Fat tuesday...

Fender prepares for Mardi Gras...
 

Today is Shrove Tuesday (a.k.a Fat Tuesday, a.k.a. Mardi Gras as most of you may know it better). It is the Feast before the Fast. Today is "Pancake Supper Day" and some choose to binge on anything and everything before settling into a period of fasting, prayer, and spiritual reflection for the next 40 days and 40 nights (not counting Sundays...which are considered Feast days and apparently nearly anything is allowed on Feast days...weird, huh...so say you give up Chocolate and Cokes for Lent, you can "cheat" on Sundays and have your fill.) Okay, so I used to love that as a kid, but I have tried to be more disciplined as an adult and make it all the way through to Good Friday with my Lenten discipline. (Bring on all the chocolate bunnies and caramel filled eggs of Easter!!!!)

My downfall has always been chocolate and cokes. I'd say my entire youth was comprised of giving up one or the other every lent. That eventually evolved into trying to give up both for lent where some years were more disciplined than others. :) Recently however, I have been inspired to look at the season in a different light and for the past couple of years I have tried "taking something up" instead of giving something up. Things that I feel will help make me a better person inside and out. This year, I think I will try to combine the two concepts...give up something that doesn't spiritually nurture me in any way and take something up that does. For those of you who are about to enter this period of spiritual reflection, prayer and fasting with me...may each of you be inspired and guided through your own personal journey.

Other than Mardi Gras bead play (above), Fender slept through a much needed hair cut last Saturday.
 

And has been quite the guitar hero...like father, like son. :)And speaking of Daddy, Congratulations to Drewry on passing all his recent exams. He has now earned the ASA and EA credentials after his name after a very long, difficult journey. In a very real sense, it is a second graduation. No more studying...yea! Congrats Daddy, we are super proud of you!