One of the main reasons we go to CA is to visit family and friends. By God's grace, we have been truly blessed with many who showered us with love and food...lots of food!
Emery got to see cousin Natalie who's just 6 weeks younger than her...yet quit a bit taller.
And here's Emery's newest cousin, Sophie, just 2 weeks old!
The boys got to hang out with Uncle Elmer.
And Matt got to play with cousin Micah.
Sandy's dad loves to play golf so guess what he picked up when he moved here? That's right, a golf cart. We hijacked it when he wasn't looking.
There's a beautiful walking trail next to a creek complete with ducks swimming away in peaceful tranquility...until Matt sees them. Guess who loves to chase ducks?
It was a nice day to climb very low, horizontal trees.
And pose for pictures.
Batman had another good day.
Emery and Matt were so happy to be in CA they spent the first few hours hugging.
With temps in the 70's and 60's, the boys and girl got to picnic outside regularly for lunch.
We hit Laguna Beach a couple of times...I know, poor us.
Matt LOVED the waves even though the water was quite chilly.
Strangely, Emery didn't get into the water this time. She kept asking about sharks for some reason though. Instead, she had tons of fun with grandma building...small mounds of sand - that's pretty much the extent of her imagination at the moment.
It was a picture perfect start to our vacation. I'll have to blog more about the trip later.
Just kidding. As we were doing our verses tonight, Andrew started doing this and Matt soon followed. I asked Andrew what he was doing, and he said, "I'm meditating on my verses!" Emery apparently thought it was too weird though.
This was a somewhat unusual biography. It was divided into 2 parts. Part 1 consisted of Brainerd's thoughts and emotions while on the mission field. This was probably 2/3 of the book. Part 2 recounted his daily events and interactions with people during part of his ministry. His good friend was the famous Puritan Jonathan Edwards who interspersed his own various thoughts in Part 1.Do you get the picture? It is literally hundreds of pages of this. Maybe I related to Brainerd because I too have somewhat depressive melancholy ways. However, what impressed me about Brainerd was the reason for his depressive melancholy ways. He always compared himself to God or what God would have him do. And then Brainerd almost always responded with hours and hours and hours of prayer.
Though his life was short, Brainerd was consumed with living for the glory of God:
How often do I feel like THAT while I am praying?! And there's more!
Keep in mind - this is his private diary. He had no intention for anyone to read this when he wrote this. It was convicting and inspiring for me to attempt to attain these thoughts and emotions once, let alone as constantly as Brainerd did. This is why this diary has inspired countless people to serve the Lord including William Carey and Henry Martyn.
However, this book is not for everyone. It can get pretty repetitive and somewhat negative at times. But it really blessed me and inspired me to grow in my passion for the Lord - to seek to fully give myself over to Him and all His glorious splendor.
These are Matt's "swords" that he uses to fight the forces of evil each day.
Andrew complained that Matt and Emery were being too noisy and that he couldn't concentrate on his schoolwork. His solution was to wrap 3 scarves around his ears. He wasn't happy about it though.
Poor Emery she's been sick since yesterday. She spent the day coughing and feverish. However, she did enjoy getting the royal treatment from mom and her brothers. Andrew even wiped her nose for her when she sneezed! Matthew hand fed her small pieces of tangerine during lunch. They were good big brothers today.
