I never realize how much Dara does until I find myself doing what she does. Such is the case today as Dara has been hit pretty hard with the flu. I have so much respect for what she does on a daily basis. It seems like as soon as the entire house gets clean the thing that was cleaned first is now dirty again. So much energy is required to be a stay-at-home mom for a family with four kids. Especially OUR four kids (lots of energy)!Cooking, cleaning, laundry, refereeing, holding, protecting Baby Ben (from flying toys and a very curious two year old Jack), etc. All of this adds up to quite a...

What a great week! Dara and I took the family to the mountains in Boone, NC. We had a family totally bless us by giving us their mountain house for the week. We spent long, lazy days overlooking a beautiful valley from our perch on top of the mountain.My mom, sister, brother and nephews came up for the weekend and we had a blast! So great to unplug for the week and get away. We are coming back so refreshed. There's something about unplugging the computer for a week and being above cell phone service that re-centers my life and gets me revved up for what's ahead.Here's the view from our front...

Here's the new series graphic we are using for our 5 week series, Engage, that kicks off this weekend. We are talking about engaging the world around us with our faith.One of the things that we always try to do is create a "brand" for each sermon series. We keep the look and the feel the same each week during our 4-6 week series'. Our background slides for the sermon notes that we put on the movie screen will match the theme of the series graphic. This is a way to visually connect each series and create a new feel as we introduce new topics.

The past week has been such a breath of fresh air. I feel like I'm finally back into the swing of things again. The past month was enough to really test our mettle in the Docusen home. Several exhausting things packed into one month seemed to have caught up with me. However, this past week has been amazing.I finally caught up with a lot of the loose ends that were out there a couple of days ago. That meant that the last few days have been given to free thinking, new levels of creativity and reconnecting with people in our Hope community.I'm so looking forward to the coming weeks. I really...

We finally had a big snow storm last night. We woke up to several inches of snow on the ground. This was enough for us to get all bundled up this morning and take Max and Mary sledding on the hill on the side of our house.Great way to start the day!

Dara and I started marriage counseling tonight with John Gum and Ginny Peterson. This is our favorite thing that Dara and I do in ministry. We love being able to invest into young couples the things that God has invested into us.Great night. Great couple. Lots of fun 🙂

I have a confession to make: I love the cold.I know for a fact that if my good friend Vinnie Zarletti ever hears this he will never let me live that down. I have been consistently a fan of the searing Florida climate. Cold was always anything under 60 degrees.I should clarify my confession: I love North Carolina cold.I was really not looking forward to a real winter. However, it's absolutely beautiful here! I love the fact that NC has all four seasons, but none of them are too harsh. The hot is not too hot and the cold is not too cold. If it snows, it doesn't stick around long. If it's...

I have been reading "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It's an off-center look at successful people. It talks about the role the people around extraordinarily successful people play in their success. From Bill Gates to The Beatles to professional hockey players. A great quote is from Gladwell himself summing up this book: "This book is not about tall trees. This book is about forests."I used some illustrations in this book on a recent sermon I did on Biblical community. Quite an interesting read if you've not yet checked this one off of your reading list.A very compelling portion of this book...

What a game! No one could have ever predicted a Cardinals/Steelers Super Bowl at the beginning of the season, but it ended up being one of the best Super Bowls I've ever seen. Nothing tops last year's Giants/Patriots game (with that crazy catch from David Tyree), but this game was really fun to watch.It also helps that we were accompanied by Justin & Melody Leedy, Dara's dad, pizza and wings. Great combo.

I have really enjoyed my time at Caribou Coffee. It's been a little over two months since I started working there. This is my first job outside of full time vocational ministry in over ten years.The staff has been amazing. I have had the craziest three week span of my entire life (Baby Ben coming, my grandpa passing away, a trip to Michigan for the funeral, working two jobs and throwing in a pretty stout sickness). Through it all, the staff at Caribou and our manager have been absolutely incredible. So encouraging, flexible and willing to chip in and help.Beyond the amazing people I work...