Sterling Lakes’ POA Generous Donation See Page 4
December 2021 Volume 3, Issue 6
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ~ Cover Story ~
CONTENTS
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Page 12
Sterling Lakes POA contributes to Bel Sanchez Elementary.
Dr. Charles E. Perry, Jr., Pastor of local church in Rosharon, TX
~ Feature ~
~ Important Local Info ~
Dunk Ranch offers help through healthy eating habits
Important phone numbers for everyday or emergency situations
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Have Your Business or Church included in Your Community Magazine Call or Email one of our Account Executives for details and cost Hazel, Karen or Brenda
~ It’s Easy ~ Also, submit news that concerns your community Email: officemanager@alvinsun.net 2
~ Column ~
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Cover Story Sterling Lakes POA donates funds
Pictured are: Millie Chumley, future student; Douglas Chumley, Resident Board Member of Sterling Lakes POA; McLean Barnett, Resident Board Member of Sterling Lakes POA, Roman Nieto, Principal of Bel Sanchez Elementary School and Kharla Boyce, Assistant Principal at Bel Sanchez Elementary School.
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Sterling Lakes POA’s Adopt A School program makes available a sizeable donation of $2,500 to Bel Sanchez Elementary. The funds will go towards recess equipment, age appropriate for each grade (Pre-K through 5th grade) as well as the music department.
LIFESTYLE
Bel Nafegar Sanchez Elementary School
The Adopt A School program is one way for residents to get involved in their community and be a part of getting more enriching programs for students. Safe and age appropriate recess equipment is important as is quality music departments. Donations such as the one presented by the Sterling Lakes POA help in making this happen.
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Meridiana Fall Festival
Whatever Hala Yesenia L., Ludy Zacarias (owner), Crystal C., Noemi M.
Serving up homemade tamales, salsas and queso.
The Welcoming Crew from Meridiana
Lauren Acosta, Zaina Martinez and Jackie Wostrel
Email Us Your Photos
K & B Sisters, Natural Self Care Products
Karina Martinez, who is a Meridiana resident, was one of the many vendors set up at the festival.
Pumpkin Painters
We would like to highlight your children’s awards, school projects or hobbies. You may include their name, age, parents, siblings etc.
Email to: officemanager@alvinsun.net 6
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Six year-old Londyn Amari and her brother, Kevin
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Feature Meanwhile, Back At Dunk Ranch Story and Photos by Sheila Rieke The Dunk Ranch, located just down the street from Meridiana on County Road 67, is many things; a farm, a gift shop, a garden center, a venue for hosting classes, seminars, and events hosted by its owners, Mark and Linda Dunk. Linda Dunk, Master Gardener and Clinical Herbalist and her husband Mark opened the Dunk Ranch in June 2019. Just as it was starting to take off, Covid hit. The Dunk Ranch grew during that time because their business is outside and people staying at home began to get interested in gardening and hobbies. She started out focusing on educational programs, herbs, herbal medicines, preventative medicines, and healing. “It’s hard to get people interested in taking care of themselves and being interested in alternative medicines.” Still passionate about natural preventative medicines, she discovered, “You need to go with what the community wants.” Expanding her business to include vendor events, art and gardening Continued on page 9
Mark and Linda Dunk Owners of The Dunk Ranch
The Healing Garden
Linda Dunk dedicated this garden to her mom, Ann. She credits her mom for inspiring her passion for gardening.
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Christmas Cactuses at the Dunk Ranch
They come in different colors. They bloom at Christmas when there’s less light. They’re easy to grow, little water and little attention.
classes for adults and children, along with seminars on gardening, health, and even snakes gave people additional reasons to come out to the ranch and discover all sorts of interesting things. As they did, the business began to grow. Master Gardener Dunk grows a wide variety of plants on the ranch; herbs (oregano, sage, mint, lavender, lemon balm), succulents, tillandsia (air plants), vegetable plants and just in time for the holidays, she’s currently growing Christmas Cactuses. Plants change with the seasons, to find out what’s growing on the farm, check out the Dunk Ranch facebook page. Dunk advises that right now is a good time to start thinking about spring planting. Getting good soil is the most
important. It’s best to use a raised bed. Raised beds need only be six inches to one foot deep. It’s always best to pick plants that grow in this area. The box stores have beautiful plants, but she warns to be careful that the plants are zoned for our part of Texas if you want to have a bumper crop. The best vegetables to grow in the spring here in Texas are tomatoes and cucumbers. If you’re interested in a pollinator garden, there are a variety of milkweed plants and herbs (basil and thyme) Continued on page 10
Beautiful potted arrangements planted with a variety of Succulents are among the items for sale at the Dunk Ranch Store
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Tiny Bird Soaps
Soul Fire Candle Co.
A few of the local vendors Linda Dunk supports and promotes at the Dunk Ranch
Don’s Pottery native to Texas that attract butterflies and bees. Several local artisans have found a home at the Dunk Ranch. Products from Tiny Bird Soaps, Don’s Pottery, Saltwater and Sawdust Woodworking, Carla’s Closet and Soul Fire Candles are available at the store located on the property. The Dunk Ranch prides itself on working with and supporting local vendors. Dunk explains, “It’s a two-way street, they help me grow my business while I promote and sell their products”. She finds local artists when they shop at the ranch or by referrals. She’s always looking for vendors that sell something a little bit different. The events held at the ranch always consist of live music, local food vendors (serving up empanadas, gelato, homemade treats to name a few) free beer and wine, and a wide variety of local
B U S I N E S S D I R E C T O R Y
vendors selling jewelry, pottery, clothing, handbags, jams, jellies and more. To see what’s coming up in December and also the spring events in March/April, visit the Dunk Ranch facebook page for more detailed information. Exploring the great outdoors and getting excited about it is a key component to Dunk’s children’s programing. Hands-on classes for kids unaccustomed to playing in the dirt or with bugs made her classes on worms, pollinators, snakes, reptiles and bugs a tremendous success. She also has fairy garden classes for the children and adults. Fairy Garden classes started out as a children’s class, but the parents kept requesting adult classes. Dunk aims to please. She also offers both children and adult painting classes. In December, she will be featuring winter solstice healing arts, including vendors that make aromatherapy products. She’ll also host speakers who will discuss the importance of daily rituals (such as yoga and massages) and how they support healthy living. Also on the agenda, classes on making a succulent Christmas tree and a succulent living wreath. Live succulent wreath classes are offered year-round. Mark and Linda Dunk moved to the ranch in 2005 from Pearland. Before she became a Clinical Herbalist, Linda worked in healthcare for 40 years. While in the healthcare industry she became concerned with the heavy reliance on drugs. She believes in the benefits of modern medicine and that it plays a key role in serious diseases. “There’s a place for drugs, but it’s also important to eat healthier and to be aware of other options.” Mark Dunk is a retired science teacher from the Pearland schools. He’s currently working from home as an instructional technology specialist. In layman’s terms, he teaches teachers how to use technology in the classroom. ** A Clinical Herbalist is trained in the technical and scientific approach to understanding the way herbs work, how the body responds and what is necessary to support good health.
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Marshall W. Chumley
2nd grader at Bel Sanchez Elementary He enjoys playing with his family and friends Parents: Douglas Chumley & Sarah Dixon
Siblings: McKinley & Millie Chumley
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Grandparents: Bob & Sallie Cooper Warren & Mary Lenn Dixon
February and March Birthday Photos for next edition may be Emailed To : officemanager@alvinsun.net
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~ It’s Easy ~ We Want To Help Your Business Reach Homes In Meridiana and Sterling Lakes Call 281-331-4421 and we will partner you with one of our sales reps
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D I R E C T O R Y
The Grace to be Broken by Dr. Charles E. Perry, Jr.
We should all be grateful for the grace to be broken. Why do I say the “grace to be broken”? Because things could have gone another way. See, opportunities to be broken come in the form of highpressured, devastating situations, losses, painful circumstances that cause us a great deal of hurt, etc. It is important to know God only allows in our lives what we can handle through His grace. 1 Corinthians 10:13: There hath no temptation (trial or test) taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. This passage reveals several truths that are encouraging to say the least. • Nothing happens to you that is outside of the human experience. In other words, you are not the only one experiencing what you are experiencing. • God’s faithfulness is revealed in His unwillingness to allow you to be tempted, tried, or tested beyond your ability. • God has already incorporated within the temptation an escape. Glory to God! • You can bear this, so stand up under it and endure the hardness of the situation like a good soldier of Jesus Christ. When these things occur in our lives, we have two choices about the direction we can take. The first direction that we can run, when heartache happens, is toward having a broken spirit and a contrite heart that accepts God’s sovereignty and seeks to learn how He wants to change us through the situation. To run in this direction is to run towards God; He is in this. The second direction we can run, when heartache happens, is toward blame, anger, resentment, bitterness and regret. To run in this direction is to run towards our prideful selves, rejecting God’s sovereignty and not allowing the situation to produce any change towards godliness in us. God is not in this. Ultimately, your decision to embrace opportunities for brokenness and the blessings it can bring into your life is up to you. God is not going to force brokenness on you; He is only going to give you opportunities to experience them and the blessings that come along with them. As a pastor, I’ve learned over the years of leading and shepherding God’s people how to examine, listen, and discern whether or not an individual is the kind to lean into this process or to avoid the process like the plague. Are you open to opportunities for brokenness? Just in case you’re having difficulty answering this question, out of the many obvious signs that are displayed when an individual tends not to embrace opportunities for their spirit to be broken, allow me to share two of them with you. 1. You blame others. When a relationship goes wrong, it’s always the other person’s fault. If you keep getting passed over for the same promotion time and time again, you say it’s because all of the supervisors you work for are out to get you. It cannot be because you show up late to work every day or because
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your team can never depend on you to get your part of the project done on time. Should you receive a low rating on your Employee Performance Appraisal, it cannot be because of your performance or lack thereof. It must be, they just don’t like you and your co-workers have been lying on you. Really? Could it possibly have AVAILABLE NOW! something to do with the number charlesperrymin.store of infractions, consistent lateness, unexcused absences, or always being behind on assignments? Maybe it’s your negative attitude towards getting work done, your hesitancy to yield in conflict, or too often you take job matters personally and fail to manage your emotions. Is it possible you show a lack of commitment to work; neglecting new techniques for quality, not open to job training courses, or failing to accept responsibility for work not completed? Instead of being quick to blame your employer and co-workers, ask yourself the question; am I being an effective employee? Stop looking at others and begin looking at yourself. What about other areas? If you’ve been repeatedly denied a mortgage loan, rather than taking responsibility and working on your 513 credit score, you blame it on bankers not wanting to see you get a house because of the color of your skin. People who tend to look for someone else to blame when things go badly in their own lives are typically the type to look outward instead of inward. I will be the first to admit, it’s more painful to look inward than it is to look outward. No matter how good you are at playing the blame game, it is a game you will never win. It takes a lot of looking inward, or introspection, for us to allow life’s heartaches to lead us into brokenness. 2. You can’t seem to win for losing. It’s normal for people to occasionally lose things in life – jobs due to company layoffs, opportunities in school, work, or ministry, finances, and even a relationship. Loss is a natural part of life. One of the ministry functions of the Holy Spirit is to comfort us during loss so that grief does not overcome us, and we slip into a depression. On the other hand, if your testimony for most of your life has been, “I can’t win for losing! Why do things like this always happen to me? Why am I always on the losing end? When is it going to be my turn?” This is a sign that there’s a problem. No one should be living a life characterized by constant loss, or a pattern of loss. If every time you look around, you’re losing something or someone who has been special - not things like losing someone to death or other circumstances beyond your control - you need to take a hard look at yourself. What is it about your life that has had you locked into a losing streak for so many years? Whatever it is can only be eliminated from your life through your being broken. Allow God to speak to you about how important it is for your spirit to be broken so that you can grow into His version of yourself. Thus, bringing into reality the potential He has placed within you. Now is the time to come to experience a deeper level of repentance that causes you to undoubtedly abandon your old way of thinking about brokenness, see it as a necessity that you’re unwilling to live without. Ask God to provide you with the courage and strength to lean into opportunities for brokenness, even when the process is painful.
Everyone Is Welcome At Church
The Churches below are extending an invitation to you Come worship God with Family
Have your Church listed Call 281-331-4421
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The Postscript by Carrie Classon
Nocturnal Negotiations
Carrie Classon
It’s amazing that anyone shares a bed. I know there are plenty of married and cohabiting couples who have separate beds, or even separate bedrooms, and I can see the logic in avoiding the snoring, the thrashing, the different sleep schedules, and the need to negotiate the complicated issue of bedding. But since marrying and moving into Peter’s house, we have shared a bed, and it is not a large one. So far, we have negotiated a peaceful settlement. This is because Peter has let me have my way. There were a lot of improvements needed to the bed when I moved in with Peter. First of all, he had sheets he described as “microfiber.” I don’t know what these tiny fibers were, but the only fiber I was interested in having in my sheets was cotton. I don’t think (as Peter implies) this makes me a snob. I am not one of those who requires an absurdly high thread count. It was my wise mother who pointed out that a lower thread
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count makes for a cozier feeling sheet - provided, of course, that it is washed in unscented laundry soap and dried outside on the line. I once read a story where a woman was ironing her pillowcases. This activity was proof that she was mentally unstable. I did not find the story convincing. I know my mother is of sound mind, and she’ll tell you that a pillowcase is a lot nicer after it’s been touched up by a hot iron. Then there was the matter of blankets. Fortunately, we both like a cooler room at night, thus avoiding most of the disputes that happen between couples in the winter months. But Peter’s solution was to toss something on top of the bed that was the size, weight and color of a dead seal. That was obviously not going to work. Once under the fleshy green leviathan, I could hardly breathe, and any kind of temperature adjustment was impossible. “What if I get too hot?” I asked Peter. “You stick a foot out.” “I stick a foot out of the bed?” “Yeah.” “How does that help anything?” “It cools you down.” “It cools down one foot! Now I’m still hot but have a cold foot!” We replaced the dead sea mammal with several blankets that could be used as needed, and I thought we had reached a nice resolution to the whole bedding issue until we visited Europe. There I saw they had
one pillow that stretched across the bed that both sleepers could share. “Ooh! I want one of those,” I thought. But then Peter decided he wanted a peculiar pillow that supported his neck but not his head and looked exactly like a giant upholstered hotdog. I did not. So the lovely European style pillow idea was scrapped. And still the nocturnal negotiations continue. Peter (unbeknownst to him, he claims) will migrate over onto my side, forcing me to cling to the edge of the bed to keep from falling out. This wakes me
up just enough so I can nudge him. He will, with considerable grumbling, roll back over to his side, at which time I hastily grab whatever territory he has relinquished. It’s a nightly challenge in a small bed. But it’s worth it. Because, as I move into the warmth that he has left behind, I’m reminded every night that he is there beside me, disturbing my sleep and stealing my covers. It’s a nightly reassurance that he is near. Till next time, Carrie
Departments / Phone Numbers www.iowacolonytx.gov/
Iowa Colony City Hall, 12003 Iowa Colony Blvd, Iowa Colony, TX 77583
Department
Phone
Department of Community Development
281-369-2471
Department of Finance
281-369-2471
Department of Public Works
281-369-2471
Municipal Court
281-369-2471
Office of the City Manager
281-369-2471
Office of the City Secretary
346-395-4526
Community Development handles permitting, platting, inspections, and engineering.
The Department of Public Works is responsible for keeping all city assets and facilities in a state of good repair. Public Works contains streets and sidewalks, parks, municipal buildings, and right-of-way maintainance. Municipal Courts are the judicial branch of city government. In addition, the Municipal Court is part of the state judicial system. Municipal Courts hear Class C Misdemeanor criminal cases, including traffic violations, for which the maximum fine, upon conviction, does not exceed $500, and for which no jail sentence may be assessed. They also hear cases involving violation of city ordinances, which may have fines up to $2,000 for certain offenses.
The City Secretary is the clerk of the City serving as a link between the citizens and the City organization. The City Secretary’s office is committed to providing excellent customer service to the public in a timely, professional and efficient manner. Responsibilities: Provides all pertinent information for City Council meetings; Custodian of all official records of the City, including agendas, minutes, agreements, ordinances, resolutions and contracts; Maintains the City Seal and attests official documents; Oversees City elections; Provides the public with information in accordance with the Texas Public Information Act; Administers the oath of office to new City employees and officials; Publication of legal notices
Parks
Iowa Colony City Park • 4003 Meridiana Parkway (Next to Meridiana Elementary School) City Hall Park • 12003 Iowa Colony Blvd (Behind City Hall)
Police Department
281-369-3444
Mosquito Spraying Requests for mosquito spraying can be made online with Brazoria County Mosquito Control.
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