“As Christians we are not only to know the right world view, the world view that tells us the truth of what is, but consciously to act upon that world view so as to influence society in all its parts and facets across the whole spectrum of life, as much as we can to the extent of our individual and collective ability” Francis Schaeffer
Family
Family,Thursday, March 06, 2008
I’ve been making attempts at latte art lately on our new espresso machine. It’s now much easier to make latte art in the steamed milk and espresso with the new machine. Here’s an attempt at creating the traditional rosetta design in the milk. The design is made by swaying the milk stream from side to side as it pours into the mug. This causes waves of brown espresso and white milk foam to form the leaves of the rosetta pattern and then at the very end, the stem is formed by dragging the milk stream right through the middle of the leaves.
Family,Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Jenn’s friend Amy has a younger son named Kai. They are approximately the same age and had some fun playing together at our local park. Amy used to be just down the street, a few houses away, but now she’s living in Clovis. Amy told us that Kai does miss us.
Kai asks about you guys a lot. He says he wants to see Matthew, or he wants to hold baby Claire. He was talking about them yesterday, in fact. Too cute.
Here’s a photo of the two of them playing at the local park.
Click Here to see the entire gallery of Matthew, Kai and friends.
Family,Saturday, February 16, 2008
During the Christmas season downtown San Jose has their Christmas in the Park. Jenn and I didn’t always go every year, but now that Matthew is at an age that he can enjoy it, we go every year. Last year he didn’t really care for the snow blowing machine, he way mainly trying to figure out how to get into the carnival rides. This time the snow blowing machine was his favorite. The snow comes from a machine that’s decoratively hidden between 2 flat wood animals (horses if I remember correctly), mounted on a park light pole. It projects a rotating snowflake onto the ground and the snow blows out periodically. The kids will often be coincidentally walking by when the snow blows and instinctively come running and crowding the area as the snow falls. When Matthew was younger, I think the chaos of the older kids jumping around him and overtaking him was a little too scary for him to enjoy it. Now, he seems to do much better.
We also took a few photos preparing them for the night. It was really funny to see Claire in the same outfit that Matthew once wore not too long ago.
You can see the whole gallery by clicking here
Family,Saturday, February 09, 2008
Well, it’s been months since we’ve been in Alabama and visited this pumpkin patch, but heck, it was fun and I still like looking at the picture. The pumpkin patch was actually a little overpriced considering we paid around $7 bucks each and only Matthew and I did anything there. Jenn sat around with Claire. Of course, Matthew really loved it. There were tricycles to ride, animals to see, kids to play with, a scary tractor ride, a pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin, a pool of corn to dive into, a corn maze to get lost, and a school bus to look silly. Although we complain about the price, we don’t complain about the good memories. 
Family,Friday, February 08, 2008
It’s a reality of life that each one of us goes from young and energetic to old and dying. From a biblical perspective, we are never truly living until we are born again through Jesus Christ. But even though our spirits can be reborn and our bodies can be resurrected into glorified bodies, in the meantime, we are all experiencing the wages of sin on our bodies. None are immune to these effects, aging of our bodies that eventually leads to death.
For those of us who have parents who are still alive, this means that we will have parents who are aging in our very midst. The trend today is for parents to go to nursing homes and be cared for by strangers. In this technological society where children go off to work in cities or far away places, the children are not even living in the same vicinity of the parents and sometimes the parents don’t want to move closer to their children.
So what is the proper way for children to care for their aging parents? God thinks honor of father and mother is so critically important that he instituted severe punishment for those children that dishonor their father and mother. So what guidance does the Bible give for children who have aging parents? Should they simply pay for a nursing home, rearrange their life to care for the parents? Should it be seen as a burden, or a blessing? These are topics of utmost importance.
Dr. Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Seminary discuss this issue on the Albert Mohler radio program. I recommend everyone to listen to this show. Whether you are an aging parent, or a child of an aging parent, this radio show is definitely important for you to listen to.
Honoring our Fathers and Mothers in Old Age: Radio Show
