Life certainly is exciting and full of surprises! At my age one would think life would be fairly predictable, but not so, at least that is my experience. What about you? How has your week been? Have you done your taxes yet?

That took up the beginning of last week for me. During the process I discovered a discrepancy in one of our accounts and that investigation is still ongoing. But our state and federal, board of education net profits occupational license tax return and our Lexington-Fayette urban county government net profits license fee return 228 are finished. Whew!

The Certificate of Need Relocation Request form had a calculations error I had to correct and re-submit last week too. And I started on the Small Business Administration’s personal financial statement for Lawrence and I to update from last year (one for each of us) and will finish it this week. I like numbers because they are predictable. Yet for me, somehow, they still manage to have surprises. On my to-do list this week is to shop for a book keeper. Members and staff will use a card reading system for coming and going to the club, and their time will be accounted for in a software program, which will help in the billing and payroll process. There was a book keeper at the Professional Women’s Forum luncheon I attended last month and I plan to give her a call. Feel free to recommend others to me if you know a good book keeper! RFP time!

On Thursday I attended the Grandparents As Parents conference at the Clarion Hotel. My heart went out to all the blessed care giving souls who were there to learn and find support to improve their awesome task in life. The 8 aunt and grandparents at my table shared their personal stories at lunch time and each one was there because of drugs and/or alcohol abuse by the parents of the children that they were caring for. And the entire room was filled with over 500 people who have similar stories! The guest speakers were phenomenal and the subjects they covered were very relevant. Kudos to the people who put it together. Grandparents as parents need all the help they can get. And so do the children they are caring for. So sad. I think we are losing the war on drugs. But hey, prohibition didn’t work, either. And my maternal great grandmother raised two out-of-wedlock grandsons when two of her daughters were impregnated by the homeowners where they worked as maids. We need God in our lives!

Our Sunday School lesson this week focused on John 15: 14-17, where Jesus is telling his disciples that he chose them, and they are not servants but friends, because they know his business. Yet they are not his friends if they do not do what he commands (beginning with “love one another”), which is to bear fruit that will last. Of course that is a paraphrase, and I encourage you to read it for yourself. Our Sunday school teacher does a wonderful job of bringing the scripture to life and applying it to our present world. Thank you, Don. I aspire to be a disciple, flawed as I am.

May you have an agape (see agape definition in previous blog dated January 19) filled week!

P.S. If you know of a registered nurse, a book keeper, and an aspiring chef or nutritionist, please send them my way.