Matthews Family Herald

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" from Joshua 24:15

We are saddened to learn that our Aunt Ellen has gone on to be the Lord. Asking for your prayers for the family members who remain to be comforted in this time of loss.

Micah and I arranged and took this first photo because we felt like it was an ideal scene. Great for a painting or something like that. We laughed as we added my glassses on the table "just so" as the perfect touch.

Chess has become one of the favorite passions of Micah and a fun past-time for many in the family. I remember that my Dad was and may still be big into chess playing. I recall my Dad owning an electronic chess board and practicing a lot that way. I told Micah about that and so he ordered one of those with some money he earned. We eagerly await its arrival. Micah is also looking forward to playing chess with my Dad someday. He and Leon play over and over and try so hard to beat each other. Micah studies books on chess and then tries out new techniques on his subjects. This picture shows Micah and Jacob playing and we've found Jacob has gotten quite good at chess as well. Even our good Nathan has learned to how to play chess, and he and I enjoyed a fun game together recently. The chess set in this photo is one that the Lord provided for free at a place called "the recycle center" where you can donate things and take things already donated. The pieces have markings on thier base which educate or remind the player of how that particular piece can be used in the game. Pretty cool. A chess training set.
Micah has some long-term plans of arranging a local chess tournament with a cash prize and some of the proceeds going to a good charitable cause.

If you are way up to your ears in eggs, what can you do? You can pickle them, of course. And that's just what Mama did, with Eden's big help, of course. She loves to cook, even more than most of the other kids, it seems.










Here's all of our supplies out to get started.















Eden here waiting for the Brine to heat up to a boil.




















It's just about time, so Eden is seen here spooning in some spices.




















Eden is now pouring in the Brine. That's a jar of okra now. We decided to pickle a few other things as well. Pickled okra is very expensive here.















Eden and Mama taking the okra out














And the finished products. I can't wait to dig into some pickled eggs and okra and cucumbers and zucchini.

Here's an egg that Micah decorated


Hannah and Micah worked together at one point.









Dad and Eden were photographed working on this egg.








Eden used a special wax crayon to decorate her egg



Nathan here pulling out his blue egg














Jacob here with his egg

Even Mary was working hard. . .


And the finished results. We did a couple of egg hunts at home (indoors and ourdoors - hope we found them all "what's that smell, kids?") and then the larger home fellowship had a couple of egg hunts outside as well.


No representation of my son would be complete without this side of him! :)

Micah continues to produce some amazing and God honoring artwork.
His spray paint art skills continue to grow and you can see in both of these pieces his inclusion of the cloud making technique he's been practicing and developing. Micah also did a pencil sketch of one of his favorite images from the Good and Evil book by Micheal Pearl.

Hannah's gymnastics skills are coming along quite well and we are very proud of her. Self discipline, determination, and confidence are just a few of the many benefits I've seen as a result of Hannah's gymnastics involvement. Should Hannah decide to try out, she'll have an opportunity to test and move into a move advanced level of gymnastics here in the coming weeks. Her gift for drawing, etc., continues to grow each day as well. Here's a great drawing Hannah made.

Here's Hannah executing a handstand during one of her practice times out in our backyard.


Here's a picture of Asparagas, next to it's cousin, Spargal.

I'm always excited about the new things my wife learns about healthy living and eating. Recently, there was a great deal on a steam cooker that I knew Heather wanted and so I picked it up for her. The first and amazing dish she made in it was some steamed Spargel. Germans love Spargel and it's a cultural comfort and family memory food for them, I believe. I'm not sure how it's made, but it's Asparagas which is likely grown in the dark. I have no idea, but it's white instead of green. There's my lovely wife showing off the dish in her steamer.

Here's my delicious plate of food that I just HAD to share a photo of with you.


Here's a photo of Micah and Jacob warming up and stretching out on sparring day.










All padded up



















One of Micah's matches.










One of Jacob's matches.








We've got some great photos of Hannah in gymnastics and some wonderful kid art, etc., coming up soon, Lord willing, for you to see so praying we get that up here for you quickly.

Well, yep. That's just about as snowy as it ever got out here this past winter. What a relief for us, anyway. But it was still way too cold for way too long, in my opinion. I've had all I really want of cold weather and probably sound now just like the grown ups I once heard but could not fathom their point-of-view about cold weather at the time.

























And this photo, well, it stands on it's own. Don't ask me how it happened or even who took it. But there it is. Sometimes we find these strange occurances in our home. If you'll go back several posts you'll see a picture I posted of a water bottle, lid off, full of water and sitting on a chair, slightly tilted. I shared it because that's exactly how it looked when I came across it. There it was, with no explanation. It reminded me of science. Potential energy. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp7M0vC9-ISufSEvK8rhvLgO0pvo1k1h-6thRguLo0E9lj85oZo_A6TUeKaZ242Rca4xYcbJFhNBx0POxM3BirlC0IzB-2wDlnSc2DP_EJUiO3IpCbsSaaKlGuQmsSRUJoieihpQ_D2G5X/s1600/IMG_1790.JPG

Did you click on the picture? Crazy, huh? A disaster waiting to happen? Potentially :). Or Divine Intervention? I think that's more like it. I think God sends the people He knows will fix a problem, often times, by the actual problem as it developes so that they can NOT GET ANGRY GRRRRR! but so they can fix the problem. So, this was a blessing and a praise. What problems are you walking by lately?

This post is all about Mary. Aren't these pictures so sweet? I believe Hannah actually took many of them. And look at Micah being such a good brother reading to his siblings.





































































































You have GOT to see all the recent pictures of our Grandson! And an adorable video of him doing his "signature roll" which our daughter has posted. Please see that Grandboy here:


http://www.meerkatfamily.blogspot.com/ and the roll video here:



Here for your viewing pleasure are two of Micah's more recent Spraypaint Masterpieces.










Quite amazing, yes? As always, follow his work at: http://www.spacepainters.blogspot.com/





We have always loved pizza. Most of our kids, if not all of them, have been knitted together in the womb while Mom ate pizza. Combine that love for pizza with a love for making things by hand with only the healthiest ingredients and you have what we had! As you'll see in the photos, just about everyone had a hand in making it.













Even me!












Micah really got into making this-ah perfect-ah pizza-ah! Presto!


















Mhhmmm. This going to taste delirious."





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