Well another day is done, and it is good to get to its end. As lacrosse has kicked up, and some family issues as well, my ability to keep up with it all has been tested over and over. I would not give myself an “A” in it either. I am afraid to confess that my grade is probably a high “D.” Too much has come up at once, and I am not reliant upon lists again, and am falling a bit behind….okay a lot behind. But please do not give up on me, just keep me in your prayers. You cannot practice how to deal with times like these as a post-stroke patient if you never have them. So I am really just considering all this an opportunity to learn!

My list for tomorrow should put a big dent in much of what I am behind in….at least I hope. If the dog don’t shop and the creek don’t rise that is…..okay, you can tell I can’t remember old sayings either. But as I get things under my belt and and off my list I am anticipating moving up on that grading scale. God has brought me a long way……….I am counting on making it the entire distance!

Okay off to bed! Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

I have just returned from St. Patrick’s where our renovations are coming along at a fast pace. In the past few weeks we have oriented the Sanctuary in a different direction and added a wall that has yet to be finished, but all the work we hope to have done in order to celebrate March 17th! It has been an intense pace, but I do so appreciate all the hard work and dedication of its members. It is looking marvelous!

I cannot tell you how pleased I have been to see this all coming together. St. Patrick’s looked so long to find a facility, and now they have a nice one that is coming together. I especially like how they have all come together and really designed all of it themselves. Donations were taken to pay for the work, and off they went. It is the way it should be ideally!

Anyway, what I need is a glass of wine and a shower…..possibly not in that order though. There is never a dull moment in the priesthood, and I love it that way. I work hard, but I am extremely blessed. Today has been a marvelous day! I hope yours was just as blessed!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

It is so rarely that my life catches on fire, but for the past few days that’s exactly what it has felt like. Work and family issues have kept me so busy that I got out of my rhythm, which for a guy like me, is a recipe for disaster. I signed on tonight thinking I was a day behind, when it is really 4 days. It’s hard to deal with, in that I really do feel like I have it together most days. Seeing that my last post was Friday depressed me deeply!

Today is a marker in my ministry because today, March 10th, is the 19th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. Oddly enough, I was 19 when I first told a bishop that I wanted to be a priest, so it just goes to show that a person can really be screwed up for quite some time! But I am not a big one for dates such as these, nor my birthday, because in reality I give thanks for everyday I get to do what I do. I never really imagined I would ever be a priest, I just felt called to it. It gets no more special with age. I am as enthused about it as I was at the start. It has been a blessing to me for sure.

I do apologize to those of you who follow this blog for my absence. Post stroke, it was to be a big part of my therapy and it has been. And clearly, only problems relating to the stroke seem to derail it. But thank God I remembered! In the words of that great teacher Bob the Tomato, “It’s good to be back!” Let’s hope and pray I now remember tomorrow!

Keep the faith my friends, and your memory for as long as you can!!! God Bless!

Tom+

Well one week of practice has been completed in the lacrosse season…..only 7000 more to go!!! Actually, the lacrosse season only lasts until mid May, but it only seems far away at the start. Soon we will be flying from one place to another and at the end it will seem all like a blur. It is one of my favorite things to take part of.

Oddly enough lacrosse came into our family when Stephanie came home one day and said, “Dad, I am going to go out for the lacrosse team.” When I asked her why, since I was pretty certain that the game had never been discussed in our home, she said quite confidently, “Because Chrissy is going to.” Chrissy and Stephanie had been friends for a long time, and I thought it would be one of the things they would just try. I would not identify either as the athletic type, though Stephanie has always been competitive. Both were more the egghead type! I just never thought it was going to be a permanent thing. Steph is now a third year player and darn good. Chrissy lives in China now and I am not sure if they even play it there……my guess is not. But with Scott on the bandwagon, it is our home’s sport most of the year.

So one week is completed and I am thankful…..mostly for our progress. It helps me to do all this, since as a priest you cannot always see the effects of your work. In lacrosse it is pretty obvious, and on Friday night in our indoor game it was obvious. We are not the team we were a week ago.

God sometimes gives us opportunities we would never imagine. I find myself often living mine. It has been a busy week, but tomorrow I do not have much I have to do. So with that, I will bid you goodnight.

Keep the faith my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

One of the blessings about having a child that is sick like Scott is that they soon get better. Sometimes the road is pretty tough, as it was for him, but I am happy to report that he will be back in school tomorrow. He hasn’t been that sick in a long time, and we are thankful he is feeling better. It is great to see him smile and laugh again.

With that, I am not going to write any more tonight. I was able to finish his room, and as he was getting better he was able to help. But there is a lot to be thankful for today and I am going to just share the best part as I have and then enjoy it!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

Please keep Scotty in your prayers….Scotty came home from practice last night pretty sick. He thinks it was the lunch he ate at school, from which he didn’t seem to recover. But as of 11 he was still sick, and not a real good candidate for school tomorrow.

I didn’t know about all this until he called me. Everyone was at home, but I had left before he got home from practice to go to the men’s group at St. Patrick’s When I got home around 9 he was pretty miserable. PLUS, with his room still not done, he is sleeping on an air mattress (a nice one though) downstairs (he actually likes it….what a loon!) but there is a lot of foot traffic down there! I hope being a teenager means he can sleep through anything and anywhere,but time will certainly tell that for sure.

So this also means I am without my help to finish his room, though I intend to tomorrow. God never promises smooth sailing, only that He will be with us throughout our journeys. If He would just pick up a hammer, that would be so great…….but I have this feeling I will be doing the hammering while He supervises. No worries there though. I always do my best work when He is watching.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

Scotty and I have been working on his room all week in our spare time. We ripped out carpet and pad, painted, and with great determination, we should have flooring installed in there by Thursday night. It has actually been a lot of fun. And I miswrote, because Steph and Amanda stripped the old Noah’s Ark wallpaper off the walls over the weekend.

Last night Scotty and I went to the Lowes and he picked out the paint. Amanda was not all that pleased because she felt it was too dark. She said get some sort of beige. I thought it was fine, and Scotty was excited. The problem was not Scott…..it was male genes….we have a much more generous spectrum of what we consider beige. But it is his room and we don’t sleep in it. Personally, I think it looks fantastic, but what do I know. Amanda thought I was a loon when we painted inside and I asked why we needed to paint walls in contrasting colors. Apparently I don’t get it.

I am not worried about it though. I wear black shirts and black pants to work and jeans and t-shirts beyond that. I am not dissatisfied…..just comfortable. I am the painter and carpenter, not the decorator. And once Scott puts all his stuff back in his room you can’t see the walls anyway……after all, he’s still a teenager!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

Well it is finally upon us…..lacrosse season. We held our first practice outside on our practice field this afternoon in weather that would make a polar bear long for a coat. My hands were cold even with gloves, and despite my pleas with the girls about wearing the right clothing, a few looked absolutely miserable.

But the good news is that we are our of the gate and looking towards a great season. I cannot even begin to tell you how enthused I am about it either. It is a great group of girls, and we will have a lot of fun.

The boys’ team started practice too, and Scott was out there with them. The boys go pretty rough right away, so there is not a lot of opportunity to freeze as there is in our practice. “Technically,” women’s lacrosse is “non-contact,” whereas the men’s game is like hockey on steroids. The great part is that both kids came home excited about the season getting underway. It has made the Tirman home a more than happy home all night.

But that night is now done and off to bed we go. We are finishing a few projects around the house and getting it all back to normal. I am tired and thankful for my bed. Amanda however appears more thankful, in that she is already asleep and heading toward tomorrow.

Stay warm out there my friends. The high tomorrow here is just 32!

Goodnight and God Bless!

Tom+

I want to report that the day has been very good so far in terms of my Lenten disciplines. As I shared a few days ago, I really want to get my weight down and keep it there, yet my first few days of Lent have been more of a struggle than a success. I was originally scheduled for Nashville and Greenfield today, but that got changed late in the week, so I found myself at the St. Patrick’s pitch-in…….an amazing smorgasbord of tasty treats, all of which were off my diet.

It was hard, but I did great! I had a coffee and then headed out for Anderson. I did eat later in the day, a salad and then an eggbeater omelet. I weigh in the mornings, but with a day like today, at least I stand a chance of not being discouraged. Please pray for me that I continue to do well. I know I do not look overweight, and I am still very athletic, but I am clearly at risk, and want to put this behind me once and for all. Let me put it our there here. I hit 228 lbs and as of this morning I was at 223.8 (which is 224 in my book!) I am heading to 175…..please pray for me to get there and stay there!

Anyway, it has been a good one, and tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow Ben starts in daycare full time, and lacrosse starts. For the next 2.5 months I will be busy and running as the high school women’s lacrosse coach. If I am not down by the end of the season, shame on me. These girls will run me ragged.

Thanks for checking in, and for your prayers and support. Life is always better with support, and I appreciate yours.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+

As amazing as it seems, this is the 300th post on this blog. It really has not been what I thought it would be, but it has been a great discipline for me as well as a tool to help me recover from my stroke. I remember last year having to have Amanda read and edit for me because I did not have the ability once I decided to type. It has been quite a journey!

But as for the 300th, it will be rather short in that I am a bit tired and fuzzy from the long busy day. My disciplines are not quite going as well as I would like, but I am still moving ahead. I would still appreciate your prayers!

So apologetically I will call it a day and wake to a new one tomorrow.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tom+