Tag Archives: grandkids

March Madness

March 31, 2026 steph Leave a comment

And just like that – we’re looking at April!! Phew – it’s been quite the March around here! Here’s a quick summary of some of the beautiful madness that colored our March!

It started with a drive to Ohio.

Thankfully, we were fully stocked with coffee and mini-donuts, our favorite morning road food!

Since it’s a solid two-day drive, we’re always delighted when we can stop and see good friends just outside of Nashville.

It’s always great to spend time with John and Rosie – and by taking this route, we get to see them twice! Sweet!

The primary purpose of this trip was to watch two of our grands performing in a show choir competition. What’s Show Choir, you say? It’s a group of 30-40 incredibly talented high schoolers performing themed Broadway-quality musical numbers. We’d watched a couple of performance videos and were excited to see them in person! Since it was a competition, is was a long day, but incredibly fun to watch each school perform. Of course, the most fun was watching OUR kiddos!
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Our Maddie is a senior, so this was one of her last performances – so glad we were there!

Here’s a link to the performance. The whole video is over 4 hours, so I’ve set it to start at hour 3, which is when their group performs. The other groups were also fabulous, but I’m happy to report that our team won the grand championship! Yay!!

Since that Saturday was jam-packed, our other two days together were more low-key! It was so special to see almost ALL of the Ohio clan (Hayley was in Cincinnati and couldn’t make the trip) right smack dab in the middle of winter!

Not the whole M-ville clan in our group selfie- it’s really hard to keep everyone home!
But we did snag a quick shot of the Gahanna gang before we set off for home.

Four Days of driving.
Three days with family.
Totally worth it!!
We had only been back in Texas for a day when we got a call that Lara (back in Ohio) had taken a bad fall and torn up her knee. She’s a single mom, works full-time, and does a great job managing her busy life. But this brought just about everything to a screeching halt. And so I took a good look at my schedule and started looking for flights to Columbus. Yep, one week after I returned from our Ohio Road Trip, I turned around and flew back!! By the time I arrived, she was doing much better, and a doctor visit while I was there confirmed the good news that surgery wasn’t needed. Phew. She can work from home, is managing quite well, and can even handle driving as long as it isn’t a great distance. I was able to help with a couple of house projects she was working on, tried to stay on top of the kitchen stuff, and managed to keep the laundry under control. Definitely support staff! We all got to spend an afternoon with the M-ville crew, and even got a good visit in with Hayley (the one who couldn’t make it the weekend before!) But the best part was being able to spend some good quiet time with Lara. It was a week well spent! (And I may have to work that into an annual trip to see all the Columbus Conrads (all 11 of them!). But let’s skip the messed-up knee next time, OK?)

I arrived back in Texas just in time to celebrate Josiah’s birthday this past Sunday. They came from Waco for the day, and we fed them waffles, experienced the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler,

and then enjoyed burgers on the deck, along with a couple of good games with the kids. Oh, and the boys loved exploring the neighborhood in the golf cart! What a special day! (But sadly, not very many pictures! I’m really slipping these days!)

Our March Madness was all Very Good Madness, indeed! Any month that I can hug ALL of my children, their loved ones, and all twelve of the grands – well, that’s the kind of madness I’m really good with!

And so we turn the calendar page over. April will bring its own brand of busyness as we prepare to head north at the end of the month for the summer! The plan is starting to take shape – and I’ll share more of that in the days to come!

Thanks for stopping by – hoping your March was filled with as much joy as ours was!

Family and Friends, On the Road, Pictures of the Adventure

I’ve broken my record

July 19, 2025 steph 8 Comments

It’s been exactly one month since my last post, and I do believe that that is the longest I have gone between posts. Four solid weeks. Yikes – that’s a lot of catching up to do! And since I was already running behind at that point, I’d better get started –
The Ohio Week
Following our great week in Pigeon Forge with Alex, we spent the next week just hanging out with the rest of our Ohio gang. “Hanging out” might be a bit of an understatement –
There was a deck to repair/rebuild-

Ball games to attend –

Art Festivals to enjoy

and of course, lots of games to play!

(Giant cards were the perfect Father’s Day gift for Toby!).
One of my favorite moments during the week was when little Tucker (without prompting) climbed up into Gary’s lap for a snuggle.

It was a busy week spent with a busy family – but we were so glad we could spend the time with them! But soon it was time to move again…

The Pennsylvania Week
From Columbus we turned east to Pennsylvania – where we did our annual doctoring things (all good, thank you, Lord), spent time with the Chambersburg Fitzpatricks

and managed to connect with my college roommate.

We touched base with some dear SOWER friends along the way-

and spent the weekend back in the old neighborhood, spending time with dear friends!

I’m really bad at taking pictures when I’m having such a sweet time catching up with friends! Our hometown area has changed quite a bit in the 20 (!!!) years we’ve been gone,

(those were little 6 ft. pine trees when we planted them!) but it’s always good to sit down with the ‘old gang’ and remember God’s goodness to us throughout these years!

Cabin Days
So that takes us up to June 23 (just 4 days after the last post!) when we drove to Vermont for some much anticipated (and well needed) Cabin time.

But enough of this catching up for today! Thanks for coming along – I really appreciate your patience as we travel through this Sofa Surfing Summer. Trying to find those quiet moments to do this blogging thing is more challenging than you think!
Have a blessed Lord’s Day tomorrow, friends –

Family and Friends

The Circle of Life

August 8, 2024 steph 2 Comments

Well….it’s really a Circle of Grandchildren! In order, with the most recent one last, here is our collection of our favorite grandchild pose-

Sure do love these guys!!!

Life at Bass Lake Lot 205, Sabbath Rest

Sabbath Rest – Praise God from whom all blessings flow

April 21, 2024 steph Leave a comment

The Waco crew came for this weekend. It was just over 24 hours, and virtually all daylight moments included pouring rain. It was beautiful chaos in every one of those moments! To say that four little boys and their mom and dad can fill up our little 850 sq ft house may be an understatement!
Add torrential rain into the picture, and even Pops got on the floor to get the kids engaged in a game of Mexican Train.

We took advantage of our son’s brawn to get some giant TVs moved around

and kept the card table handy for meals and snacks.

Once we get Lizzie here we’ll have a guest room. But meanwhile –

bodies just go everywhere!

But wait – this is my Sunday Sabbath Rest post. It’s supposed to be a hymn or worship song, isn’t it? Well, the previous pictures and prose are just the introduction to a short hymn that has been part of our worship for centuries. The Doxology. Because after this weekend, how can we not give Him ALL the praise and glory?

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
Here are two renditions – both beautiful and well, I just couldn’t decide. May we always give our praise to Him from who all blessings flow!

Family and Friends, Life at Bass Lake Lot 205, Pictures of the Adventure, The Adventure

One week in

April 6, 2024 steph 2 Comments

Phew, it’s been quite the week! We’ve been busy with our SOWER work here at the office

along with continuing the “settling in” process of home ownership! Thank you to all of you who commented either here or on Facebook about this step (however tentative it might be) into our new adventure! And thank you also for sharing in our joy of a new little one arriving at the end of the month! We’re looking forward to meeting our little “tiebreaker”!
But tonight I wanted to share about the sweet visit we had last weekend with our Texas kids (one of the reasons that this whole House-in-Texas thing is happening!). It was short – barely more than 24 hours – but we packed it with lots of love and snuggles! There was a birthday to celebrate (with pizza, not cake!)

How did this baby of mine get to be 43? And the Daddy to four precious little boys?

We met the day-old piglets

and joined in a little Easter egg hunt watching!

And I also got to deliver the latest bed quilt – made with love and prayers, especially for Anderson!

(When I started with this particular quilt tradition it was “When they move into a Big Bed”. Now it’s hopefully before they turn seven! Those grands were coming fast and furious for a while!)
As we said our goodbyes after the egg hunt, we made plans for them to come to OUR HOUSE before we head back east towards the end of April. And believe me, it’s been a very, very long time since I’ve been able to extend that invitation!
It felt pretty good!