A weekend of celebration

This weekend we celebrated a lot. We celebrated Father's Day and Amanda's birthday. Amanda and I don't do very well with delayed gratification as it relates to gifts so I gave her her birthday present on Friday night (a salt scrub and long massage at Donovan's Serenity and Wellness Spa for while were in Alpena.) She gave me my Father's Day present the same night (a beautiful blue and white summer robe from Land's End.) I love the robe. If you are a man who is not into robes, you definitely have to give them another try. I have a GREAT chamois cloth robe for winter. Robes are the in-between that you need in the morning. It gets you from the bed, out to the kitchen to get your coffee ready and eat breakfast. Enough about robes.

Saturday night we went with Shirley to Benihana for Japanese cook at your table. This was Amanda's choice, but I think the boys may have enjoyed it as much as she did. I had a wonderful filet minon. It was melt-in-your-mouth tender. But Matthew ate most of us under the table. It was fun to sit next to him and watch.

Sunday we went to church in the morning. Have I written about how much we love our church? I know I have. Pastor John is preaching through a series on the Psalms. Based on Psalm 103, he spoke about how fathers need to bless the Lord in the midst of their children. We need to bless (or praise) the Lord for 1) His sovereignty, 2)His righteousness in the way that He works on the side of the poor and oppressed, 3) His mercy in forgiving my sins. That third one was the kicker! I need to let my kids know more about how much I need God's forgiveness and how amazingly he lavishes it on me. Later in the day, I called the fathers in my family and told them that I loved them and that I had prayed for them. Being a father is a difficult job. See Pastor John's sermon here.

After church, we headed to Amanda's dad's to again celebrate her birthday and Father's Day. The day was beautiful and the food and company were rich. All in all, it was a great weekend. Photos from the weekend to come tomorrow.