Good morning! I hope you are keeping your head down; there’s a bunch of storms coming today. We’ve had rain already , on and off, since about 0400. Right now we are in the a lull and waiting for more to start. It’s not like we need any rain. But, God gives what God gives. Tomorrow is supposed to be a better day. 

We went out and bought a new mattress and box springs yesterday. It is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Kate has her surgery on Monday and our current bed is just too high. She has to use a stool to get into it. With her surgery, it might be really hard for her to maneuver into, so I said we need to fix that situation. It was fine when we were younger but now we are 75 and 78 yo and we don’t need to be taking chances on something as simple as getting into bed. 

Today we are waiting on a document to be delivered via “over night” mail. My granddaughter said that we had all neglected to sign one of the places on her marriage license. So, —- she is overnighting it to me to sign, ten Jim and I will meet half way between our house and theirs, and then I’ll overnight it to Heather i CA. She will sign it and she will overnight it to Bryan’s mom. What a mess. 

Yesterday afternoon I put my Epson Salt on the flower beds and garden. It sweetens the soil and helps stuff grow. It was a good day to do it since the rain has now come and dissolved it into the dirt. I also put out several peony cages around plants that were big enough. I have maybe another couple of dozen that I’m waiting on to pop out a bit more. I may need to go ahead and buy some new cages as mine are getting pretty rugged looking. I also need to get my mower deck put on the JD because the yard is going to need mowing soon. I generally wait until after Easter. It’s silly I know, but I always wait until after Easter if I can so the “Easter Bunny” has a place to lay the eggs. Yeh, that family tradition does go back forty years or so with my girls. 

Well, I think I’ll fix some oatmeal for breakfast. You have a great day. Peace. 

 Good morning and happy Wednesday. It’s a bit chillier than what I have had the past week in the morning. But, it’s sunny and will warm up time some point today. 

Ms. Kate and I got home from vacation yesterday afternoon. We were tired; tired from driving, tired from a week of visiting, tired from hearing all of the wonderful and beautiful noise and chit chat of a family that loves one another. All three of our daughter were there. We were however missing Steph, our “fourth daughter” who we always have join us for family vacations. But, she was home taking care of her mother who just had cancer surgery for esophageal cancer. And that’s exactly where she should have been.

The weather was perfect for our entire vacation which was a blessing. We did have major storm Sunday night into Monday morning but it was passed over by the time Ms. Kate and I left. And we had good traveling weather again on the way home. We put in 535 miles Monday, driving from Wilmington, NC to Cordin, KY. That’s a long day for folks our age; or maybe it’s just a long day for us, I don’t know. Then yesterday morning we headed out for home. We stopped at a place called Buckee’s, which apparently is the new rage and standard for a gas station. You probably know it. They advertise their bathrooms, because of how many “stalls” they have and how clean they are. And they live up to their own hype. Thee place is also famous for their brisket as well as a lot of other food. Kate and I picked up a couple of sweet rolls for our breakfast. I finished one this morning. It’s good stuff, and a fun stop along the road. The company originate in Texas and the one that we stopped at is their furtherest northern store. A clerk told me that they are going to build another one in Sevierville, TN. That will be a people zoo what with all of the visitors and tourists going to Dollywood and Gatlinburg. But, if you haven’t been to one, and you come across one in your travels —- be sure and stop. 

Lots of stuff coming up for Ms. Kate and I. Today, she has to have a blood test and this evening is choir practice. Sunday is Palm Sunday and I have two young men being confirmed. Monday morning  Kate has her cancer surgery. It is supposed to be a same day surgery, pray it goes well. She acts like she is not nervous but I know the difference. Too many unknowns at the moment. Next Thursday is Maundy Thursday with an extra worship service thrown in. The following Sunday is Easter, with a sunrise service and two regular worship services.

So, keep us in your prayers please. It will all be what God intends it to be and we’re good with that. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 A bad day fishing beats a great day at work any time. However, —— a great day fishing is just hard to beat!!!  Still on vacation and today is wedding day.  Have a great day my friends. 

 Another cold, cloudy, not raining at the moment morning. Winter has three days left officially and seems to be milking every bit of itself for what it is worth. I don’t know if any of you watch or follow a forecaster named Ryan Hall or not; he’s about the best that I have found. He does a podcast called “Ryan Hall Y’all” on You Tube. He said that this weekend 80% of the nation is going to be under a major cold front. That is a serious cold front isn’t it. It is going to be hitting the Deep South too which means that some fruit trees that are budding and blooming might be effected. 

Well, just how Irish are you today? Has your Facebook page been fixed with people wishing you a happy St. Paddie’s Day? Did you have green tea this morning instead of coffee (yuk at the thought)? When you got dressed did you put on some green to keep from getting pinched? Do you remember that childhood tradition? I’ve had two friends send me “Irish Jigs” this morning. I love their sentiment but an Irish accordion and dancing jig is not what one wants before coffee. LOL

I was up late again until about 0100 this morning watching a tv show. I don’t watch sports of any kind as I have told you many times. But there is a show called “Battle Bots” that I really like to watch. I guess it is an international thing. These teams of engineers and mechanics build these incredible robots and they pit them against one another. They aren’t like big human size things they are like smallish toy cars and are radio driven. The engineering that goes into these things is fantastic to watch as these guys maneuver them around trying to destroy each other’s robot. It is the epitome of Nerdvana. You know people go to car races just to see crashes. This is the equivalent with no one getting hurt. Anyway, I was watching a tournament last night and finally went to bed at 0100. There was another segment coming on but I was not gong to stay up and watch it until 0300, so I taped it. I’ll watch it today maybe. 

The first couple of things I need to do today though are to go get a haircut, and clean up my car and get it ready to travel. And —- start assembling stuff to take on the trip. So, with tat on my list, I’m out of here. 

Have your self a blessed day, and maybe even have a green beer just for Paddie!  Peace. 

 Good morning! I reckon two days of sunshine in a row was a bit much to ask for. But, on the other hand, it is going to be 60 degrees today so there is that. You gotta love the role poly weather we have in the spring here in southern Indiana. So, 60 today and then rain tonight and maybe 40 tomorrow. 

So how is your morning going? We are lazy around here today. We didn’t go to bed until almost 0200 and then slept in. I think Kate got up around 0830 and I didn’t get up until 0900. But, I think we were both just winding down from all of the work we were able to finish up yesterday. We spent a good deal of time at the churches yesterday. As I told you, we had several sets of bulletins to run; this coming Sunday and the next Sunday. Then Palm Sunday with a special insert for one of the churches, then Maundy Thursday, Easter Sunrise Service and Easter late service. Yeh, killed a lot of trees yesterday. It takes awhile to run them and then fold them. 

After we finished that, I had a confirmation class to teach. It was the last one before they kids gets confirmed on Palm Sunday. Following the class then we had to stick around for choir practice. Practice went pretty well last night. It is the first time I have felt positive about it. It really isn’t a hard cantata but we have really had a hard time putting it together for some reason. There are only two rehearsals left. I won’t be there for next weeks and neither will our pianist. Then the following week I reckon we will have practice the night before the Maundy Thursday service. And then we perform it on Easter Sunday morning at 0700. That’s a hard time to get your voice going. But, it will be what it will be what it will be. Everybody is working hard on it. 

Yesterday morning, we did work to get on putting Kate’s office back together in some kind of orderly fashion. That was a major job she wanted to do before her surgery. Julie will be coming over part of the time to help her mom after surgery and we had to get her bed cleaned off so she will have a place to sleep. Always something to be doing around here. 

Today we have some run around stuff to do before we get ready to go on our vacation. We’ll be leaving first thing on Monday morning. Ms. Kate has a list of places we need to go and what we need to pick up. So, I suppose I need to get up off of my trail and get ready to head out. 

I pray your day will be fully blessed. Take some time to stop and give thanks for this day. Peace.. 

 There will be no grousing this morning about the lack of sunshine! It is a beautiful morning. The sunshine abounds and the temp is 46 and going up maybe another ten degrees today. All in al, I’d say that is a perfect start to the day. 

We started this morning with a call from the Deaconess Hospital surgery center. They wanted to go over everything with Ms. Kate because some of the things she has to do before surgery have to start at least 10 days out. Mostly they have to do with the list of medications that she takes. Some she will have to stop on differing days before the surgery. The paperwork we got yesterday said the surgeon is still taking a “lumpectomy” although removal of the breast is no out of the realm of possibilities, but unlikely. We feel pretty confident about that. After the surgeon’s call, she had a call from the geneticist telling her that some of the tests were back but they did 46 different tests and only nine were back so far. We’ll wait for more results until we get a complete picture. This is important not only for Kate but also for our daughters, granddaughter, her sister and her daughters etc. If she does have a genetic propensity toward cancer, all of the women in her family need to know that so they can monitor their own bodies. 

I have a busy and long day in store. I need to go do some parishioner visitation at a nursing home in Princeton, then I need to get to the church and run a lot of bulletins again. I have all of my services lined up through Easter now. I finished my Easter Sunday message last night. So, I need to get everything in order and lined up. Then I won’t have to worry about any of it while I’m gone. This afternoon I have my last Confirmation Class and need to go over everything with the two confirmands because I won’ ave another chance before Palm Sunday which is their Confirmation day. After Confirmation, I have choir practice. e are working on the Easter Morning Cantata, and in my opinion, we have a looooooong way to go before it is ready. —- So much to do and so little time. 

I was double checking everything last night that haas to do with the wedding and I’m really glad I did. I have the wedding bulletins all printed and ready to go, —- but I had forgotten to print the actual ceremony. I thought I had done that and had it in my note book. That would have been panic city if I got to the wedding rehearsal and had no script! Yikes. 

So, I guess I better eat another donut, finish my coffee, and get to work. You go have yourself a wonderful and blessed day. Peace. 

 There’s no sun shine out there this morning again. That’s not very encouraging. And it is 38 degrees here at 1045, — and only might make it up to 45 degrees. Winter dude needs to lighten up and get on his way. 

The Facebook world has informed me that it is National Pie Day, or as they put it; 3.14 Day. I guess we need to go out and get a pie from someplace. There are a couple of places that I can think of to get one. Wolf’s BBQ has some good pies and of course The Pie Pan has some but their’s are not nearly as good as they used to be. We have a new place on the west side of town called the Bee Happy Pie Company and we bought one of theirs a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty good. Of course the best pies I know of come out of Ms. Kate’s oven but she’s not up to asking one today. So if I want one, I better choose a place to get one. 

We have an appointment with Kate’s cardiologist this afternoon. It is all part of the pre-surgery bank of doctors she has to see before her surgery is done. She’s not having any issues other than the cancer but everybody has to “have a look” at her first. I’m okay with that. Gotta take care of my lady. 

I finished up my stuff for Palm Sunday last night. When I go to the church tomorrow I have several bulletins to run to take me through Easter. I know that is a bit far out yet but with us going on vacation for 10 days, then getting home, having Palm Sunday and her surgery the day after Palm Sunday, I don’t know what else the week will hold. I know I have a choir practice in there and a Thursday Night service for Maundy Thursday. We’re told that her surgery should be relatively simple without a lot of side affect, and that is is a same-day surgery. But, pardon me for worrying about the unknown. We try not to borrow tomorrow’s problems and I preach that all the time. Doing, — however, isn’t the same thing is it?

I was called this morning by a church member asking to put a young child on our prayer list. I think she is three years old and has Leukemia. I as told the doctors say it is treatable but it will take three years. The little girl’s name is Saylor;  please add her and her family to your long list of prayers. 

With that, I will close. Peace.