POSTCARDS MAGAZINE - Lake Conroe - MAY 2026

Postcards

Publisher’s Post

May Time Be Kind

There’s nothing quite like the moment you realize time didn’t just pass…it sprinted.

The other day, it hit me in a way that made me laugh out loud. That senior boy I had a crush on when I was a freshman in high school? Well, he’s officially a senior again… CITIZEN, that is…and I’m pretty sure he just got his Medicare card in his wallet!

How is that even possible?

It’s funny how life sneaks up on you like that. One minute you’re passing notes in class and worrying about Friday night football, and the next you’re watching your kids grow up, juggling careers, and catching yourself in conversations about grandchildren. Our grandchildren! I’m sorry…when did that happen?

Those moments can feel a little humbling, maybe even a tiny bit shocking. But if we’re honest, they’re also a gift.

Because what they really remind us of is not just that time flies, but that it fills up with moments that matter. The small things. The ordinary days. The people we love and the communities we build along the way.

May has a way of bringing that into focus. It’s a season of celebrations, graduations, transitions, and of course, Mother’s Day. A time to honor the women who shaped us, cheered us on, and somehow made everything look easier than it really was.

And maybe now, many of us are the ones stepping into those very same roles.

We spend so much time looking ahead to the next milestone that we sometimes miss the beauty of right now. And then one day, “right now” becomes something we look back on and wish we had slowed down just a little more.

So maybe this month is a good reminder to pause. To take it all in. To laugh at the passage of time instead of fighting it. And to hold a little tighter to the moments we’re living today.

Because one day, we’ll look back on this season, too…and wonder how it all went by so fast.

And when that day comes, I just hope I handle it gracefully… but I plan to keep that Medicare card tucked safely out of sight, where only my doctor will ever see it.

Time didn’t just pass… it sprinted.

Thank You

Thank you for the way you began placing the page numbers at the center of the side. Very handy. May you, your family and staff at Postcards be blessed with good health and happiness, now and in the future.

Sara Hardy Bartee

Good & Encouraging

I appreciate your magazine and all that goes into its publishing so much. Keep up the good and encouraging content and editing!

Liane McMillin

One of the Best

I love all your family for Postcards. It's one of the best magazines I've ever seen! Thank you.

Esther Cousins

About the Community!

Thank you for a magazine for and about the community!

Larry Harris

Dear Gabby

Welcome back to the May 2026 edition of the Dear Gabby advice column. If May were an emoji, it would be the sun with sunglasses. However, April showers also bring May allergies. On the calendar: May the 4th be with you and May the 5th be with tacos! Monday, May the 25th is Memorial Day. Their sacrifice was the ultimate act of love for their country. We don’t know them all, but we owe them all. May we always remember them. Send me your questions by clicking on Dear Gabby at www.PostcardsLive.com/share

DEAR GABBY

School will be out this month, and I can tell you there is no tired like “end of the year teacher tired.” We love the students like they are our own because, during any given school year, they are. Our hearts break at the situations we can’t change, and we rejoice at their triumphs. We do our best, yet always wonder if we did enough. I’ll miss the kids but, parents, tag… you’re it. Thanks for letting me vent.

WEARY AND TEARY

DEAR GABBY

I love dogs! With that being said, I come from a family that does not. Fortunately, I have my own place and do not take in more pups that I can take care of, as I would if they were children. I make arrangements so as not to inflict my furbabies on family members who are not like-minded. I just find it hard to understand their attitude.

DEAR LOVE

DEAR W & T

You could think of an excuse about why you can’t join the Each month has an average of 30-31 days, except for the last month of school. It has 1,742 days. Ask any teacher. People always say the children are our future. I believe our children’s teachers are our future. I have so much admiration for teachers who do their best, in spite of the impediments that federal regulations, dysfunctional parents, and well-intentioned school districts put in your paths. You most certainly have done enough. God bless you all!

GABBY

PUPPY LOVE

I’m with you! I’m the kind of person who goes to a party and makes friends with the dog. Bill Murray, actor and comedian, said “I’m suspicious of a person who doesn’t like dogs, but I trust a dog that doesn’t like a person.” The reason dogs have so many friends is because they wag their tails and not their tongues. My dogs understand quite a few human words. I don’t understand any dog barks, so they may be smarter than me. For example, three out of four dogs like burger meat. The fourth one knows there’s a pill in there. People think I’m crazy when I talk to my dogs. What am I supposed to do, just ignore them when they ask me a question? Get real.

Dr. Rob Hunt

Recounting the path of a gifted musician, composer, conductor, and teacher.

Dr.Rob Hunt often recalls the Dallas orphanage where he spent his childhood. It was a happy existence, he says, as it was easy to find friends among the orphans and wards of the Buckner Baptist Children’s Home. “We shared loads of baseball and football games on the weekends,” he says.

“You could get up a whole army with hundreds of players.” As a teenager, Rob often mentioned his orphanage upbringing to his advantage, he says with a chuckle, but in truth, he and his two sisters lived there with their parents, who were employees.

When Rob was about four years old, he discovered an upright piano in the parlor of one of the dorms at the children’s home. He vividly remembers reaching up to the keys so he could pick out Leaning on the Everlasting Arms—a song he’d heard at church—by

ear. He also recalls his first “esthetic experience,” which occurred when he was about three or four years old. “There was a wonderful pipe organ in the chapel where we had our Sunday services,” he says. The sound gave Rob a thrill. “I loved it,” he says. “I wanted to understand it, and I wanted to do it.”

Fortunately, Rob’s parents, both musicians, recognized Rob’s giftedness, as did a cultured employee of the orphanage, who took Rob to see My Fair Lady and other touring Broadway musicals. For everyday entertainment, Rob watched famous conductors on television. His mother began teaching him to play the piano when he was five years old; when he was six, he took lessons from a piano teacher in Dallas. By the time he was 11, Rob was studying piano at Southern Methodist University (SMU), and he won the State Fair of Texas Talent Show when he was in junior high school.

At 14, Rob was already a veteran performer. He played for 23,000 at a pregame show in the Astrodome, accompanying the Buckner Home’s

choral group, as well as performing a piano solo of his own arrangement of the Theme from Exodus. Rob, however, did not enjoy high school. Residents of the children’s home were bused to W. W. Samuell High School, which Rob did not find intellectually or musically challenging. “I hated it,” he confesses. He doesn’t remember who told him about the new Skyline Center, a high school that taught several pre-professional programs, including performing arts, but it caught his attention. At Rob’s audition, students were asked to improvise musical embellishments to complement a simple African folk tune. Although other students struggled, Rob completed the assignment with ease, and he was admitted to the school for his junior and senior years. “It changed my life,” Rob says. “I was in music classes four hours a day studying with stellar faculty, including famous musicians who would stop by and do masters classes,” he says. Furthermore, he was in his element with other musically-talented students.

College, jingles, and nightclubs

Although several prestigious music conservatories tried to recruit Rob, his parents wanted him to attend their alma mater, Howard Payne University. While studying there, Rob traveled to seven countries as piano accompanist to the university’s Heritage Singers. After one year, however, Rob transferred to SMU, a move that gave him many employment opportunities in the music industry. It was not a typical college experience. Rob recalls the professor of an early-morning class routinely asking, “Where did you gig last night?”

During this time, Rob began writing and playing jingles for television and radio commercials. Most of his work was aired on local stations, such as the often-played jingle he wrote for Minyard’s Grocery Store, but some, including ones for Pizza Hut, received national audiences. Rob also played at nightclubs, where he became captivated with jazz piano.

Rob continued his formal music education at Texas Christian University (TCU), where he earned a master’s degree in musicology. There, he met his future wife. Jackie was a music major, and Rob was her graduate assistant teacher. The couple would later raise a son and a daughter; both are now professional musicians.

Although Rob wanted to play jazz, country music came knocking, and Rob became Ray Price’s pianist and conductor. Ray’s band often linked up with Willie Nelson’s band, so Rob got to know both legendary musicians. Rob enjoyed many memorable moments during this era, like the time during the filming of Honeysuckle Rose when Jackie had to hold his music so a strong wind didn’t blow it away. On another occasion, Rob substituted for Willie’s pianist (his sister, Bobbie Nelson), playing songs by ear.

Rob also fondly remembers Ray Price. On one occasion, Hoyt Axton’s segment of a concert lasted much longer than expected. Rob needed to get home for a church job on Sunday morning, and Ray gave Rob a ride in his limo so he could catch a redeye flight out of Los Angeles. “It struck me as being very surreal,” Rob says. “We were going 90 mph, maybe 100, on the

freeway at three in the morning.” At one point, Ray’s hit For the Good Times came on the radio, but Ray demanded that it be turned off.

In 1983, Dallas was losing its edge in the music industry, so Rob enrolled in the University of Indiana’s esteemed music program to work on his Ph.D. in conducting. While he was there, he detoured long enough to become certified to teach music. Years later, his students would benefit from the techniques he learned.

Just three hours short of his degree, Rob walked away when he snagged a dream job as conductor of the Midland-Odessa Symphony. (Although he didn’t think he’d ever return to college, Rob commuted from his home in The Woodlands many years later and earned a Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of Houston.) In addition to conducting traditional orchestra music, Rob enhanced the symphony’s popular music program. On one occasion, the symphony played with The Moody Blues; later, they shared the stage with Kansas.

The Gift of Teaching

Although some talented musicians have difficulty teaching, Rob enjoys sharing his musical expertise with others. He taught music theory and piano at Sam Houston State University

(SHSU) from 2008 until 2016, also serving as the music director for the Opera Workshop. Competing against universities such as Harvard and Yale for The American Prize in Opera Performance, SHSU operas won first place in 2013 and third place in 2015. Rob loves making—and teaching— music so much, he has no plans to retire. Today, he teaches music theory and piano at Lone Star CollegeKingwood (LSC-K). It’s exciting, he says, to identify and nurture talent, but he finds it equally rewarding to help struggling students. In 2024, he earned the LSC-K Faculty Excellence Award. Rob also conducts the Kingwood Pops Orchestra (KPO), a multigenerational organization affiliated with LSC-K. Orchestra members applaud Rob for his skillful conducting and for his polite, respectful teaching techniques. One orchestra member laughs that instead of berating musicians for mistakes, Rob once mildly said, “I’m hearing some things that aren’t in my score.”

For Rob, the best part about conducting KPO is working with its artistic advisory committee to create interesting programs. In 2022, KPO hosted three Broadway musicians; in 2023, the Victory Belles, a vocal trio from the National WWII Museum, joined the orchestra. Twice, KPO has

shared the stage with the Undercover Band for classic rock concerts. Most recently, attendees sang along and danced in the aisles when KPO featured music from the 1960s.

Rob seems to have endless energy. He has served eleven churches over five decades in part- and full-time positions as choir director and organist, and he has written and arranged countless songs. His best-known may be his choral arrangement of Wondrous Love, which was recently named a favorite by the Richmond, Virginia chapter of the American Guild of Organists. “I am kind of proud of that,” Rob says. Some of Rob’s arrangements have been performed at Carnegie Hall by Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops.

Most recently, Rob collaborated with Stephen Schwartz, the renowned composer of many musicals, including Wicked, to re-orchestrate the opera

Séance on a Wet Afternoon for a small ensemble. “He got so busy with Wicked and his new Broadway show that I ended up doing it pretty much myself,” Rob says. He enjoyed “getting to work with a legend,” but it was a mammoth job. “Every one of the 800 pages was rewritten many times,” Rob says. The opera was performed in July 2025 in Houston.

Rob has many memories of his long, eclectic career, but one stands out. While conducting the Midland-Odessa Symphony, Rob asked his former TCU professor Ron Shirey to provide a large choir for the orchestra’s performance of the Carmina Burana cantata. Rob rehearsed the choir in the same building where he had spent time as a student.

“When I stepped onto that podium to conduct the 200 voices from the combined choirs with my teacher looking on, beaming, it was a crowning moment in my professional life,” he says, “and to hear Mr. Shirey say, ‘Rob Hunt has turned into a hell of a conductor.’”

When I stepped onto that podium to conduct the 200 voices from the combined choirs with my teacher looking on, beaming, it was a crowning moment in my professional life

Postcardslive.com

Glorious Grandchildren

Banks Delesandri

Grandchild of David & Judi Delesandri

Legend, Legacy, Lemuel, & Leyla

Grandchildren of A.R. Jones

Kidspeak

Two weeks ago, I told my students at school to write an essay titled "If I Were a Millionaire."

Everyone was writing except one girl, who leaned back with arms folded.

"What's the matter," I asked. "Why aren't you writing?"

"I'm waiting for my secretary," she replied.

Scored her 10/10.

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My son just told me that he LOVES the new toy trucks they got at daycare... (They are his toy trucks. We donated them because he refused to play with them.)

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I explained to my daughter that when Netflix started, they used to send you DVDs.

6-yo: [in old lady voice] You know, back in my day, the internet used to come in the mail.

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My kids each have 30 minutes tablet screentime, but yesterday they learned that if they agreed on what to do/watch together, they could turn it into an hour and a half.

So, now I either have to create distrust among them...or accept that they have unionized.

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Whenever my toddler is about to do something he's not supposed to, he says "Don't look at me." That's how I know he's not cut out for a life of crime.

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I cleaned out my teen's room, and I found 8 plates, 21 utensils, a TV remote, 8 chapsticks, a burner phone, and apparently we have a cat.

Tasty Bites

5-Ingredient Salmon

Teriyaki Bowls

IINGREDIENTS

4 (4 to 6 oz) salmon filets

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup teriyaki sauce, plus more as needed

3 cups cooked jasmine rice

Sriracha or other hot sauce (optional)

2 cups shelled edamame, prepared according to package directions, warm

1 avocado, peeled and diced, or more to taste

DIRECTIONS

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and lightly grease the pan.

Step 2: Season salmon with salt and pepper and spread 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce over each fillet. Set salmon on the prepared baking sheet.

Step 3: Bake in the preheated oven until salmon flakes easily with a fork, 10 to 12 minutes, or to your preferred doneness.

Step 4: Meanwhile prepare rice and edamame according to package directions; keep warm.

Step 5: Divide rice among bowls and top with edamame. Flake 1 piece of salmon on top and add avocado.

Step 6: Drizzle 1 to 2 tablespoons of remaining teriyaki sauce over each bowl and drizzle with hot sauce.

Tasty Bites

Coconut Cream Pie Dip

INGREDIENTS

1 cup toasted sweetened coconut flakes, divided

1/2 cup cream of coconut

8 oz chilled full-fat cream cheese

1 Tbs caramel sauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp coconut extract (optional)

1 pinch salt

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream

DIRECTIONS

Step 1: Combine 3/4 cup toasted coconut, cream of coconut, cream cheese, caramel sauce, vanilla, coconut extract, salt, nutmeg, and heavy cream in a blender. Blend on high speed until mixture is smooth and combined, about 1 minute. Pour mixture into a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until mixture is thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours.

Step 2: Remove dip from the refrigerator; beat with a hand mixer on high speed until light, fluffy, and holds stiff peaks. Garnish dip with remaining 1/4 cup toasted coconut just before serving.

COOK’S NOTE

Make sure to use cream of coconut, which is sweetened, not coconut cream. Cream of coconut is usually found in the liquor section of the grocery store. Also, be sure to shake the can or stir thoroughly before using, as the ingredients tend to separate.

The Garden Post

March Winds Bring April Showers that Bring May Flowers

Who can resist the aisles of blooming annuals and perennials in mid-spring? The selections at local garden centers are beautiful. There are so many blooms to choose from, but unfortunately the garden space has certain requirements. Let us explore this a bit and find where the biggest mistakes occur in selecting the perfect bloom for your garden.

Having knowledge of the light being received in your landscape versus what the plant requires is a great start. Know where the sun rises and sets. What direction does the front and the back of the residence face? This basic knowledge gives seasoned landscape designers/garden pros a lot of info and the ability to make better suggestions.

Northern/Eastern exposures are generally always morning sun and shady or filtered light in the afternoon, especially in summer. South/West exposure is generally full sun to fairly sunny most of the day. In the landscape/gardening industry, the term “full sun” refers to 8 hours or more of direct sunlight and will always have sun from 1-5 pm. The term “shade” is given to areas with a few hours of morning or noon direct light and fairly filtered from 1-5 pm. Yes, this will change with the seasons, but not enough to change your selections.

Perennials have received a ton of marketing exposure in recent years, but the “jewelry” of the garden will always be the annuals, and they have not been given the credit due for their immense contribution to the landscape. So, what exactly is an annual?

Kim Bius President, Kim's Home & Garden Center

Annuals – Plants that will live their life cycle in a 9-12 month period. Do not shy away from annuals, they are beautiful and often reseed and return every year (such as vinca, zinnias, and bluebonnets). Annuals are “showier” (if that is a word) and the showstoppers in the summer garden for their intense blooming ability, up to the first frost. My top favorites are:

For deer resistant and full sun to 1⁄2 sun: periwinkle (vinca) are a sure “thing.” Marigolds, snapdragons, and cleome have also been passing the test.

For full sun, without the danger of deer: zinnias, purslane, portulaca (moss rose), blue daze, ice plant, pentas, salvia, celosia, amaranthus, sun begonias, caladiums (sun varieties and strap leaf) and sun coleus are great suggestions.

Morning sun, filtered light after 1 pm: calibrachoa, petunias (definitely love the supertunias). These beauties have been known to return for 2-3 years. Bubblegum and Jazzberry are prolific varieties, but try the other new selections out, too.

Begonias and garden impatiens are often overlooked and create such an elegant landscape, especially when paired with coleus as a backdrop. Sunpatiens still do not take full Texas sun without watering daily, so they stay in the morning sun category, but definitely stunning. Caladiums are bulbs but considered annuals in our area (unless the bulbs are planted in extremely raised beds, and the bulbs are salvaged from year to year).

There are hundreds, if not thousands of choices, and everyone has a favorite. Veggies also fall into annual category and can be mixed strategically with your landscape. There is no rule that says you should not plant a summer tomato on that beautiful new metal trellis as a centerpiece, or that okra and peppers cannot be mixed with a bed of low growing verbena. Remember, you make the rules for your garden. As long as the plants growth requirements are met, everyone wins.

Happy Gardening

The Business Focus is chosen each month by random drawing from among Postcards contract advertisers.

Texas Remodel Team

This business believes a happy customer will be a return customer.

BY RUTH FIELDS | PHOTOS BY TOM MILLER

WhenDavid and his wife attended a neighborhood party several years ago, they admired their friends’ new outdoor kitchen. They soon learned their neighbors had hired Texas Remodel Team for the project and were well-pleased. They were happy to recommend Texas Remodel Team.

David contacted Texas Remodel Team shortly thereafter, and it was the start of a long relationship. First, David hired the company to build an outdoor kitchen, which necessitated joining the roof of the kitchen to the side of the garage.

David was so impressed with the way the project was progressing, he chatted with Tim Fox, founder of Texas Remodel Team, on one of his visits to

the house. David told Tim there were a few things they wished they could change about their house, such as enlarging the small master bathroom, master closet, and laundry room. Tim offered to take a look. “He proposed a simple bump-out addition coming straight off the back of the house,” David says. The project included gutting and moving the master bathroom, enlarging and relocating the laundry room, and increasing the size of the master closet. Tim’s vision made sense to David.

Meanwhile, the outdoor kitchen was completed. “When they finished,” David says, “you would think it was always there.” About a year later, David hired Texas Remodel Team to undertake the addition to the house. Again, David says,

the finished project was so expertly done, it looked like it had been part of the home’s original construction.

David has since hired Texas Remodel Team several more times. One project, a kitchen remodel, included moving a wall to improve the flow of the house. “All of the things we did added functionality,” he says. When new flooring and paint were needed, David hired Texas Remodel Team for that, too. Texas Remodel Team also replaced all the windows in David’s house. Most recently, the company updated David’s garage with improved doors, epoxy flooring and built-in cabinets.

David thinks highly of Tim and his subcontractors, and appreciates seeing the same electricians, plumbers, framers, and painters on

every project. “They seem to take pride in what they do,” he says. David does not hesitate to recommend Texas Remodel Team to friends.

Fostering long-term relationships

David’s experience is what Tim had in mind when he formed his company 12 years ago. From the first time he and his staff meet with a prospective client, the goal is to foster a long-term relationship. “We are not just trying to make a quick sale,” Tim says. “We want customers to have a project they will be still happy with in five years. We want them to come back.”

Tim knows that as people live in their homes over the years, they—like David—will inevitably want to improve or replace a few things. “There’s always a next project,” he says wisely. So, when Texas Remodel Team does a project for a first-time client, Tim wants to make sure his company provides a pleasant experience that produces a long-lasting result. Frequently, those clients call Texas Remodel Team again when they decide to undertake another project.

The business philosophy has paid off. “We get a lot of referrals, and we do a lot of repeat work,” he says. “We completed 133 projects last year, and a large portion were repeat clients.”

The construction of a company

Tim’s business model was a long time in the making. He has worked in the home improvement business since he was 20; for 15 years, he worked in the home improvement division of a Fortune 500 company, managing operations in the southern United States and Puerto Rico. As he moved up the proverbial corporate ladder, Tim gained customer service experience at every level.

Along the way, Tim observed something that bothered him. He thought it was better to produce quality work from the start, so fewer problems would arise later, but he soon learned it was hard to enact a high level of customer service in a large company.

A job transfer moved Tim and his family from North Carolina to The Woodlands in 1997. The heat and humidity were overwhelming at first,

but they soon found Texas suited them quite well. So, they decided to stay. In 2014, Tim founded Texas Remodel Team, channeling all his construction and customer service experience into his new company.

Twelve years later, Texas Remodel Team is thriving. Tim now works with his son Austin, who earned a degree in construction management from Sam Houston State University about three years ago. He has been working in the business since he was 14 years old. Austin had several job offers from large general contractors after he completed his degree, including one he had interned with; however, he remembered the quality work he had been a part of at Texas Remodel Team and decided to join his father in the business. “We do things the right way,” he says, “and everyone here truly cares

about our customers.”

For Austin, the best part about working at Texas Remodel Team is the people. “I get to build relationships with the clients and the trades,” he says. He has known some of them for 10 years and enjoys making them happy. “My favorite days are close-out days,” he says. “The customers are always beaming. Their energy is so infectious for me.”

From the outside in

Austin deals primarily with the exterior side of Texas Remodel Team’s business that specializes in providing replacements, such as doors, siding, windows, as well as other projects, such as building sunrooms and screen rooms. Texas Remodel Team’s window replacement service is particularly popular with people whose homes are

more than 15 or 20 years old. Not only can they update to energy-efficient windows, but they can also reduce the amount of sound that comes in from outside the house. They can change the style of their windows, too.

Texas Remodel Team has a unique advantage over other window installers. “We happen to be expert window installers, but we are more than that. We are remodelers. What if boards are rotted out? We can professionally repair that and leave you with a finished product,” Tim says. There is no need to wait for a third-party contractor to repair the

We hire good people that happen to be good at what they do ”

damage. Texas Remodel Team can also do special projects, like adding a window where there is currently only a wall, or making windows bigger to take advantage of views. Other projects include removing doors with windows on both sides, replacing them with multi-paneled doors.

“It makes us stand out in the marketplace,” Tim says, noting when a company that only installs windows is finished with a project, they hope to never hear from the client again. “Once we get your windows done,” Tim says with a smile, “we still want to hear from you again!” As with all projects,

Texas Remodel Team strives to do such a good job, clients return to them again and again.

When a project is completed, Tim likes to chat with clients. At those meetings, he often hears, “You have some really good guys.” Tim thinks he knows why. “We hire good people that happen to be good at what they do,” he says, “whether they are employees or subcontractors.”

Get Ahead of the Game: Why Summer is the Best Time for a Sports Physical

As summer gets underway in Texas, families across our community are gearing up for camp, sports tryouts, and the back-to-school season. While it’s tempting to wait until the last minute, scheduling your child’s physical early can help ensure a safe, healthy start to the new season—and give you peace of mind in the process.

What is a sports physical?

A sports physical, also known as a pre-participation physical examination (PPE), helps determine whether it’s safe for a young athlete to participate in a particular sport. It’s not just about checking a box for school requirements. It’s an important opportunity to identify any underlying health conditions that could put your child at risk.

What to expect during a sports physical?

During the exam, we take a detailed medical history and perform a physical evaluation. We look at things like heart health, joint mobility, vision, and any previous injuries. If there are concerns—such as asthma, a history of concussions,

Craig Boudreaux, DO Family Medicine

or even just a growth spurt that’s affecting coordination— we can address those issues early and make any necessary recommendations before your child hits the field.

Why now?

Getting the physical done over the summer helps avoid the August rush. More importantly, it gives families time to follow up on anything that might come up—whether that’s additional testing, a referral, or simply getting your child fitted for new orthotics or a sports guard.

Why should my child have a checkup?

Even if your child isn’t playing on a competitive team, a summer check-in with your primary care provider is a smart move. Texas summers are no joke, and heat-related illnesses, dehydration, and sports injuries are all too common. A quick discussion about safe activity in high temperatures—along with tips on hydration, nutrition, and sun protection—can go a long way in keeping your family healthy all season long.

Sudoku Marketspace

Sudoku Solution

May 2026

Tracks

Mustard Seed Moments

By WES ALTOM

Beware of the Artificially Intelligent

They don’t call it A.I. just to save us from having to pronounce all the syllables. Voicing the full name might just make us think. If we say the full words out loud too many times, it might just register a little deeper what the term actually connotes:

Artificial – While it certainly fits something manmade as opposed to something natural, the word also means feigned, insincere, fake, imitation, sham.

Intelligence – the ability to learn or understand things; comprehension, knowledge

So…an artificially intelligent person is someone who conveys fake knowledge…hmmm.

This is certainly not a new concept that dawned with the age of computers. Paul admonished Titus in the first century A.D. (Titus 1:10-11) to be wary of and silence “empty talkers and deceivers, teaching things they should not, for dishonest gain.”

While not new to our time and setting, this warning is certainly appropriate to us with all we see online. Growing up, I never imagined it would be this challenging to determine truth from falsehood. There is no shortage today of false (or even more dangerous, partially false) information being spread online by people driven to gain money through clicks as opposed to promoting true education or commitment to truth and principles.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, and I definitely see the inarguable value of technology-assisted tasks. Mankind, however, not machines, was gifted with being made in the image of God. Because of this, there is no replacement for human discernment and compassion, and that won’t ever change.

Finally, my friends, keep your minds on whatever is true, pure, right, holy, friendly, and proper. Don’t ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise. -Philippians 4:8

“For I am the Lord, I change not." -Malachi 3:6