I love reading!

We mentioned David takes after his daddy in several ways. Another of those ways is his love of reading. I have many many books on many different subjects. In fact I am always telling Mary that we need more book shelves. It seems David may be competing with me for who will get the book shelves. It has taken me 28 years to collect roughly 1100 books. David is up to about 100 or so in only 3 months!! I think the Jesus Story Book Bible is his favorite so far. But he enjoys lots of different genres including some of what I am reading for school. It may be a little advanced but he enjoys the challenge enough to stop fussing for a while.

Here his is reading with Nana

Surprise for Mommy

David and I had some fun this week while I was on Spring break. One day included a trip to the grocery store and we thought it would be nice on a beautiful Spring day to get mommy some flowers

Mommy loves tulips


Daddy gave David a lesson on cutting flowers and making sure they have enough water. But what are flowers with out a note? David then got a lesson on the power of the pen (or marker in this case).

His handwriting could use a little work, but who knows if his generation will actually write anything?

4 Generations of Hand men

Yesterday we celebrated my grandfather's birthday with lots of family. Due to some illness and distance this was the first time David met his great-grandfather.

Many years ago (1985) there was a photo taken of 4 generations of Hand men. It was the first photo ever taken of this sort in our family. My great-grandfather was born in 1899 and his dad was nearly 60 at the time, he died when my great-grandfather was about 12-13 years old. My great-grandfather passed away in the early 90's and so this was the first opportunity to capture a new 4 generation photo. I hope we have many more opportunities to do so with an expanding 4th generation (hint hint Mike and Jenna)

I have had some fun with a sociology project this semester in retracing some family history. Many amazing stories and very interesting lives. My grandfather's sister wrote down her memories form childhood about relatives, about 40 pages single spaced. What a treasure that was for me to read and now have a copy of. I would highly recommend doing something like this for future generations.

Here are the photos
(1985)


(2010)

A man of many hats...

David is taking after his daddy in several ways. One of those ways is that like his daddy, he is a man of many hats.

Is he a nature lover?



An Arctic adventurer?




A fashion trend setter? (I'm sure you have seen lots of guys with winter hats and no shirt recently)


A Ball player? (Watched his first Phillies game, a win over the Yankees)



Average Joe? (having fun with dad's hat)



Or just a cute baby? (Fun beach hat)




Well what ever hat he decides to wear, he has some time to choose and many more hats to try on.

March update

Brian here with an update on March-

Life continues to be busy around here between Mary working...and searching for new work and my school and internship at the church, and then there is that little guy that has entered out life.

I am in my last semester of classes before I student teach next fall. Hallelujah!! It sure has been a long road and though I am thankful for it, I can't say I will be sad to see it come to an end.

The internship is going well. I have gotten my hand into a lot of different ministries:
With the help of 7 other guys we have started a men's ministry at our church. I have spent much time researching men's ministries form across the country and have found it to be one of if not the hardest ministries to maintain while at the same time being one of the most important. Many churches have an idea of making men into workers in the church and then pray that at some point they will become disciples. Not only does this lead to burnout, it is unbiblical. Jesus says to make disciples (Matt 28:19) and pray for workers (Matt 9:38). I'll spare you the rest but that is at least something to think about.

The other big portion of my work at the church is youth work. I have been teaching 11th and 12th grade Sunday school this year. I just spent the last 6 months teaching the Westminster Confession, awesome material, but difficult to relate to teenagers how a 400 year old document is relevant to their everyday life.

This will be the second year that we have done youth Sunday a our church (same day as Mother's Day) all the youth serve in just about every aspect of the worship services (ushers, greeters, nursery, music, etc). My part this year will be to preach in all 3 services! This is a great honor and a huge task. I have preached at small chapels, retirement communities, and a rescue mission before, but not my home church, it's an exciting opportunity. The text will be Proverbs 31:1, 25-31- Outline headings: The glory of womanhood, A mother and her children, A wife and her husband, and the gospel in Proverbs. I don't actually have any experience being a woman, a wife, or a mother...but I have known a few, so we will see how this pans out.