacation. We came home to find neighbor Dan had come over and mowed my yard. He thought  we might be on vacation, bless his heart. I had planned to do the mowing today but I woud have been on the John Deere; he has a walk-behind. Of course, I have to use a walk-behind in my back yard because my John Deere won't fit through the gate. I felt for Dan though because the heat index was about 102 and he should not have been out there doing that.

I need to fill feeders again this morning.The birds and the squirrels have fairly well depleted the sunflower seed feeders. Right now every feeder has either several birds or a squirrel on it. I guess they feel the storms comiing in too. At the moment most of my birds are finches and sparrows and a couple of nuthatches; although they mainly stick to running up and down the trees and eating whatever it is they look for there. I'm about forty minutes early for the cardinals to come in. Perhaps I should actuaally let them finish emptying the feeders and then fill them tomorrw after the storms are done. That way I don't have seed getting wet and sprouting on in the feeders.

So, --- it is Friday, my day off; mywork is caught up; --- what to do today. I might just pull out my new Stephen King novel and read some of that. Or, I might sit and play my keyboard for awhile. I always find that relaxing to do. I could do some sermon work to get ahead; but as I said --- it is Friday and my day off. Ms. Kate says I am a work-a-holic and I guess I am or I wouldn't be thinking about what to write in my next sermon  which isn't until July 19th. Max Lucado wrote yesterrday that God created the world in six days and then God took a break --- and the world didn't fall apart because He did. His point was that you and I, not only can, but need to take a break too. As Ms. Kate says; I tend to let work consume me and I need to quit doing that. That is why may last attempt at retirement "failed".

Julie made it back from her conference safely and I offer up praise to God this morning for that. I also offer up thanks that more people weren't hurt during the violent storms that rolled through the upper mid-west this week. Homes were blown apart but people were fine.

I think, I will go pour another cup of coffee and watch my birds yet for awhile and watch the squirrels chase one another all over the yard. Have a great Friday and a relaxing weekend. God loves you and so do I.

It really is Thursday already isn"t it? This week has flown by which is opposite of what I thought would happen. I guess our days in the flowerbeds working and trying to get ahead with the church stuff, including my end of month reports and preparing for the July Congregational meetings has sucked up the hours. But that is a good thing and we have had a very productive week around here.

It is 79 degrees already this morning and the day promises to be a steamy one with heat index of 105. Ms. Margret's yard crew is out there early getting her yard mowed but I see the fellow stopping to wipe sweat frequently and it is only 0900 hours. We arre looking at storms coming in soon through tomorrow and then hopefully a bit cooler weather.  I think I'll use today to do the visitation that I didn't get to yesterday.

Slowly but surely Ms. Kate and I are winning the battle of the weeds arund here. We each spent a couple of hours out there yesterday and we can certainly tell where we have been. I need to get some mulch put down. At least now when I get ready to dig up all of the iris, we'll be able to find them. But -- we have a lot of work to do to prepare the new area before we actually move the iris. One of the big hurdles to getting into the flowerbed on the north side if the house is an out of control lilac bush. That will take some major surgery and brush haul away. In order to do that, it has to get dry enough to drive though my nephew's pasture to dup my brush load. Seems like every domino has to depend on the one before it. No wonder I'm so slow. My north side of the house and yard is my most neglected and it looks it. I could easily spend two days in there just trimming back shrubs and bushes.  And, I really should try to find some help to do it.

Some bird just knocked itself silly by flying into my glass door. It is a young black bird. It was laying on its back and barely moving so I went out and turned it over. It fluttered away about ten feet and is sitting there in the yard, I don't know if it has a broken wing or is still just stunned or what.  We'll see how long it stays there. My little bunny is here again this morning. He has moved from up by the house to a hiding spot under the azalea bushes across the yard. I have Mr. and Mrs. Fuss-a-lot, the bluejay couple here this morning. Between the two of them, they keep the starlings at bay while they take turns eating. The door banger bird has now walked off and I don't see it any more so I am assuming it will make it just fine. The song says; "His eye is on the sparrow", so God takes care of his little birds too.

It is time for me to get ready to go do my visitations before the heat of the day or the storms move in. I pray you will have a great day and will take the time to stop for a conversation with God in order to give thanks for your blessings. God is still speaking; --- stop and listen to what God has to say.

Butterflies! We have butterflies this morning flitting from one bloom to the next. That is a neat thing because we don't see a lot of butterflies around here. I'm not sure why but perhaps it is as simple as the fact that we have a lot of birds and the birds eat them. So far my visitors this morning have been mainly sparrows, a gaggle of blackbirds that came and went quickly, a few house finches, woodpeckers, and  couple of cute little wrens. And of course --- a couple of squirrels. I'm hearing the blue-jay off somewhere but haven't seen it yet and I am also hearing some other bird that I can't identify by it's sound. So, it is a bit noisy in the backyard this morning, and I love it. 

I didn't love the noise that woke me up this morning. It was loud banging aand scraping out in the street in front of the house. I got up and looked out the front windows and it looks like maybe the neighbor up the street was having a dumpster delivered. I don't know if they are going to be doing remodeling or what. Of course it is none of my business really except that I think I need to know what is going on in the neighborhood. 

My sunflower seed can is now a hundred pounds heavier since I bought two bags of feed yesterday. The price has gone up a bit. I also bought some seed cakes and cylinders for those specific feeders. Those might last a couple of weeks. So this morning, everything is filled and the buffet is fully open for business. 

We have a lot of aircraft noise this morning overhead. The Shrinerfest starts this weekend and part of that includes an airshow. There will be old time airplanes and also the Navy's demonstration team, The Blue Angels will perform. They are what I have been hearing early. I don't know why the town only seems to get the Blue Angles and are so crazy about them. I think since we retired here they have only had the Air Force Thunderbirds one time. It must go back to tradition or something since during WW II Evansville was a major builder of the Navy's LSTs. We have one of the last remaining LST's that saw action in WW II on display here on the Ohio River. Anyway, --- it would be nice to see the Thunderbirds again. Ms. Kate and I were stationed at Nellis Air Force Base which is the home of the Thunderbirds and have seen them many, many times, but I would go see them again.

Julie made it safely to Cleveland; that you Lord for that blessing. She will do a two day conference there and then head home tomorrow evening; so I'll again ask God for safe passage for her. Josh's fiance' has been having some severe tummy problems and has been in and out of the hospital. But she is home now and says she seems to be doing a bit better. I'll give God thanks for that. I plan to go do my visitation today at the nursing homes and check on those folks. I haven't seen them in almost three weeks. I talked to Ms. Charlottte's daughter last Sunday and asked her if her mom actually reaized that they had taken part of her leg and she said she didn't think so. Perhaps that is for the best. Very seldom when I go see her does she even acknowlege me even if she is awake. My other parishioner thaat is in a facility gets around good and his family takes hime places occasionally. He lives in the past a lot too and I'm never quite sure if he is talking current events or yesteryear. 

Time for me to close up this blog for today. I hope your day is a good one full of sunshine and laughter and the love and peace that only God can give. Blessings!

At 0800 this morning it was already 82 degrees and we have a special weather statement saying that the heat index will be 100 - 105 today. I think I will not go outside and pull weeds from the flowerbed today! But --- yesterday was a productive day out there and I finally finished the one just outside the sunporch and it looks so much better. There was a very invasive plant out there, (I just call it "purple plant" because that is the color of the bloom),  that is just impossible to get rid of. It grows as tall as the phlox and intertwines itself in and among the phlox so that I had to go stem by stem to determine the difference. It will grow back --- it always does and I go through this every year. It isn't a bad looking plant at all and the bees love it. But it will wipe out my other stuff if I don't keep it under control. The flower bed looks so much brighter this morning because the sun is shining on the white of the hydrangias now that I have pulled all of the purple plant out. I filled four fifty pound bird seed bags with purple flower stems. They hydrangias were beginning to be hidden under the purple plant. The phlox will now bloom better too. 

All of my varities of woodpecker, except the pilated one, are here this morning. I filled the feeders yesterday and there are birds everywhere this morning. I really need to go to the bird feed stores today. My sunflower seed can is all but empty and I'm out of several other kinds of the foods I use. My little bunny is back again this morning and is slowly making his way over here to the house. It will come here to the porch shortly and look in jusst to examine the world that it can't enter. There were two but I only  see one these days. Either the other one has moved on or perhaps a hawk got it. Either scenario is possible. 

There is a nice breeze this morning and I have closed the door going from the sunporch to the house and opened up the doors going out of the sunporch to the yard.. It gives me a good cross breeze and will also give the porch a chance to air out a bit. It still smells "a little doogy" in here from the wet pups running in and out of here all weekend. And --- I can hear my birds so much clearer and every once in a while I get a good whiff of the star jasmine that is blooming just outside of the doors. God has provided a most beautiful morning once again. It is amazing; it is humbling to sit out here and watch and listen to the array of creatures God has made. The air literally vibrates with birdsong. The squirrels are chasing one another all over the yard, up and down the trees, across my roof, and back down into the yard. 

My prayers this morning are all prayers of gratitude for a life filled with joy and blessings. I have a wealth of friends and a wonderful faith famiy. I have a family that loves me and I love dearly, I have a home and plenty of food on the table; and I have the love and grace of God Almighty and eternal life promised through Jesus Christ. What more coud I ask for. There is one thing; I ask for safe travels to and from Cleveland, OH for Julie this week as she goes to a conference. And I ask for God's limitless blessings to fall on you. Have a blessed day.

Monday morning; a brand new week of all kinds of opportunities. Seven new days, each which will present a specific challenge or a specific set of blessings. I think it is truly up to us to determine which we will acknowledge. My one specific challenge this week is to finish a sermon that I am working on concerninng the death of John the Baptist. I think I told you about that last Saturday or Friday. Its coming along but painfully. Some times when a sermon is this difficult to focus on, I have to ask myself if I'm supposed to write on it. But my stubborn side seldom lets me back off of it; and the result generally turns out fairly well; --- and I generally learn a bunch of stuff from my reading and research. For instance; you may recall that it was Herod Antipas who not onlyy had John the Baptist beheaded,but  he was also involved directly with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Well, --- life didn't fare so well for old Herod Antipas. You might recall that his wife's daughter, Soleme, was the one that caused Herod to behead John the Baptist. Well, story goes that Solome was crossing a river covered with ice during the winter and she fell through and got caught so that only her head was above the ice and it was sharp enough that the ice literally beheaded her; and the soldiers brought her head to Herod on a plate just as they had John the Baptist. This caused Solome's maternal Grandfather to go to war with Herod and Herod lost the battle. As a result of that battle loss --- Emporer Caligula banished Herod and his wife to Gaul, stripping him of everything he owned.  Ms. Kate told me the other day that as much time as I spend reading and researching stuff, one would think have about learned it all. I wish that were the case. 

It is a beautiful Monday morning. The sun is shining for a change. This last bunch of rain filled my rain guage to the seven inch line over a priod of about four days. The farmers at church yesterrday were all talking about how much rain they each got and how some of the fields had flooded, and some of the corn and wheat had gone down due to wind. It sounded to me as if most of them faired pretty well. Although, the wheat is about ready to combine and there is no way they can get in the fields at this point. This week's weather forecast doesn't look promising for them either. Such is the life of the people of America who put the food on our tables.

I had a great Father's Day. Not only did the family shower me with nice gifts, but I talked to all three girls via phone and computer. Ms. Kate and I had church first thing and Julie went with us. After that we went out for a great lunch at Rz's Resturant. They were slammed with customers as I suspected they would be but the food was their usual excellent. Julie, and Jim and the pups went home to New Albany after we got home from lunch and Ms. Kate and I just relaxed at home reading our respective books. Julie bought me a new Stephen King novel and I got started on that one. I think it is going to be a good one. I love how he tends to tie his novels close to one another and this one, although a completely different story, --- begins around an incident from his novel, Mr. Mercedes. 

I've finished my devotional reading for the morning and have asked for God's guidance through my day, so now it is time to get off my duff and get some work done. The sun is shining and there is a micro-breeze blowing. Maybe I can get out in this flowerbed just out side the porch and do a bit of work before the day gets sweltering. I pray your day is full of God's blessings and that you take the time to recogniize them. If you are having a rough day; stop, breathe deeply, listen for the peace of God. As the song says, "You never walk alone."

Bill has come and gone as a tropical depression in this area. I poured seven inches of rain out of my rain gauge this morning. That is what we have collected since Wednesday. And --- we didn't need a drop of it. I haven't watched the weather news this morning but my tablet tells me it is 73 degrees this morning and the sky looks as if it could continue to rain some more. 

Julie, Jim and the pupperonies did make it over last evening despite the storm. They had to stop along the way for a bit because of fog and storm but they made it here safely and that is all that counts. 

I talk about my sunporch a lot and the view I see from it every morning as  I sit down to write. Well, this is my view, and this is where I have "my spot" for peace and serenity and meditation. It is great to watch the birds and the squirrels and the seasons as they change. I am so glad we decided to put this little addition on to the house several years ago because we have certainly gotten a lot of use out of it. 

Tomorrow is Father's Day. I've had a good celebration of it already. Last week Heather and family took us out to eat at a really great place in her area. Two days ago, Ms. Kate outfitted my patio with a new Kitchen Aid grill, and yesterday Julie brought me the latest Stephen King novel. I have no doubt that I will be getting a card from Lisa today in the mail and it will most likely have a Lowe's gift card in it. All my family knows that I love Lowe's gift cards.

So, it is time for me to get busy because the list of activities for today may not be long but the places we need to go to are closed in the afternoon. So, let me wish you a great day and I will see you on Monday! Have a blessed weekend.

I