True Riches

Look at the riches,
Look at the worth,
Of the earth,
Gather some dollars and more,
Don't keep it, but give it to the poor,
Giving is a treasure,
It brings great pleasure,
Giving with a good attitude,
Will bring much gratitude,
That is true riches.

By Robyn.L.Webster

I shall forever more and ever after write,
And if you try to stop me I will bite!

I Love Books a Lot

I love books a lot
So I'll lay down on a cot
And enjoy the book
While the people look
As though they need
To see me read

Books take you to lots of places
Filled with mysteries and detective cases
If you need a friend
On books you can depend
So now you see
That books are the key

But there is only one great book
That takes more than a look
God's very speical Bible
That book is most relible
I hope you enjoyed my little poem
Now, I must go home

By Lily Webster
You see, I was a poet
And you did not know it

Hope's Favorite Picture Book--gotta read....

The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant is a must read. I discovered our long forgotten copy under a peice of furniture while cleaning last week. Starla thought it was funny but it communicates an entirely separate storyline on an adult level dealing with processing grief and loss--kind of like the movie "Up" does--which I also consider a gotta see movie.

In the story, the old woman has lost all her friends to death and she responds to the pain with self-protection by naming only things that she's confident will outlive her--like her chair, bed, house and car. One day a stray puppy enters the scene and wants to be her friend but she refuses to take him in because then she would have to name him and she worries that he might not outlive her. She feeds him every day and sends him away. She does this for months until he stops coming. After several days, she goes looking for him at the pound and finds him there. At that point, she decides to take him home with her and names him "Lucky". Here is her explanation of the name. "The old woman thought a moment. She thought of all the old, dear friends with names whom she had outlived. She saw their smiling faces and remembered their lovely names, and she thought how lucky she had been to have known these friends. She thought what a lucky old woman she was." "Lucky ends up riding in "Betsy" (her car), sitting in "Fred" (her chair) shedding dog hair in "Franklin" (her house) and sleeping in "Roxanne" (her bed). And they both lived happily ever after.....

A Seed Sprouts

"The Promise" was fresh in Starla's mind with it's images of Satan, the crucifixion and the resurrection when I read this story, an allegory of Christ rescuing the people on the island from the entrapment of Satan, to her.


When we finished reading, I commented that someday Jesus would come back and His children would live with Him forever. She asked if she was God's child and I started to explain that to be God's child a person admits to God that they sin. They tell God how thankful they are that Jesus took the punishment for their sin and they choose to love God and follow His instructions in the Bible because they know with confidence that his death in their place demonstrates a love that can be trusted. She surprised me by starting to talk to God in prayer about her sin, her gratitude and her love for Him. It is a great joy to see this seed of faith sprout in her heart and we pray that it will grow and bear much fruit.

The Promise at Glen Rose

"The Promise" at Glen Rose is an outdoor drama production of the life of Jesus. It's held in an ampitheater under the stars on Friday and Saturday nights in September and October. It's a couple hours away from Dallas and our family had never attended until this year Halloween night. We were especially motivated to make the trip because a family from church with 2 sons who are in our youth group are in the cast. The professionalism was impressive as were the sets, music and acting. Starla enjoyed seeing the real camels, sheep and horses on stage. It brought back fond memories of the years when Angela, Lily and I participated in the Easter drama at Blythefield.


One of the most powerful aspects of the production was the portrayal of Satan. In each of the scenes, this sinister looking, red caped, slithering sort of man loomed in the background participating, inserting himself, looking for opportunities to capitalize on. Starla was tracking with Satan's every move. Robyn felt afraid of him. I was especially impacted by the scene below where Satan moves in on Judas and eventually wraps him up entirely inside his cape. For me, it was such a powerful visual of spiritual warfare. Satan lurks in the scenes of my life and yours looking for opportunities to wrap us up in his cape.



The grand finale was the resurrection. Jesus conquered the grave and is alive. I don't have a photo of it but Jesus actually lifted off the ground and ascended into the clouds at the end of the show.

For A Laugh...

Lily's having a great year in school but everyone has those moments--especially when doing Abeka grammar.

School isn't fun
And I can't wait until it's done
Almost every day
And I can say
School isn't fun.
by Lily Webster

Sweet 15!

On her birthday, Angela sewed a skirt for herself and made her favorite pie--chocolate pecan. Every year, she has a stack of presents that all look like books. Wonder why? This year she was pleasantly suprised when a large, heavy gift was unwrapped and revealed a portable easel. She'd admired Aunt Nerine's on a trip through IL this year and hoped she'd have one of her own just like it someday. Her someday wish came true sooner than expected. She's already putting her easel to good use.


She invited her close friends Hope, Grace and Mollie to spend the night and they cooked one of her favorite dinners--meatloaf and mashed potatoes. They designed cards for martyrs in prison in other countries and sewed parachutes for attaching Bibles and distributing them in the hostile jungles of Central America. They watched an old movie based on the French Revolution--The Scarlett Pimpernel. Good girls, good times!!



Angela's date with Dad this year was a trip to the Dallas Symphony. Angeal thought the conductor was fascinating to watch and drew this caricature of him.

Birthday season is now officially over at the Webster house.

Robyn turns 9

Robyn and I spent a quiet Sunday morning together on her birthday as she recovered from the swine flu. We cuddled up together and admired her baby scrapbook. She was an adorable baby! Her favorite present was the electric typewriter Angela and Lily bought for her at the neighborhood garage sale the previous day. She'd been dreaming of a typewriter ever since she watched the "Kit--An American Girl" movie and aspires herself to become a girl newspaper reporter.


She also received a deluxe magic kit. The key to magic tricks is good stage presence, quickness of the hand and distracting the eyes of the viewers. Robyn's a natural. She is preparing all her favorite tricks for a show when Pop-Pop comes to visit later this month.



Her birthday party was a "movie making" theme. In advance our girls painted sets, prepared costumes and wrote a "loose" script based on the classic story "The Basket of Flowers" by VonSchmidt. In 3 hours, they filmed what turned out to be a 15 min. movie which Angela edited and polished. (Countless times we have been grateful to the Zainea girls who first taughter Angela the fine art of movie making.)

The birthday celebration concluded with the annual date with Daddy. What a fine looking couple!

The Year--by Robyn

January's frosty cold, crocheted blankets many sold.
February's nice and cool, lakes will glitter just like jewels.
March brings sunshine very bright, it's still quite light even at night.
April's muddy from the rain, but we like it just the same.
In the month of May, it's Mother's Day I say.
June plays a part of the year, the sun is so bright it brings a tear.
July brings starts and stripes, and fireworks light up the night.
August is a happy time, the green grass is as green as lime.
September brings the colored leaves, it's getting cold--time to wear long sleeves.
October brings great delight, it's so peaceful and the leaves are such a sight.
November brings the cold and snow, it bites the hands and makes them glow.
December brings the sleight bells cheer, Christmas is very near.

Soccer Season is over--until Spring

Brian and Lily polished off their second soccer season this morning. They played a tough team--bigger, older, more experienced but they are a hardworking, scrappy bunch of girls and they did great! Lily barely limped off the field with 2 knee injuries and getting the wind knocked out of her all in 1 game. She plays like she lives and it scares her mother. The girls learned alot from Brian about strategy on the field and we look forward to having most of them back on the team in the spring. Here's our end of season team photo.