Robinson

Sunday morning, October 2.

More soccer yesterday. Cold and wet.

Justice was referee for the first little kids' game.

For his whole game, Courage was goalie. Constant onslaughts by a boy who played head and shoulders above everyone else on the field. Courage, on the other hand, is just a little boy who spends a lot of time humming and dancing around and distractedly looking everywhere, but it's fun for him.

Our friend Gerry Hough, running in the background, was referee for Courage's game.

Courage stopped this shot with his right foot.

Mercy with the yellow sleeves; Patience is the tall one.

Patience moves the ball.

Honor dribbles downfield; Justice runs with him.

Honor tries to get off a shot. The opponents, in pink, were an all-girls team. They played good defense.

Justice tries to get past a defender.

Justice likes to try to move the ball in tight places.

Justice didn't make this one, but did get a similar goal a few minutes later. (By then, the camera batteries were dead.)

This crane picked up this trailer on the left and lifted it over the garage in the middle to place it next to its other half, visible behind the base of the crane.

Wednesday afternoon, September 28.

Nine days ago a falling piece of glass cut me on the back of my ankle. A photo at that time would have been too much. This shot, after nine days of healing, isn't so bad.

Sunday morning, September 25.

The kids played soccer yesterday. The five older children. Courage plays with the little guys. Patience and Mercy's team played against Justice and Honor's team.

Courage at the far left, in red.

Honor, in blue, took the ball away from this girl and scored on Mercy, left.

Justice, left in blue, missed this shot. Mercy gets the ball.

Mercy the goalie throws it out. Honor looks for his chance.

Patience in-ball.

Honor, Justice and Patience chase it down.

Patience. Mercy. Honor. Justice.

Courage.

The soccer was Faith's idea, she made it happen, and the children are eternally in her debt. She and Liberty Margaret enjoy the action. Grace wandered here and there.

Friday morning, September 23.

Mercy made a strawberry cake Wednesday, and we ate it yesterday.

Last night Faith was feeling tired and under the weather, and Grace told her: "I'll help fold clothes, mama."

I spent several weeks, during some odd hours and for a few whole days, salvaging from the college's old greenhouse, mostly glass and aluminum. The front section, on the left, was frame construction under a shingle roof. Then a ten-foot section of greenhouse, followed by a twenty foot section, then by a thirty foot section. I got the whole framed section to use on our new dining room. I got the first ten feet of glass and aluminum to make a greenhouse for us, and I removed the top flaps (they open and close) of the 20 and 30 foot sections. Plus lots of glass pieces and aluminum pieces and electrical stuff and windows and insulation and even concrete blocks.

Now this whole thing is torn down.

Monday morning, September 19.

Grace's birthday party was last month. Patience's friend Maggie was here. She and Patience made the cake, with a Scottish Terrier on it.

Princess clothing.

She likes it.

Who needs a dressing room when you're turning three? The boys get appalled at this kind of thing.

Grace with the new kitty. Our cat got killed by something recently, and this is the replacement.

Courage and kitty.

They tore down the old low-water bridge. That's one of the welders, cutting it up. The dumpster at left was full of 16' treated 2x4s, in fine shape. I got two pieces of metal beam to use to work on vehicles; after being told I could have all of the lumber I wanted, they took away the dumpster the next morning, before I could get much of it at all. Missed opportunity.

The two beams. 700 lbs each. I borrowed BJ's truck and Jack's trailer.

Greenhouse, going up in Burnt House.

Home school field trip. Joe Kemper, missionary pilot in South America. Retired to Newberne. Showed us airplane . . .

three of them, in various stages of repair . . .

kids allowed to get in and play with controls . . .

head of a fifteen foot alligator . . . beside a jaguar's head . . .

various spears . . . the meanest looking spear is used for combat . . .

tarantula . . . jaguar on shelf, along with a piranha. Piranha's teeth are vicious.

here's a photo off the internet . . .

an added curiosity, of which we knew nothing until we arrived . . . another garage, full of old cars. Model Ts and one model A.

Joe said it was fine if the kids played with them. "After all, they're toys." Honor has the horn in his left hand.

Patience and Maggie.

Justice and his friend Kip, whose parents came from Kenya.

Kip and Toto and Chumutai. Siblings.

Grace and a friend play in the creek. No piranha.

A pretty creek.

The whole bunch of us.

After leaving Kempers, went to Newberne Church, where the kids played ball and other games, ate, and ladies talked about home schooling plans.

He likes it.

Another black snake ventured into the area. Better that than a copperhead, which is what we think killed our cat.

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn:

Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."

Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval.

But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."

Eternity magazine 10/1985
quoting the Templeton Lecture, 1983

Tuesday, August 30.

photo Pam Starsick

Taken at the Cox's Mills Homecoming Picnic last Sunday. We went to church in Cox's Mills for more than a year, and going out to the picnic was a way to catch up with friends we don't see often. Great food.

I (Mark) bought these earrings last Thursday on the way back from Parkersburg, at a yard sale. For a quarter. A lovely blue glass that catches the light just so.

Thursday, August 25.

Six kids in the yard.

The seventh child.

Mom and Dad.

Steak for supper! Food is better when the waitress is pretty.

God's goodness to us.

Honor on the trampoline.

A day on Tygart Lake with cousins, early August. This is Jenny, from Texas.

The big rock. Even Mercy jumped it this year.

The swing. Even Faith did it, though this isn't her. Even Grace did it, with cousin Calvin.

Some unidentified child.

Age before beauty. Cousin Kenny naps; Grace enjoys the high life.

Grace.

Liberty Margaret had a fine time.

Honor. Cousin Tammy with the camera.

Justice.

The back of the boat was a favorite spot.

Patience.

Liberty Margaret.

Mercy.

"Look how far the light came, to paint you this way."

Bruce Cockburn

Thursday, August 11.

Honor and I took a trip to the northern panhandle the weekend of the 1st. Took the Camry; finally got it on the road. In Washington, PA, the right wheel seized up, wouldn't go. It would back up, but not go forward. So I backed it into this spot by the interstate exit. This was Saturday evening.

Sunday after church (I preached in Wellsburg Sunday morning) I did some patching together, and limped it 20 miles from Washington to Wellsburg, where I parked it in front of the Advance Auto Parts store. Monday morning I got the part I needed, and put it all back together. It gave us no more trouble.

Honor and I stayed in the home of Sam and Joyce Gibb. This is their daughter Jennifer, with Honor.

Honor samples a banana split at Dairy Queen.

Saw this 1973 VW bug at Dairy Queen.

A huge sycamore tree, planted in the early 1800s. Wellsburg. I had a pro-life meeting here Sunday evening, and another in Wheeling Monday evening.

Monday night we stayed with the Smays, in Wheeling. Their son Austin is 9, and he and Honor enjoyed each other.

The Smays. I've known them for more than 20 years.

The Ohio River.

A league basketball game in Wheeling. I'm too old to play with these guys, but I enjoy watching.

Monday, August 8.

It's been a while since I put anything on here.

Marshall and DeVona's lovely home, on top of the highest point in Clay County. A view of the mountains for 360 degrees. We visited there a couple of weeks ago, when picking up Patience and Justice returning from camp in NC.

It isn't all finished yet, but their pool is swimmable. Kids had a lot of fun.

Cousins.

Honor flips.

Uncle Marshall with Liberty Margaret.

Cousins Grace and Abraham.