This Old and Wonderful Couch

This couch... **dramatic pause** This vintage couch. Could've been THE family couch any of us had that disappeared when you went to college. All those TGIF and Little Caesar's pizza Friday nights, the Sunday afternoon naps during a boring golf match, falling dead asleep on it and never going to bed after a long hot …

Dinner Time Thoughts, Discussion Guide Included: The Full Length Album

While the internet has solved quite a few of the world’s problems, it is not sinless. It has been the greatest human achievement in making knowledge accessible, but has also been another game of Chutes and Ladders. A good thing can unintentionally kill off other necessary thing. Using it has killed off a few things …

Short Story: FIN IT TO WIN IT

Fin it to Win it And What to Do When You Can't Touch Bottom James, Nicki, and I had been asking dad all week to get in the water with us, but we quit after he acted like he couldn’t speak English in response. All we’d ever heard him say was “God made the ocean …

The Normal Life of Jesus

I was in between jobs from June 2015 until January 2016. I had a job during that time but I had went from salary to hourly and a family of seven which means you cut deep into your budget to make as much room as you possibly can. I worked in the catering department at …

Fatherhood Level 105

Sacred Memories

I traded hats and took this photo a few years ago with my grandfather. He is a man of God full of faith, has a wonderful sense of humor, and had a mind like a steel trap... before dementia, of which he’s suffered with for quite sometime. He doesn’t know my grandmother anymore, Let alone …

Set the Time Machine to 1996…

I'm currently in my office doing some research for a project I'm working on but the music playlist (Peaceful Piano on Spotify) playing in my headphones is taking me back to the time my wife and I were dating in college. She was a music education major and her instrument was piano. Her playing at …

Kids and Machines: it could have been worse…

It could have been so much worse. My nine year old son and his buddy got in a go cart wreck on Tuesday. His buddy is good but Macky broke his arm. He’s all patched up now at home but I can’t stop thinking that it could’ve been so much worse. Many of us are …

Tuesday Talk for Parents

Having five kids, and also being a student pastor, has given me many experiences to share with others who are also raising families. Tuesdays Talks are for me to share with parents what I’ve observed, done well, and how I’ve blown it. This one is on the importance of having a mentor. Click the image …

My Happiest Place

This blog post photo below was taken 11 years ago at a Cracker Barrel in Richmond Indiana. It’s because of cherished memories like this with “Mamie and Papa” that have made my official happy place the round table by the fireplace.