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What is FOMO?

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Karter Andrew, our seventh grade and handsome second-born grandson, lives with his parents, an older brother, and a little sister in beautiful New Mexico. He loves sports, pestering his siblings, and enjoys chasing around all five of the household dogs! Karter recently made an interesting observation. He asked his dad, “Have you noticed that when you call Sophie (the family’s six-year-old Golden Doodle), the other dogs follow her?” His dad, Reece, replied, “That’s FOMO.,” and you know what that means! Karter admitted, “I actually don’t!” (I also agreed!) Reece explained, “FOMO is an acronym for the “Fear Of Missing Out!” Follow the Leader! This abbreviation is short for a mental and emotional state that arises from being anxious about what might be going on around a person due to non-involvement. I cannot tell you how often this simple question, “What are you doing?” has come up in day-to-day family life. You will hear this inquiry coming from a curious, and in many instances, a younge
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Cruising With the Kids!

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Our New Mexico rental car these days has made our travel a little more conspicuous than we’re accustomed to! This time, Enterprise put us behind the wheel of a snazzy Dodge Charger for the next two weeks. Back in the day, we proudly owned a plain white two-door 1973 Charger SE with vinyl top and rear quarter opera windows. While it only had a 318 V-8 engine, it had as much power as needed and took us over 200,000 miles! This rental is a 2023 model with an Octane Red Pearlcoat exterior and black rims, accents, and interior. The 6.2-liter V-8 qualifies for “muscle” and jumps to sixty mph a lot quicker than my number one passenger is comfortable with. 😊 I have been trying to hold it back because I know, as a law enforcement chaplain, that the red color, along with the faster acceleration tends to attract unwanted attention! I am doing some chauffeuring during this visit. The boys have noted that there are a lot of heads turning as we pull up to the school drop-off locations. The grand
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The Blame Game!

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Wash day is Saturday morning at our house. I returned from a morning meeting  at church to see a curious sight on the kitchen counter. It was a wadded-up Kleenex or two along with this note printed on masking tape that said, “We need to do a DNA test on this surprise…” I suspect that Mrs. K. already had a good idea who had tucked this little problem into his mowing shorts and had forgotten to remove it before the wash!😉 "It's Not Mine!" We were extremely lucky this time that the tissue had held together through the wash and dry cycles. Usually, after such a disaster like this, we have had to sort through our laundered clothes and tediously pick through and gather up a “thousand little pieces” of debris left behind on dozens of otherwise clean garments! It’s never fun when this happens and there are usually unpleasant words spoken by both of us. As “empty nesters,” we don’t have anyone else to blame these days! The culprit clearly has to be one or the other of us since
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Air, Water, and Sugar!

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This is campfire season! September 22 nd was the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of fall. It is also the season of Smore’s! This gram cracker sandwich, made with a Hershey’s chocolate bar and marshmallow, is a favorite anytime of the year! Did you know that Americans consume 90 million pounds of marshmallows annually? That may seem to be a staggering statistic for many, but  I’m not surprised! Some of us think that marshmallows make everything  taste just a little bit better. It’s amazing that something made so simply from air, water, and sugar could be so delicious! A Simple Sugary Sandwich! I like any flavored Jello with mini marshmallows added. In the candy category I’ll eat: Toasted Coconut Covered Marshmallows, Moon Pies, Circus Peanuts, Hostess Snoball cakes, Fluff in homemade fudge, an occasional Peeps at holiday times, and won’t pass up Chocolate covered marshmallow Santas and Easter bunnies! I haven’t tried plant-based Dandies (Kosher, Vegan), but I’m game! However, my all-ti
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Who Is Your Guide?

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In a recent article, I mentioned buying a bread cutting guide for my daughter. It was inexpensive, but much appreciated. She immediately texted back her gratitude with this exclamation, “Best gift ever!” That may seem to be a little over the top until you try your hand in processing several loaves of crusty sourdough bread with just a cutting board and bread knife! If you desire uniformity and you want the slices to be even, you need a guide to accomplish the task! A guide for perfect bread slicing! I confess to being a perfectionist and so does my bread-making daughter. She cares enough about what her loaves look like to put a heart at the top of the loaf as a sign of pride and affection. Since her married name, Hartman, has the sound of “heart” in it, this final decorative touch becomes the perfect seal of approval! As human beings, we can speak of perfection only in relative terms. Only God is perfect in every way! That’s why He gives us His Word, the Bible, to be our guidebook. W
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Get Involved!

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The men’s ministry at Springfield First recently hosted a Saturday morning breakfast with guest speaker and retired Sacred Heart-Griffin Coach, Ken Leonard. Coach Leonard has distinguished himself in the forty-two seasons of his overall career. He has led his teams to 419 wins compared to 81 losses. This makes Coach Leonard the winningest coach in the history of Illinois sports! During his inspirational remarks, Leonard shared a three-step coaching philosophy that he follows, “ Tell your team players what you want. Then, show them what you want. Finally, involve them in practices or exercises that demonstrate what you want.” Involved and All Set! Image: istockphoto.com I grew up with a contrasting model at school that overly emphasized that first step of “tell.” This approach is what I prefer to describe as “Sit still while I instill!” We were expected to stay in our seats! There was no group work or active participation. We didn’t know enough and couldn’t be trusted enough to get u
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"Looks Can Be Deceiving!"

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Recently, I returned from a three-day trip with both sons to Minneapolis. We were there to watch our beloved Cardinals play the Twins at beautiful Target Field with its unique limestone facade and mid-tier wooden fold down seats. What a great venue and energized baseball setting! During this short flight up and back, we were surprised to find that Delta had outfitted their planes with several amenities and on-board enhancements. Yes! This is for "plug and play!" These are the conveniences most air travelers expect these days:   Wi-Fi, monitors for movie and television viewing, and charging outlets conveniently within reach. We should have known that with so many of us using our devices like laptops, smartphones, iPads, and wireless earbuds that these changes were going to be routinely implemented no matter what the destination or size of the aircraft! But we did have an issue with the outlet below the seat in front of us. It didn’t look like a standard outlet, but it was! W
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