With thankful hearts, we share a brief update, quickly traveling through each month of the past year. Merry Christmas from our family to yours! January - Starting off the year with a life highlight for our entire family, we met little Autumn, our first grandchild/niece. (Our family has now grown to 13 in number!) It was … Continue reading Christmas Update 2025
It has most certainly been a very busy year for our crew, full of blessings, challenges, long days, answered prayers, new friends, and God's leading to unexpected places! For the purpose of this post, we decided to keep things simple and share 24 points of remembrance from 2024, in chronological order. #1 - Steve had … Continue reading Christmas Update 2024
You try not to cry at any wedding, but it’s really hard at the wedding of your own daughter. And then, how do you handle things when she chooses to play the theme to Anne of Green Gables, while you as the father of the bride are walking her down the aisle? Well, then there … Continue reading The Marriage of Jared and Katelyn
I am thrilled to be accepted by Christian Bible Church of Cissna Park, Illinois, as their pastor. When our family moved to Illinois in 2019, one of the first things we wanted to do was find a new church home. Eventually we visited a small church that I had discovered online, situated just outside of … Continue reading Another Chapter Begins
Grandparents are very special and can have a huge impact for good in the lives of their grandchildren. This must have been true of George Stiekes, grandfather of our daughter-in-law, Erin Hall. Erin just graduated from Bob Jones University, earning a degree in English. She entered an article she wrote into an English competition at … Continue reading A Granddaughter’s Reflection on the Loss of Her Grandfather
I have always loved breakfast. It is my favorite meal. One of my favorite things to have for breakfast is homemade sausage gravy and biscuits. Something I am known for around our home (other than the finest of Dad jokes) is occasionally making sausage gravy and biscuits. I have to admit that I have gotten … Continue reading The Best Sausage Gravy and Biscuits
Many devastating failures and falls happen, and even life-altering choices can be made, because the decision to do right is not made quickly. When facing temptation, a hesitation to make the right choice, a moment of yielding to wrong desire, a split second of indulging in a lust or giving thought to a fear—is all … Continue reading Only A Moment’s Hesitation
What does true love between a husband and a wife look like in the "real world"? During this Valentine's season I thought I would share an article that my wife Jennifer wrote back in 2018 on her blog. A special place we call "Windy Hill" in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. "Real life romance is … Continue reading Real Life Romance
Read to your children, and give them books to read. The need for children to read and hear stories is vitally important. But not just any stories will do. It is important that they read the right kind of stories. Just as children need to eat the right kind of food, they also need a … Continue reading Are Your Children Reading the Right Kind of Stories? (It’s more important than you may imagine.)
As a homeschooling family, my wife will occasionally take advantage of online videos as a tool of instruction in a certain subject. Videos can be especially good for peaking a child's interest in the sciences. The Moody Institute of Science produced a number of educational videos in the late 1940's and early 1950's that show … Continue reading God of the Atom (by Olivia Hall)
As you are enjoying this Christmas season, relishing in some of your favorite holiday activities—dashing around in a one-horse open sleigh, gliding along with a song of a wintry fairy land, roasting chestnuts over an open fire, dancing merrily in the new old-fashioned way, just feeling all around holly, jolly—I appreciate you taking a few … Continue reading Christmas Update 2023
When was the last time you worried, “What are we going to eat?” I do not mean “what” as in that most difficult choice between Panera Bread or Jersey Mike’s. I mean “what” as in, “What food do I have today to feed my family?” In our modern day, in America, our biggest food annoyance … Continue reading Thankful for the Farmers
Life is funny. Life can sometimes be funny in the sense of "strange" or "odd." But what I mean here is that life is funny, as in laugh-out-loud funny. Sometimes it is more like "small-chuckle funny," and sometimes it is downright "belly-laugh funny." Just look around. God most definitely has a sense of humor. The … Continue reading Ragamuffins – A New Comic Strip by Ethan
🎧 Listen to the article: "I read something to the kids today from 'Little Town on the Prairie' that was so good. It brought me to tears." My wife reads to our homeschooled children throughout the week. They are presently in the "Little House" series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She told me this … Continue reading How Laura Ingalls Could Save our Country
Back in the early days of our marriage and ministry, we used to dream about having a “traveling ministry.” We’d talk about the idea of taking our three young children out on the road to churches in a gospel-oriented ministry. We wondered what it would be like to go from church to church, living in … Continue reading An Early Dream
I have heard of things “going viral” on social media, but I have never experienced it. Until now. Two of our daughters, Olivia (10) and Annalise (8), played and sang together in a church service, we posted it on YouTube and, as of this writing, it has over 320,000 views and continues to climb. (You … Continue reading I Am Shocked
Some newcomers have joined us here on the blog as well as on our podcast, so I thought we would take a post to help get acquainted a bit. Welcome New here? Let's have some introductions. My name is Steve, the scrivener of these here missives (and owner of a well-worn thesaurus), and my wife … Continue reading Introductions and Some Fun Facts
I have often thought of how all days eventually do come in life, as I have now witnessed over 47 years (almost 17,155 days) come and go. Every day is a gift from God and is a blessing. But some days are milestones and memories that will be cherished forever. The meaningful and sacred ceremony. … Continue reading The Marriage of Ethan and Erin
Perils are a reality of life. As much as we don't like to think about it, there are many hazards on life's journey that can seriously hurt and even destroy us. From the threat of physical injury to psychological harm, we never know what a day might bring forth. Now, As Mark Twain famously put … Continue reading Protecting Your People from Online Peril
🎧 Listen to the article: “Why Daddy?” It’s a familiar question for any man who has the privilege of being called “Dad.” And it’s not an easy one. It’s especially hard when you live in what many have been labeling as “clown world”. I’m sure you would agree that crazy things are going on in … Continue reading Daddy Knows
Steve Hall 