School Has Started and You Have Homework!

It is September 2023. Many of you are enjoying peace and quiet at home – the kids are back in school! For seven to eight hours each school day, you have some time to do things you want to do for yourself. Parents still have to keep the kitchen pantry full, drive car pool and wash the family’s clothes,...

Every June, We Should Celebrate Midway: The Battle That Won World War II

We call them “The Greatest Generation.”  They are the millions of Americans who turned our anger and outrage over the Japanese sneak attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, into the greatest defeat of global tyranny our world has ever experienced.   Over 400,000 young Americans came home in flag-draped...

Israel, Birthdays and Re-Invigorated Faith!

Q: How to celebrate your wife’s 60th birthday? A: Take her to Israel for two weeks of long, hot, dirty, life-changing hikes all over the Promised Land! Nancy and I went together to Israel during our first term in Congress in 2009. Since we were part of a group from Congress, our trip was heavy with...

It’s April – Spring has Sprung

Nance and I love April and the annual arrival of Spring! Usually, the temperatures in April have not exceeded 90’F. The trees that have lost all of their leaves are green again. The Texas bluebonnets and all the beautiful wildflowers have bloomed. Families in Fort Bend are starting to plan for their...

Fort Bend Women Make Fort Bend Strong!

Since 1987, every March has been Women’s History Month in the United States.  This is a month dedicated to the contributions women have made to society, history and culture.  All of us have one woman who should be honored – our mother.  My mother celebrated her 84th birthday last month.  She is the...

Sugar Land Has No Equal!

When I moved to Sugar Land in 2007, I chuckled when I heard our “unofficial” city motto: “In Sugar Land, our Imperial Sugar is so sweet that we have no Equal.”  Making fun of a sugar substitute was a witty way to remind the entire world that Sugar Land’s and Fort Bend County’s prosperity will...

What Rhymes with“New Year?” Volunteer!

Happy 2023!  The New Year is a time we naturally reflect on the joy and sadness of the past year.  My family mourned the passing of Nancy’s mom on September 8th, but we find comfort that her human pains are past, and she is feeling only joy and peace in Heaven.  And we’re still feeling the...

Don’t Mess With The Battleship Texas!

She’s 110 years old and recently enjoyed a leisurely cruise from her berth at the San Jacinto Battlefield and Monument to a dry dock in Galveston. She’s the oldest remaining American warship without sails.  She’s the only remaining ship in the world that engaged in combat in both World War I and...

Armistice Day 2022 and The Unbreakable Bonds of 41 Million Americans

Armistice Day is a very special day of honor for our nation’s military veterans and their families.  Armistice Day was created to celebrate the end of the “War to End All Wars” – World War I.   The end of hostilities between the Allies and Germany would be formally signed in 1918 at the eleventh...

Hurricanes and Me

I moved to Texas as an excited nine-year-old in July of 1972.  We bought a brand-new home in Seabrook, because the public schools in Clear Creek Independent School District were very strong, and my dad had a relatively easy commute on Red Bluff Road to his paper mill in Pasadena.  I learned the Gulf...

Why September is My Favorite Month

I love September in Texas! The Friday Night Lights of Fort Bend high school football are shining brightly all over our county.  The Battle of the Berg between Lamar Consolidated and B.F. Terry gets things rolling on September 2nd.  By the end of September, Katy will be undefeated and beginning to think...

Oh, Say Can You See

July 4, 1776, the United States of America declared its independence from the most powerful nation in the world, Great Britain.  Most of the known world thought our Founding Fathers were out of their minds.  How could the people ever be trusted to govern themselves?  Mr. Washington, Mr. Adams, Mr....

Family Road Trips: Well-Traveled, Cherished Memories of Days Gone By

Growing up as a kid in Texas, June was the most enjoyable month of the year.  The next school day was months away.  Hallelujah!  The neighborhood pool was open.  Hallelujah!  It was a time for daily Slurpees, cannonballs, can-openers and belly flops off of the high dive, zinc oxide, suntans and...

Known But To God

Those revered four words are carved into the white marble of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Sadly, those four words apply to many graves here in Fort Bend County.  These forgotten lives have common traits. They tend to be in cemeteries of people of color. Some are likely...

April Fool’s Day and God’s Love

I am a Christian, and for Christians like me, April is the most joyous month of the entire year.  It is the usually the month that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven. An eternal life awaits all! The first day of April is a day for juvenile jokes and pranks to...