Well, after a full day of cooking, cleaning, driving, shopping, homeschooling, grading and keeping house, one of my sons said to me, “Dad, you look beat!” Then he thought for a minute and added, “You look like Mom usually does around this time of day.” I told Rose, and she loved it.

Click here for more Mr. Mom posts.

Rose is off to Texas for a couple weeks to visit her parents, so I am back to playing Mr. Mom. If I do anything stupid, I will be sure to let you know. (Isn’t that what blogs are for?) Meanwhile, you can catch up on earlier installments of Mr. Mom here:

• Playing Mr. Mom
• Mr. Mom Calls Texas

Lenten Series:
    1. What is Lent?
    2. Should Christians Celebrate Lent?
    3. What is Ash Wednesday?
    4. Should I Give Something Up for Lent?
    5. Giving Up Church for Lent

I once received a phone call from a woman who told me she would not be at church for the next several weeks. I asked her if she was going away, and she replied, “No, I’m giving up church for Lent.” I said, “Excuse me?” and she said, “I’m giving up church for Lent.” I said, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” She explained that she observes Lent every year and that this year she wanted to give up something that really meant a lot to her. She loves going to church and thought that would be a perfect thing to give up for Lent. I tried to talk her out of it, but she was determined. True to her word, she didn’t come back to church until Easter Sunday. She told me later, “I really missed church. It was a big sacrifice for me.”

My thoughts? Well, I agree if you are going to give up something for God, it should be something meaningful, rather than just chocolate or American Idol. (See my earlier post: Should I Give Something Up for Lent?) But somehow I don’t think God wants you to give up things like church attendance, Bible reading, or prayer. What is the strangest thing you have ever heard someone giving up for Lent?

I stepped outside this morning, and the smell of spring was in the air. Actually it was the smell of skunk, but that’s close enough for me. Sometime last night Jimmy Skunk stumbled out of his hibernation hole and let off a fresh spray, announcing his presence to the world. Sure, it’s cold outside and there’s still snow on the ground, but it’s a sign I tell you. Old Man Winter is laying down arms, ready to yield pride of place to Lady Spring. Everything old is new again, and buds and blossoms will soon be back in style. All that’s missing are a few robins to grace my backyard.

Here is a recording project our whole family worked on together over the Christmas vacation. Don’t let the piano intro fool you. The actual song kicks in after about 20 seconds. Enjoy!

Angels

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    – Recorded and produced by Sam Fowler
    – Arranged by Sam and Rose Fowler
    – Lead vocal by Rose Fowler
    – Guitars by Sam Fowler
    – Piano by Ramón Fowler
    – Percussion by Timothy Fowler
    – Background vocals by Rose and Ray Fowler

So, what did you do over your Christmas vacation?

Related posts:
    • A Very Merry Guitar Christmas from Sam Fowler
    • Guess the Famous Christmas Trees

We have had a beautiful fall here in New England this year. Enjoy the great word pictures Cheryl Wheeler weaves together in this song while checking out some of the pictures my wife, Rose, took around our neighborhood this fall.

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Cheryl Wheeler: “When Fall Comes to New England” (Available on the following CDs: When October Goes and Driving Home)

    Across our driveway

    Looking down our street

    Front flower garden

    Butterfly

    Up close

    Spread wings

    Neighbor’s house

    Carpet of leaves

Can you tell your life story in six words? Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s famous six-word short story (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”), that’s what SMITH magazine editors Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser asked their online readers in 2006. They have now collected a number of these six-word autobiographies and published them in the book, Not Quite What I Was Planning (notice the number of words in the title).

Here are some examples from the book:

Brought it to a boil, often. (Mario Batali, chef)
Couldn’t cope, so I wrote songs. (Aimee Mann, singer, songwriter)
Maybe you had to be there. (Roy Blount Jr., humorist)
Cursed with cancer. Blessed by friends. (9 year old Hannah Davies)
Struggled with how the mind works. (Steven J. Pinker, psychologist)
Nobody cared, then they did. Why? (Chuck Klosterman, journalist)
Well, I thought it was funny. (Stephen Colbert, comedian)
Revenge is living well, without you. (Joyce Carol Oates, author)
Woke up. Went back to sleep. (Anonymous)
No wife. No kids. No problems. (Rip Riley)
I still make coffee for two. (Zak Nelson)
Yes, you can edit this biography. (Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder)

Here was my first attempt: “God, family, church; Bible, music, books.” Not very creative, too much of a list, but it does capture the main influences in my life.

Next I tried this one: “Met Christ; married Rose; had boys.” This one is more event-oriented. It does capture the three primary events in my life, but it still seemed too cut and dry.

So I finally decided on this: “New creation in Christ – everything changes.” This one is based on my life verse and pretty much sums it all up for me. Christ entered my life and changed everything. Everything good I have in my life I owe to him. He is still changing me day by day, and one day I will stand complete in his presence. It doesn’t get much better than that.

How about you? Feel free to share your six-word autobiography in the comments section. And if you are really brave, you can also submit it to SMITH magazine for the next edition of their book. (I did! You can find it here: Six-Word Memoir by Ray Fowler)

MY LIFE VERSE:  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

The bigger the summer … the harder the fall! The autumnal equinox is still twenty days away, but for most of us here in the U.S. the day after Labor Day marks the end of summer and kicks off the new fall schedule.

As homeschool parents who begin the new year of school for our kids on this day, we are particularly aware of the change in schedule. Churches often start a whole new schedule for the year in September, too.

How about you? Does your schedule change significantly in the fall or do things stay mostly the same?

“He’s baaaaacccck!” As you may have gathered from yesterday’s post (Classic Definition of Vacation), I am back to work after several weeks of vacation. I enjoyed some quiet time at home with my family as well as visiting with relatives. I would like to thank my wonderful church family for granting me vacation time, the church elders who preached in my absence, and everyone who pitched in to “fill in the gaps” while I was gone. It’s good to be back! (And no, I have not shaved off my vacation beard yet.)

I went to the dentist last week to have a cavity filled. It was late afternoon, and as I settled into the chair, the dentist told me I was his last patient for the day and as soon as he was finished with me he could go home. That seemed to spark a thought in his head, and he asked me a question you never want your dentist to ask: “So, how tough are you?”

Usually that’s an easy question for a guy to answer (“Tough as nails!”), but you find yourself answering more carefully when it’s your dentist doing the asking. So, I responded: “That depends. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I was just thinking,” he said. “If I give you novocaine, then that will take longer, plus you will feel the pain of the novocaine when I give you the shot, and then your mouth will be numb for three hours, and you won’t enjoy your dinner tonight. But if we skip the novocaine we can get right to it. It might be a little uncomfortable, but it shouldn’t be too bad. So, I was wondering, how tough are you?”

Well, it was easy to see which way he wanted to go with this. I told him I was fine with discomfort but not a big fan of pain. “No problem,” he said. “Just raise your right arm if you feel any pain.” So, we went ahead, and he drilled my tooth without any novocaine. And fortunately it wasn’t too bad. We both got to go home early, and I enjoyed my supper.

So, how would you respond if your dentist asked you, “How tough are you?”

See related post:  C. J. Mahaney Goes to the Dentist

Well summer is almost here, which means it was time for Danny D.’s annual summer haircut. Here he is in all his furry glory:

And here he is sporting his brand new field cut. It’s a lot cooler for him and a lot less hair on the carpet for us. He looks like he’s lost 20 pounds — which is pretty drastic considering he only weighs about 25 pounds to begin with!

Related posts:

• The Amazing Adventures of Danny D.
• Parable of the Prodigal Puppy

Well, I am back from my study retreat. (Last week I took a three-day study retreat to prepare for the next message series at church.)

Wednesday morning I drove up to my parents’ home in Kennebunk, Maine. It was about a three-hour drive, so I began my retreat on the road by listening to some of my favorite music that helps me focus my heart on God. I arrived just in time for lunch (how convenient!) and spent some time catching up with my parents over a meal before settling in to study for the afternoon.

For the retreat I spent my mornings and afternoons in study and prayer. I spent Wednesday afternoon just reading through 1 Samuel 1-7, lingering in the text, taking notes on various themes and looking for connections. The next several days I spent blocking out the sermon texts and themes while interacting with several commentaries. I took breaks for meals and in the evenings to enjoy time with my parents.

It is amazing how much you can get done with large blocks of uninterrupted time. Time management experts say that even a five-minute phone call can disrupt your concentration and easily cost you 30-40 minutes of productivity. The computer with email and internet access can also be a source of small interruptions during the day. To guard against this, I did all of my studying away from the computer, writing out my notes longhand on lined paper in a notebook. Hopefully, I will be able to read my own handwriting as I reference these notes in the coming weeks for sermon preparation!

All in all it was a great study retreat. Thanks to my wife and children for graciously letting me take off for several days. Thanks to my parents for hosting me at their home. Thanks to my church for letting me take the time away from the office for this extended time of study. And thanks to my blog readers for being (mostly) nice in the comments while I was away.