Merry Christmas 2013

Dear Family & Friends~

It's weird. I can't think of anything worth writing in a Christmas letter...

There have been so many transitions over the 15+ years we have been a family. College, teaching, unemployment, job changes, new babies, health challenges, deaths, heartaches and celebrations...

Right now as I sit at the computer, I look at a handwriting page Kaitlyn, now 14, wrote when she was about 7 or 8 years old. It's still on the bulletin board where I first put it, as if time stood still for all these years. It reads:

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever. --Hebrews 13:8”

Yes. That's the Christmas letter. No matter what we go through in our lives...no matter who comes and goes, no matter what troubles and trials we go through, no matter what disappointments and celebrations we encounter, it's all temporary. All of it. But JESUS CHRIST is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can count on Him every day. No Matter What. This world is not our home. Heaven is Home.

We have been studying the book of Matthew this year, and it's so precious...such a closer, intimate look at Jesus--His tenderness, His compassion, His real-ness. He didn't come with fanfare, trumpets, or a coronation like other kings. He came humbly, unobtrusively, softly. As the words in a song say, “What could be stranger than God in a manger?” Yet, there He was. The angels announced His arrival to the shepherds; the star led the magi to Him. The Heavens proclaimed the King's arrival, but what about the rest of mankind? Much like today, they carried on with their daily lives, oblivious to the mind-blowing implication of God enrobed in human flesh living among them. Jesus was born to die. He died to set us free. He rose to vanquish the enemy of our souls forever. That's the Gospel—The Good News!

Christmas will be here in a few days. If there's one thing we pray for each of you, it's that you would know the LOVE, JOY and PEACE that only a personal relationship with Jesus brings. Not a life of perfection, but redemption...may we all Rest in His Redemption!

Some favorite verses spoken by Jesus:

Matthew 11:28-30

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

With Love & God's blessings~Casey, Shauna, Kaitlyn, Annalise, Gracelyn, & Bethany Webb

Psalm 127

Psalm 127

A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. A psalm of Solomon.

¹ Unless the Lord builds a house,
    the work of the builders is wasted.
Unless the Lord protects a city,
    guarding it with sentries will do no good.
² It is useless for you to work so hard
    from early morning until late at night,
anxiously working for food to eat;
    for God gives rest to his loved ones.

³ Children are a gift from the Lord;
    they are a reward from him.
⁴ Children born to a young man
    are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.
⁵ How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!
    He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates.

Pearls and Pigs

Once in awhile in a flurry of excitement, I just want to SHARE something...really wonderful, really funny, really bad, really...anything...with someone...ANYONE!

But then I think:  Would *anyone* even care about this anyway?  Would *anyone* even have time to listen?  (The list is short.) Would *anyone* NOT think I'm a dork? (The list has just grown shorter...)

The hard, honest truth is:  Probably Not. :/

When God shares a special insight with us, He gives us a pearl.  When we run with our pearls to just *anyone,* it often ends in disappointment.  We must be selective about who we share our heart's treasures with.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:6:

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."

Am I saying our family and friends are pigs?  No.  BUT...when we share things that are close to our heart, and then discover that people just don't "get it" or don't have time, don't respond, or even end up discouraging us, we must ask ourselves:  Was it worth it to share?  

So what do we do with all these pearls (and sorrows, and fears, and, and, and...)?

The answer to all of those questions above is the same:  Give them to God. God always cares...always has time...never thinks I'm a dork.  He already told me what He thinks of me:

I am His good work in progress...
I am His masterpiece....
I am filled with His Strength...
I am Fearfully and Wonderfully made...

That is TRUTH. Because He said so! :)

Philippians 1:3-6
"I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
and

Ephesians 2:8-10
"God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."


2 Corinthians 12:9-11
"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Psalm 139:14
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Sometimes we as Mamas (and humans, for that matter) forget how God sees us, and we base our worth/success/moods on "how good" we are being...or how funny or interesting we are.  I think at the base of our hearts we are wondering:  Am I special?  Am I making a difference?

The Enemy of our souls would love for us to be defeated in every way every day. I'm so thankful that God took special care to remind us that we are precious because we are HIS, not because of what we do or how far we have come so far. His Strength is Perfect in our weaknesses...I want to glorify Him in my weaknesses (which are countless...ever so many) so that His Power may rest on me!

Reflections of a [temporarily-downsized] mother

The 2 younger girls had a slumber/movie party last night, and they're still zonked!  We miss our 2 big girls, of course, but spending a little more focused time with the younger 2 has been a delight!

We have been playing more, interacting more, doing more crafts, projects, and outings...and working on obedience, consistency, and enjoying a more peaceful home.  And on that note, I just wanted to share some thoughts:

Sometimes we, as parents, (a.k.a. me) are so focused on running a "tight ship" that we forget that they are lambs, and not soldiers.

Sometimes we are so focused on "ironing out" their struggles & weaknesses that we forget that they are often easily moldable and pliable in the gentle hands of grace.

Sometimes we are so focused on accomplishing the plans for each day, that we forget that our children are the 'WHO's filling our days.

Sometimes we get lonely being home and crave adult interaction.  That's natural.  Trust me, a homeschooling mom knows.  BUT when I allow myself to search out that interaction in a way that causes me to neglect my first calling and love (Jesus/Wifehood/Motherhood), then I have forsaken my calling.  Blown it.  Messed up.  It's so not worth it...the guilt sets in, which is just what the Enemy wants.  If we feel like a failure, we will not walk through our days with victory...we may just wallow in the pit of shame.

Unplugged.  I keep thinking about that and hearing about that.  I keep attempting it.  I want to do it...but then I get bored or lonely...don't feel like working on a project...want and need a break.

Is it wrong to engage in social media?  I don't think so...HOWEVER, when it becomes the kind of focus that you cannot or do not get other things done that are within your God-given realm of responsibility and ministry, we have a problem.

I've been tired a lot lately, too...maybe I think that if I'm at the computer, I'm still doing *something* because resting & reading looks like laziness to me.  Is it so different? Hmmm....

Anyway, I'm going to attempt to finish out this week in a whole new way, with His Strength being made perfect in my weakness...

I refuse to be burdened by a yoke of slavery of any type, whether it be media, guilt, or legalism...He knows me too well to be "Sapphira" with Him--He knows I am weak, but thank you, God, that you are Strong!

Galatians 5:1

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

Psalm 103:13-14

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,
    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed,
    he remembers that we are dust.

That's all....Grace and peace to you &  me from the Father.  Amen!

Hello, again, hello....

Neil Diamond pretty much summed up today's post. Our computer crashed, and took with it all of our usernames/passwords because I didn't have the forethought to NOT save them on said computer. Lesson learned.

This is just a brief, newsy update, for good measure:


Happy Spring! We
hope you are both doing well! It has
been such a busy month since we last wrote you—the weather, sickness, church
activities, Bible study, school, 4H, etc. have all kept us hopping. We’ve had warm weather, snow, rain all in
repeated cycles. The other day, we had
snow on the daffodills, even.
The girls have been sick with a
yucky virus for a couple weeks, but other than the lingering cough, they seem
to be on the mend at last! Casey has had
it, too, but not as badly. We decided to
just observe Spring Break during the girls’ sick weeks, so that gave them
plenty of rest and “down time.”
Katie, Anna, and Gracie all
participated in the region’s “Awana Games,” where delegate students are chosen
from several of the local churches’ Awana Clubs, and the compete against each
other in different relay and team games.
They all did well. Our church
placed 2nd, and Katie (who also helped on another team that didn’t
have enough teammates) placed 3rd with that team, so she came home
with 2 ribbons. J
Everyone is still in our study on
Paul and the acts of the apostles, though we’ve all missed the last couple
weeks due to sickness. We’re looking
forward to getting back to it next week when (Lord willing) everyone is well
again.
4H is new to us this year and
keeping us busy…Katie is doing baking, and so far has done her lesson on
biscuits. Her next lesson is muffins, so
she’s looking forward to baking more on her own. Her county fair entry will be either
biscuits, muffins, or quickbreads, and she hasn’t decided which to enter
yet. Gracie & Anna are doing sewing,
and we took a field trip recently to the fabric store, so they could learn
about patterns, fabric, etc., and they each chose their project that they’ll
sew and present at the county fair. Anna
is making a pair of shorts, and Gracie is making a skirt. Everyone is so excited, as you can imagine!
Well, that’s all the news for us
right now, but the girls made some lovely new artwork for your refrigerator
art! J
We love you so much & hope
& pray all is well with everyone.
Give the family our love & hugs, and we look forward to our next
time together!

Love,
Casey, Shauna, & Girls

2011 A Space [in the middle] Odyssey

SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!!!!!


Clearly, it's been awhile since our last update. Everyone here is doing very well. We're keeping busy in different activities through church, as well as family-and-friends fun. The girls finished AWANA recently and had their awards ceremony. They all did a great job and had a lot of fun. I (Shauna) helped with the Kindergarteners this year in AWANA, which was a good experience, and fun to be able to see the girls off and on throughout the night.

Casey and I have been attending Bible Study Fellowship this year, where we have been studying the book of Isaiah. Next week will be our last week, and then we'll take a break for the summer and resume again in Sept. It has been such a wonderful experience. Isaiah is full of so much!

Homeschool is going well, too. We're learning about plants and cells this year in science, which has been interesting, and the girls have a bean experiment they're conducting right now throughout the kitchen. They enjoy checking on the progress of their different jars and noting the different environmental changes that affect the bean seed growth. In History, we've been studying the Bible as the beginning of all history, of course, so we are learning about the time period from creation to the Greeks. We still have awhile to go, and plan to continue through the summer with our study. We enjoy doing some school subjects year-round (like Math and Bible and History), so we can take Mondays off to spend with Casey on his days off...that way there's not a big gap in our learning, too. The girls have been learning many interesting things this year in their health, safety, and nutrition class, and they all enjoy reading...especially when the prize for a finished book is not having to make their bed the next day!! Their cursive penmanship has improved dramatically, and they're all excelling in their own unique areas of gifts God gave them!

We had a lovely Easter and enjoyed a brunch at a restaurant. That was nice for all the women, so we could relax a little, too.

Gracie broke her arm this spring, at the end of a fun cousin week. At least she got to play at the park for awhile, before heading to the ER! She got her cast off a few weeks ago, but they discovered that her bone wasn't all the way healed, so she still has to have her arm wrapped when she plays outside for now, and they gave us her cast to put back on when she wants to swing and do the trampoline. He'll re-check it next week.

My sister Meagan and her kids were here to celebrate Mother's Day, and it was a houseful of activity and fun. Casey & I keep waiting for things to settle down a little bit back into a "normal routine," but we're starting to wonder if BUSY and tired IS the new routine...hahaha!

My grandpa just underwent open heart surgery (triple-bypass and valve replacement), and we praise God that he is recovering well! Casey's uncle also is recovering, after suffering heart attacks and a blood clot last week. God is so faithful, as always! We continue to lift Casey's step-dad in prayer, as he is still on the road to recovery after a severe brain trauma injury in September 2009.

This week, we've had 3 girls sick with fever, a spider bite, pink eye, ear infection, and sunburns...that's all just this week and it's only Thursday! Things are bound to look up from here, though! HA HA!

Well, I suppose that's enough rambling for now. We think of and pray for you all daily. We love you & are looking forward to that glorious day when we see Jesus! Until then...

TEACH US TO NUMBER OUR DAYS...

Stretch, the Irish Setter Annalise, relaxing after helping with breakfast & dinner...

Gracie, making candy corn cupcakes Bethany, making chocolate pie

Katie, making cherry pie

"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." ~Psalm 90:12

Lord, we are so thankful for all You have provided for us and all your protection, love, and mercy!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving, spent here at home with Mom and Dad, while the sisters were supposed to be with their in-laws. We couldn't make it to Oregon this year, but were very thankful to remember all those we love so much!