Lily plays Soccer

Lily joined a spring soccer team. She's the first Webster girl to join an organized sport and her Daddy is glad she chose soccer. He hasn't played on a team since college but they are enjoying practicing together and Brian is assistant coach on her team. We always knew she'd enjoy and do well in a sport because she's fast, athletic and adventurous. Besides playing great, it's been a joy to see her earn end of game acknowledgement awards for both "christlikeness" and "sportsmanship". 4 more games---GO LILY!

Church Anniversary Hallelujah Hoedown

Last Friday was our church's second anniversary hoedown. We had a great time. First we had a delicious dinner. There were games for the kids, a slide show with pictures from our church and a bonfire...and of course, square dancing. It was the first time for all of us to square dance, and my (Angela's) overall impression is that it is loads of fun! We all wore tiered skirts that twirl beautifully. My partner was my friend Rebecca. Each square has 4 couples and the caller calls out each move as you do it. It was quite entertaining and enjoyable! After the square dancing we had cobbler, and then...we went back to dance and twirl and dance some more!

Easter

Family Traditions are important to us. Easter is an incredible time of celebration. Jesus took our punishment on the cross, conquered sin and won. He is risen indeed!
This was our second year to coordinate the Easter breakfast at the church we attend. Lots of help from the youth group made light work.
This was our 4th year to have Easter dinner at our friends', the Andersons', house. They always have their cross in the front yard picturing the true celebration of Easter. Good food, good friends and lots of candy....

Bunkbed

Daddy spent spring break building us a bunkbed. It has bookshelves on the ends. I (Angela) am on the top bunk. I have divided the shelves for special use. The first shelf holds 40 of my favorite books. It was very hard to pick which books to place on that special shelf, and I am continually growing my collection of favorites. I put devotional books on the second and library books in the corner on the third. We can both sit up without banging our heads and now we each have our own space. We are very happy with our new bed.

God's steadfast Love extends the Generations...

We've been uncovering hidden treasure this spring, digging up old photos of my (Hope's) mom. This one is of she and I. (I'm guessing that I'm about 5 yrs. which would make her about 51 yrs. in the photo.) Our treasure hunt started when she had a heart attack in February. I travelled up north to be with her and at that time the physician speculated that she wouldn't live more than 30 days. Since then, she's survived another heart attack and I've made another trip up north giving me 2 unexpected visits which have been treasures in and of themselves.

We were reciting Psalm 103 this morning in church:

As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments.

My mom is no longer flourishing. She is withering. Soon, the wind will pass over her and she will be gone. BUT, the steadfast love of the Lord remains and extends to her children's children. I am so grateful for her contribution to my children's future directly and through what she invested in me that in turn passes on to my children. I appreciate her commitment to christian education and it's impact on my life and the lives of so many others that she sponsored. She loves church and the hymns of the faith and she taught me to love them. Now my girls sing in worship regularly text rich anthems of praise. Her piano was a cherished possession and she encouraged me to learn to play. Now I enjoy the privilege of accompanying my children as they play their instruments of choice to the glory of God. She was dedicated to family prayer time, which is a lifestyle we've duplicated. She has always been tenderhearted toward the downtrodden and orphans. She loved her foster children deeply and she took extra babysitting jobs for years to save for the adoption of my sister. She took me to the nursing home religiously to visit family members and now my children volunteer at nursing homes every month. I am the benefactor of observing her work hard as a homemaker. The verdict is still out on this one for my children though I must say I see promise-- Angela's a pro at laundry, Lily's a cook and kitchen cleaner extrordanaire and Robyn can make her room shine--all when they want to.

Though she often thinks I'm her mother now, I have yet to achieve as worthwhile a legacy. Because of God's steadfast love and righteousness imparted to me, I have hope...

Spring at the Arboretum

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the botanical gardens with our friends. It was beautiful! Look and see.......

Quilting

Last fall my friends, Hope and Grace, and I began crocheting a quilt together. We meet together once a week after science co-op to work on it. It has been lots of fun to do together. It has been a big project but we have persevered and we are almost finished. In the pictures bellow, we had just completed everything but the border which we are working on now. I wrote the little article below for them as a sort of joke about what we do. You'll probably understand it better if you know that every time we get together we toast the scientists in our science book and joke about the unimportance of learning things about the exosphere and how many Newtons of strength it takes to push a desk across a room.
So here is my article on quilting:

ON QUILTING...
Quilting can be viewed as a chore, a job, or an “old maid” activity, but I see it as entertainment, and fun. The best way to quilt is with friends. That way you have an excuse to eat brownies and ice cream in between squares and joke about famous scientists like Newton, Einstein and Maxwell. I recommend making the squares yourself, it makes your quilt more “personalized”… you will never forget that the lopsided one in the upper left corner was one of the squares you made. A quilt is a kind of legacy you leave behind for your grandchildren. They will study it carefully and pick their favorite squares and stick their fingers in the holes and spill hot chocolate on it. Some people will not understand why you spent your money on yarn and needles, and worked for months to make a lopsided mismatched quilt when you could have bought a perfectly good one at the store. But you know that it was the ice cream and brownies, and the jokes about scientists, and maybe even the memories that you made with your friends while you stitched away at the quilt that made it worth the effort.
-Angela

Wedding Party

After studying the topic of love, we had a wedding party with our Titus Two group and we had lots of fun. We dressed up in Mommy's wedding dress, had a quiz on wedding traditions and had a brunch with wedding cake. Then we, the girls, had a wedding procession. Megan was the bride. Becca and Starla were the flower girls. Angela, Brianne, and Hannah were the brides maids and I was the maid of honor. Here are some pictures Mommy took.

Tears!

Our adopted cows have been gone since Saturday. I (Hope) phoned our neighbor today to ask about them and he said that this pasture is used for pregnant cows and when they are ready to deliver, they are moved to another pasture. (Angela had been saying the cows were looking plump in the middle.) So, we're going to miss the births of 7 new cows and our cows will go on to other pastures and new cows that are pregnant will be delivered in a month or so. He said they'd wait until the spring grass filled in better. Everyone was disappointed but when Starla heard that "Luella, Nutmeg, Gertie and Apple Gray" weren't coming back she sobbed for half an hour. It was honestly like grieving the loss of a pet. She doesn't want "new cows". And we just bought 15 more pounds of treats last week.....

Valentines Celebrations

Angela kicked off her digital design business by creating custom valentines and she sold 14 orders! Meanwhile, I sold my famous chocolate chip cookies in gift bags at Daddy's work.

On Friday our friends came over for a sleepover. It was very fun. We made s'mores on the firepit. The next morning we got up and made pancakes and they were very good! We went over to the park and played for a while and baked valentine cookies for our neighbors. Robyn and her friend made a special desert.

We went to 2 parties. The picture below is of us with our choir friends.

Our family had a special dinner-steak and Mom and Dad gave us each a gift. Angela, Robyn and I each got a book series we've been wanting and Starla got play money for her cash register.