Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I did two services today, one with Deacon Conley in Nashville, and then St. Patrick’s tonight in Westfield. Ash Wednesday is a very meaningful service to me, and it is always an honor to be a part.

For Lent, one of my disciplines will be to get my weight back down and keep it there. I was pretty close to my goal when I had my stroke last year, and in all honesty it depressed me. I was in great shape and my life totally changed! How frustrating is that? All that salad and a stroke! When I was eating cheeseburgers I was fine! Go figure.

Anyway, after the better part of the year, I have come to see clearly. I don’t need to live my life in the past, I need to move ahead. I am no longer that young athlete that I was, but if I want to be an old man and a burden to my wife and children for many years to come then I need to get on the ball. Keep me in your prayers…….I am going at this with a lot of determination!

So off to bed it is for me! Ben and I will take it easy tomorrow and may even get a little fun in….I have been too busy! But I hope and pray for you that this season of Lent will lead to a deepening for you and lasting positive change.

I pray that for myself as well.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

One of the things about having a stroke is that when things happen out of sorts your mind goes right toward questioning if it is related, or God-forbid, happening again. Such was my day today. I got a lot done, including the delivery of 60 Ash Wednesday programs that I made myself to Deacon Morgan for the service in Anderson tomorrow night. They are 15 pages including the cover, and I not only copied them, but collated and stapled them too. It was a large feat for someone such as me, but tasks like it make me really feel as if I have accomplished something. I was waiting until after I delivered them to Deacon Morgan tonight at St. Anne’s Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper to finish the others. And when we got home and Ben to bed, Amanda helped me do just that. She was stapling the piles I had copied and laid out.

Amanda is a pretty good soul, and she soon came to me and asked me very gently about the program. I had not only copied the cover incorrectly, I had stapled and delivered 60 to St. Anne’s tonight. It was one of those things that was out of sorts. I had checked and rechecked 1000 times. I had assembled 60 and this mistake was not just ON the cover it WAS the cover. A kindergartner would have caught it, and it really hit me hard. I don’t mind doing more work. I just mind worrying about my mind. It may seem trivial to the average Joe, but it is a lot to handle for me. It makes you second guess yourself.

Anyway, Amanda sent me to type while she finished them up after I fixed them. Sleep will do me good and tomorrow should be a great day. It will include one extra trip to Anderson (I have to drop something off!), but I am excited about the beginning of Lent. I will explain more about that tomorrow though.

Off to bed for me! Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

I have three things back tonight that I value very much……my wife, my youngest son, and my house key. That’s right, my family has not only returned, but the house has been completed as well! I am very thankful for all of it too!

Oh but wait, it gets better! AND, then last night at the high school the science fair was held. Yep, the kids’ projects are done too. There will be no more papers, display boards, eggs and Tupperware, or plants listening to different genres of music taking over the house……at least not until the next big project that is.

And it is a good thing too. Lent begins tomorrow and I have a ton to do. Ben and I will put together the finishing touches on all the service books for Ash Wednesday tomorrow. Hopefully he will not forget anything too. He likes to help, but at 20 months though he thinks he knows what he is doing he mostly just provides comic relief. But as we enter into Lent, he is exactly what I need.

So things here are back to normal at the Tirman home, and full of many apparent blessings for us all. I intend to enjoy it. God has given me a lot for which to be thankful. I will not waste the day at all.

Keep the faith my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you were running either to or away from something, but it just feels like slow motion? That’s my life today, but I just can’t seem to make the finish line I spoke about seeing yesterday. It’s not that I have not tried either, or accomplished a lot, because I have. It is just that everything has taken me much more time than I thought.

This is to say I have given up and am in bed. I have 12 hours until the plane lands, minus the 1.5 hours I will give myself to get there. With sleep, that does not leave much time to finish everything that I want to. Plus a couple of work commitments in the morning will crank up the pressure even more.

I mentioned to both Steph and Scott, who were finishing up their science fair projects that are due tomorrow, how I really do work well under pressure. Tomorrow we will see. But these five days alone have seen a lot get done. I don’t think I bit off more than I can chew……after all, who needs sleep anyway???

Goodnight my friends, and don’t worry….I am in bed till morning! God Bless!

Tom+

Finally! I had a day of unbelievable progress, not just on the house, but with my work as well. Sometimes I think I am at my best when there is a lot to do. Though it may be stressful, the good Lord has just given me the ability to walk in that world.

Thanks to Deacon Dan (who has a truck) and Deacon PT who showed up to help, I now have furniture in our family room. With all things going to plan, the entire thing will be done before I pick Amanda and Ben up from the airport on Monday afternoon…..that’s the plan at least. Things are still in a bit of disarray, but they are getting less so with each passing moment.

Tomorrow I am on the northern tour, with both St. Patrick’s and St. Anne’s. I have a meeting in the afternoon as well. The house will be waiting when I return, and then it will get a final go-through. The lock box for the contractors is to be removed on Monday. Praise God, the end it in sight!

Okay, time to call it a day! I hope your day was blessed, and productive too!

Thanks for checking in…..God Bless!

Tom+

I am so tired tonight I can hardly stand it. Amanda and Ben are still in Kansas, and the older kids have lives, so I am here at the house moving furniture back into place, dusting, cleaning, and getting it ready for the new couch and chair (the last of the furniture) to be put in (by us) tomorrow. I didn’t think it was too much work, but here I am at midnight wondering where the time went. And since I will be meeting Deacon Dan early tomorrow in Indianapolis to pick the stuff up, I am not too hopeful about how I will feel in the morning!! Hopefully sleep will come and be productive.

Steph is at this point on her way home from Kentucky where she was to watch one of our friends, Mitch Corry, who plays college hockey down there. It should be a great time, in that ice hockey is God’s favorite sport, and it will please Him that she is there! But, it makes for a long night, particularly since she, and Mitch’s sister Maddi, had a pretty intense lacrosse game they played in at 5pm. I wish I had that kind of energy.

Scotty spent part of the night, like he has every night this week, playing different genres of music to planted seeds as part of his science fair project. It is odd to hear heavy metal in one room and toddler music in another, but it seems to be a pretty interesting topic. I know I would grow better in one over the other, but I am afraid I cannot confess which.

Anyway, the good news is that my sermon is done, and all I have tomorrow besides the furniture is bulletins and a few easy things. Praise God….I need a day to rest.

So off to bed for me! Goodnight my friends and God Bless. Thanks for checking in!

Tom+

Sometimes the days get so busy that we cannot see their blessings, yet each day is filled with them. Today has been just such a day for me.

But as I sit at the end of it, I am sorry that I was not more appreciative at the time. I spent a lot of the day with Deacons Morgan and Conley. We were down in Nashville at our Church there, and were working on some pretty remarkable things. It was exciting, but looking back now I wonder why I wasn’t even more excited then. We have a great ministry, and I am blessed to work with some very wonderful people. I am thankful for it all, and we’re they awake now, I might just give them a call.

Then the afternoon was spent with Steph and Scott after school and the evening with just Scott who had a game. Steph went to the “Mr. Noblesville” contest at the high school, but we couldn’t understand that since she lived with three of us already. But she tires of our humor, so she went, and Scott and I just hung out. I know I mention a lot about how great my kids are, but I can’t say it enough. I need to be saying it to them more too, and I will. Scott got two things tonight, one, a goal, and two, what he swears is a broken foot. I told him that he can keep his goal, but not the broken foot, so I exchanged that for an icebag instead. It’s a different day and age in sports these days…..we used to re-attach arms, and perform on-field surgeries all with athletic tape. He will learn!

Anyway, I have made it through another day. Amanda and Ben are doing well, and Ben even talked to Scotty and I on the phone tonight. He is having a great time.

But today has been full of God’s Blessings and for it I am oh so thankful. I hope your day has been blessed as well!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

Praise God! All our floors were finally completed today! We have the finish carpenter putting the trim around the baseboards tomorrow and then they will paint the trim on Friday. I will hopefully pick up a coach and a chair on Saturday and then walah (is that a word?)….the house will be done.

The floor was not finished when I left to take Amanda and Ben to the airport. With a lacrosse meeting at 7 at the high school, the first time I saw it finished was at about 9pm. I was not disappointed though. It looks great, and we are thankful for our insurance. The damage from the busted pipe would have not been repairable had we had to come up with the money on our own. It is just nice to not have to walk on the sub-floor.

I am waiting for Amanda and Ben to call before I go to bed, but I did get the report that Ben did great on the plane. He sure had fun at the airport, but he did not seemed pleased at all to say good-bye to his brother or me. It may have been an act to make us feel important, but his mood as we left sure didn’t seem as if he was heading to do so well on the plane. He is a pretty amazing little guy though…..a guy who is living like a king right now in the arms of his grandma.

Who’d blame him? I am a king at my grandma’s still. He is one lucky guy!

So I will call it a day, and a good one at that! Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

God performs many miracles but probably none better than convincing my wife of what furniture to get for the family room. We needed to make a decision, particularly since the room we use most will be empty after the floors are done tomorrow, and the insurance check to pay for it should arrive then as well. I was concerned because we had been spending more in gas to look than it was almost worth. The last thing I need is Al Gore showing up at my door talking about our “carbon-footprint.” (But if he does, Amanda has told me that he now would need to remove his shoes if he is coming in the house.)

Anyway, I should be able to have all of this furniture business resolved before she and Ben return from Kansas on Monday. Ben needs to visit his Nanny, and it is always great for Amanda to get to visit home. She always has a great time.

As for me, besides being a furniture mover, I will be working hard on things for the Church. Lent begins next week, and there is a lot to do. It seems I am never without work to do. I am sure some goofball will jokingly say “well, there is no rest for the wicked,” but I prefer “always skate with your head up.” I’ve never been too good with analogies, and today is no day to start…..after all, I am pretty busy.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless. One more day to finished floors! Praise God!

Tom+

Well we have an entryway and a living room floored, and last night Scotty and I removed the remaining old floor from the family room. We are committed to this now and the rest is up to the contractors. What I can say though is that it is far more progress than we have seen in quite some time, and for it we are all very thankful.

Smaller details we are still working on. We still need furniture (a couch and a chair at least) and I hope my wife can pick that out at least tonight. If that all goes well, we can have it delivered when she and Ben are in Kansas later this week. I just want it all done, and want to be able to walk into any room and be able to sit down…..on furniture that is sitting on a finished floor.

Time will tell, but excuse my suspicion….all this is going too well. I hope I am pleasantly surprised though. Keep us in your prayers. Just a few more days to go and it will go back to being a place that the kids can mess up!

Keep the faith!

Tom+