My staff of fact-checkers informed me that in my last blog post I wrote that 42 million babies were aborted in the US last year. That statement is inaccurate. 42 million babies have been aborted in the USA to date, 1.3 million of those we last year. Please forgive me for the mistake.

Thanks to my brother-in-law Brian for noticing the error. I must now add “Research Consultant” to his job description of drummer, tour manager. He will probably want a Read More

Where do we go from here?

I’m arriving unusually late to the bakery today. On days that I plan to write I try to get here early because my mind turns to Jell-O later in the day, but Jennifer had to take Hutch to his tutorial this morning and I offered to stay home with Sadie for a while. I’m usually out the door by nine, even though I don’t have an official office to go to. It’s a routine both my doctor and my painter friend David recommended. David’s studio is just off of his back deck, about twenty feet from his kitchen, but he still gets up and puts on a dress shirt and tie to go to “work”. My doctor says that this kind of schedule will help with my depression. On top of all that, Jennifer says that homeschooling doesn’t work with me in the house, so I have to get out. I’d leave earlier if I had the choice. My most productive time is 6am-12pm, which puts me on a very grandpa-like schedule, which includes an early lunch and then supper around five. I remember eating supper with Abe and Mable (my Dad’s grandparents) as early as 4:30pm some nights. Then they’d sit around the table and drink coffee and talk about the world was coming to.

This past Sunday we had a dinner party with some friends at the Breen’s house in Brentwood. We’ve known Shelly and her husband David for almost as long as we’ve lived here, but we became close when we went on tour with her and the rest of Point of Grace. We shared a manager back then and were always bumping into each other. Now our kids take lessons at the same music school, and when see each other there we feel old. Rob, our worship pastor (and my boss), and his wife Kirstin, were there too, and we all enjoyed freshly smoked ribs and chicken while our kids, all six of them, practiced an after-dinner performance for us. Rob is an aspiring chef so the meal was exceptional, and we all sat around afterwards grumbling about how full we were and talking about life and technology and “What the world is coming to.” So this is what that feels like.

This morning an NPR program discussed the topic of tablet computers replacing text books in public schools. It’s already happening and most experts agree that it’s inevitable that within the next few years schools nationwide will be replacing textbooks with iPads (or something like them). I hadn’t thought much about it until Shelly mentioned it on Sunday night. Now I can’t stop playing the scenario out in my head: kids cutting and pasting their notes and emailing their homework, research on the Cloud and Google searches instead of encyclopedias, and the control of “factual” information by Read More

It’s a Beautiful Thing

I remember when Florida was relaxing. Early on in our careers, Jennifer and I would plan a couple of extra days after our concerts just to chill whenever we were invited to play in a Florida town. We didn’t have kids then, and since we were on the road almost all year, there wasn’t much for us to rush home for. Orlando has always been our favorite Florida city. Orlando’s Z88.3 was one of the first radio stations to play FFH, even before we were signed to a record deal. Back then, Scott Smith and Lisa Williams were there (both are now at K-LOVE) and we all became friends. (Jennifer and I seriously toyed with the idea of moving there in our twenties) And whenever we played a concert in one of the theme parks they would let us ride a couple of rides for free before the show. We have a lot of great memories in Florida, and in God’s kindness, we continue to get to make more. It’s different now though. Florida isn’t nearly as relaxing when you bring your kids, as we were reminded again this week.

Sara’s wedding was beautiful and we all had a special time, even though I messed up the words to the song I wrote for her and Vince. (I recorded a scratch version on my phone and included it at the end of this letter) Sadie-Claire found a friend at the reception and they danced all night long. Hutch was very handsome and mature as well. Jennifer and I got to reconnect with some old friends and had a genuinely nice time. The Bristol family is very generous, and when they invited us to be a part of the wedding they also offered to bless us with a few extra nights at the hotel and a couple of days at the theme parks. Rick is well connected so he asked a couple of his friends who work at the parks to comp us in. Where he didn’t have a connection he just paid for us. Hutch and Sadie made sure he got his money’s worth and Jennifer and I used the opportunity to have our new press picture taken…

I thought I might get a little time to think about the future this week and maybe get into the Clear Air that I talked about on Tuesday… Nope. When there are princesses to meet and a Lego park to get to there’s no time to think. I tried to read my Bible in the mornings when I took the kids to the lobby for breakfast, but It was nuts there too. It’s summer break in South America and much of the continent was at our Hampton Inn. Once breakfast was over we left for the parks and came home just before Read More