FredMcKinnon.Com

Hey Everyone,

What a great start to “FreePlay Friday”.  Joy has been after me to be more proactive in creating family traditions.  Not a bad idea, right?  Any other wives reading this who keep wishing that?  Joy’s been a great encourager, and she really has been the one to lead here, for which I’m both ashamed, and grateful.

Family Time

So, we kicked off our first (of hopefully, many) “Friday Breakfast” dates.  We all packed in the car and drove to our favorite breakfast spot, “Sweet Mamas” on St. Simons Island.  I didn’t wake up as early as we’d planned, so we were a bit rushed and really didn’t get to make “quality time” out of it, but I think if we are consistent on this, it will mean a lot to the kids.  I had the chocolate cheese danish and pork pops with coffee.  Joy had some yucky looking egg pie stuff.  JM and Will both had the chocolate cheese danish, and Rebekah and Andrew each had a chocolate donut.  Healthy, huh?

We dropped JM and Will off at school, and Joy’s off to get a haircut … Bekah and Andrew are at the brother/sister-in-law’s house.  I didn’t rush to get upstairs to my home office this morning – I spent the last thirty minutes finishing up “Quiet Strength” - “The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life“, by Super Bowl winning coach (now retired), Tony Dungy.

Can I just say this was one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve had in a long time.  If you are a football fan, you’d love this book.  Read about trades, drafts, the pains of winning and losing  – both in football, and in the loss of their son, Jamie.  This book will provide enjoyable reading and will quietly challenge your leadership as a father, role model, and Christian at the same time.

Kudos and thanks to my friends Deane and Dana for giving this to me on my birthday last November.  Yeah, it takes that long for me to read through most books.  It was worth it.

Now I’m in the process of planning something special for Spring Break.  Last year we hung around St. Simons and we found ourselves just doing the “same ole”.  I’m learning more and more that these times with kids, though demanding and crazy most of the times, are precious and won’t be here forever.  I’m determined to make more of that time, so we’re checking out some “get away” cabins up in the North Georgia Mountains.  For those of you who read my blog that have kids – please … BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT MAKING MEMORIES.

Prayer

Please continue to pray for my friend Will Pufall who is fighting for his life in the hospital in Pensacola, FL.  (see yesterday’s emergency prayer post) They don’t know what is wrong with him, and have called in an “infectious disease” specialist.  Pastor Bobby Lepinay (Will’s pastor, boss, and my friend) is updating his blog several times a day.

Highest Praise

I’ll devote a full blog with more information to this shortly, but those who follow me on Twitter have seen a few posts about my relaunching HighestPraise.Com, my original site for my company.  It’s been neglected for some time, but I’m re-working it from a fully static .html site to a dynamic site driven by WordPress.  The main focus of HighestPraise.Com is to provide resources, specifically – original praise and worship songs from HPP-Published writers to the Body of Christ.  There is still a lot of work to be done, but I’d be grateful for your visit, RSS-subscribe, email-subscribe (Free Giveaway every month!), and support over there.

Comment and Check-In

OK – As always, it’s “check-in” time … for those who are reading, please leave a comment, check-in, let me know about your weekend plans, who you are, and where you’re hiding!  (oh yeah, I’m trying out the Disqus comment system now!)

(thanks to Russ Hutto for creating this cool FreePlay Friday logo!)

Let me hear you say it now … IT’S FRIDAY!

FreePlay Friday is the “anything goes” day where we talk about random things, family, life, and you.  I’d like for you to comment and chime in with your own random thoughts and comments.

Here we go:

1. The Flu has hopefully left our home.  Jon Michael went back to school today.  It started with Rebekah, then to Andrew, then to Jon Michael.  Will’s had a little touch of something, but nothing serious.  Joy has also had a nasty cough but no fever.  So far, I’ve been great.  Woo-hoo!
2. Andrew (our 2-year old, soon to be 3 in April) is starting potty training today.  Yep, he’s sporting some “big-boy” pullups with Diego.  I had a long talk about him not peeing or poo-poo’ing on Diego.  He laughed.  He nailed the potty this AM.  Joy gave him a big ole’ chocolate.  Rock on.  Once this mission is completed, we’ll be DONE with diapers.
3. Tomorrow is the Super Dolphin Race, a fundraiser for our elementary schools here on the island.  Joy will run the 10K.  Immediately afterwards, she’ll join Jon Michael and Will in the 1-mile “fun-run”.  WHO THE HECK EVER CALLED A RUN “FUN”?  I’ll be cheering from the sideline.
4. As most of you know, I’ve been using IntenseDebate for my commenting system here on the blog.  I’m sure it works great for some, but for me – it is broken.  I’ve been trying to stop using it, but I’m trapped – their servers host my comments, and if I try to break off the relationship, they keep my comments, and I’m stuck.  It’s not supposed to work that way.  For some reason, their system that “syncs” the comments back over here to my blog doesn’t work on my site.  So, when I de-activate their plugin, about 99% of your comments are lost.  I am giving them one last change today to help me export the comments back to my blog.  If they don’t help, I’ll just have to chalk it up to a big mistake, de-activate, and lose all your comments and start over.  I won’t be hostage.  I can’t say it’s their fault, it could be a screwy server setting on my site.  All I can say is that I’ve been asking for help for a month and it still isn’t resolved.  My last email of 3 days ago still hasn’t been answered.

And now – some link love … these are items that I “starred” in my Google Reader this week that are worth to share:

1. Jan Owen discusses “The Dangerous Act of Worship”, a book I’ve heard a lot about, and I’m tempted to read.
2. Chris blew me away with this video of an incredible sounding “fake grand piano”.
3. Ben Arment posted this quote that is so true, and needs to be read.  READ THIS!

And I saved the best from last … if you’re on FaceBook, you’ve probably gotten a kazillion of those dang “25 Things About Me” tags.  I delete every single of them.  (yeah, I know half of them came from all of you reading this).  Well, thanks to Ben for this hilarious video:

OK – so gimme come comment love – what’s happened in your week – what’s your funnies – share your stories!

Hey Everybody,

Today is “freeplay friday” – anything goes … let’s hear what’s on your mind today.

Rebekah (my 5-yr old) has suffered from the flu all week.  We’ve been washing hands and “Germ-X” rubbing like crazy, trying to protect the rest of the clan.  Andrew (the 2-yr old) came down with it last night.  He’s running fever, but outside in the backyard playing – so he doesn’t know he’s sick!

Joy and I have a babysitter set for Valentines Today (tomorrow night) … if we still have fever and sickness going around I doubt we’ll have her over, though.  Thought we’d try “Sal’s Pizzeria”, a new place here on SSI.

What are your plans for the big ole’ Valentines Day?

Hey Everybody!
(RSS Readers – click over to view this entry on the web … you’ve got to see this ….

Well, you’ve GOT to see what? Well, the new FredMcKinnon.Com!

I wanted to kickoff the new year with a new theme, and I finally got around to figuring out what I want … I’ve had the privilege of working with Gabe Taviano as the designer, and highly recommend working with this guy! (Gabe runs GodsMac.Com and the GodsMac podcast, in addition to his design work).

What’s new?

For one – I hope it’s a WHOLE LOT easier to navigate. My subscribe and contact icons are big ole’ things you can’t miss in the right sidebar, along with an expanded music player – I hope to continually upload new songs and new music for you to enjoy.

There’s a new 300px ad space underneath it … these ads are part of the Highest Praise Network of ads running on my blog, HighestPraise.Com (next in line for a major overhaul) and TheWorshipCommunity.Com. They are great sponsors, so check out their stuff.

We’re still making some tweaks, but I hope you like it!

Let me know, and let’s hear what’s going on with your weekend!

“An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.” (Proverbs 31: 10)

Today is my wife’s birthday.  Joy is 39, and she is beyond amazing.  She’s an incredible woman, a wonderful mom of 4, she loves Jesus, she is a passionate worshiper (and oh, I love that), and I think she’s the most gorgeous chick in the universe.

This morning, she’s out with a few girlfriends eating her favorite pancakes at Sandcastle.  (yes, she’s breaking that 21-day fast early for her birthday, and I don’t blame her!)  Our church is having a prayer conference this weekend, so we’ll be @ SSCC tonight (Friday) and Saturday (AM).  She says she wants to go shopping Saturday afternoon, and then Sunday night we’ll all be done with our 21-day fast and we’re planning on feasting with some friends.

Joy doesn’t blog … she doesn’t FaceBook … she doesn’t Twitter … so, if you’d like to leave her a birthday wish, just leave it right here!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY!