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Dear family and friends, What an amazing whirlwind the last few months have been! Our God is so faithful. His Plan for this new season has proven to be more than we could have imagined. (And Jeannie has quite an imagination!) Our Ruby Cottage / Macs Music in NC sold quickly, and we closed on that property on July 1. After looking at many houses in April and May, we discovered our just listed new home on what would have been Stacie’s earthly birthday, June 2. (We think she had it all picked out for us.) We made an offer the next day. It was accepted and we closed on our new home on July 11. We began moving in, transferring from our storage unit a little at a time. KS summers are too hot to work too hard! We hired local movers to bring the last of the heavy furniture, and our first night in the house was August 8th. What a blessing it was to see God’s hand in the details. We are so grateful for our dear friend John Oathout who opened his home to us while all this transpired. The process would not have been nearly as easy if we hadn’t had a place to land in between! He even introduced us to our realtor, Sherri Gibson of Capitol City Real Estate, who was a tremendous help and put up with our “list of wants.” She not only knew when a house wasn’t right, but knew immediately that this house was ours. We’ve even seen a few deer in the meadow behind our home. More pics of Jeannie’s reading and writing Kingdom Corner and Macs Music are on the Vision Page on the website if you’d like to see them. Dennis lost no officiating time, contacting the KS associations early and getting on their list of referees. He kept very busy with volleyball in September and October. Basketball season is underway and he looks forward to the games, especially because the distance and straight KS roads make the travel time much better than the winding mountain roads he dealt with in NC! Dennis still enjoys being with the kids and getting the exercise! He says it keeps him young! Jeannie has been spending time since August unpacking boxes and bins and getting settled. She’s found things that have been in storage for years! She is a collector and has enjoyed having room again to display her Raggedy Ann, angels, and people and animals with books collections. We still have Stacie’s Coca-Cola collection spread throughout the house. Jeannie has a home library again also and is excited to share her books with family and friends. So don’t hesitate to ask! Between unpacking and getting settled Jeannie has been working on Book IV in her Tresia series. She has a new Youth Advisory Board and these six young people are already helping her in the writing process. They are the ones who help keep her young! They also let her know what kids like to read! The new illustrator for Book IV is a former YAB gal, Emalee. She’s now attending the Kansas City Institute of Art. Between Jeannie’s Holy Spirit inspired imagination, the new YAB, Emalee’s illustrations, and the help of her long-time editor, Sheryl Riggs, this book should be a wonderful addition to the series for fans of the Realms of Tresia. If you haven’t read the first three volumes in this series, now would be a good time to catch up. Book IV will be released in the fall of 2026. Learn more about the Tresia series and J.A.’s other books, the new YAB, and the new book here:
It has been a joy to be back home with family and friends. We’ve been in on family birthday parties, theater performances, a wedding, even a memorial service, plus just visits and meals with so many people who have meant so much to us over the years. We miss our NC adopted family and friends and we will be back to visit you and your mountains! We were able to take a trip to CO to celebrate Jeannie’s 70th Birthday. We also enjoyed a restful weekend on the Ohio River, a favorite vacation spot for many years. God always places us in the right place at the right time in every season to accomplish His purposes. This holiday time back home in KS will be very special to us being back with family and lots of kids! We are grateful for each one of you and are always happy to hear what God is doing in your lives. We wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas as you celebrate with your families the Goodness of God and the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. BLESSINGS, Dennis and Jeannie  We pray this beautiful spring season finds you well and thriving. We are excited to share our update since the last edition of the newsletter. Dennis had an enjoyable volleyball and basketball season as a referee, and Jeannie has been having fun mentoring three new “Warriors Writing.” These “kids” we work with keep us young! Jeannie also has an exciting announcement about her Tresia series. After considering adult age group options, she and Holy Spirit have decided that Book IV, for a young adult audience will be her new project. It is in the beginning stages! She is excited to get back to her fictional world of Tresia!  Recently, we were sad to have to finally let Stacie’s beloved “Sport” go. It had 262K miles and too many repair bills to continue driving her. We had so many memories, both trips with our precious daughter, and since it has been our “run around vehicle,” that it was kinda tough to see her towed away for the last time. But seasons change.
Next, we want to share a few verses with you that the Lord brought to our attention in recent months. They will help explain the title change of this newsletter. Mark 5:19, “Go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you.” Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To everything there is season, a time for every purpose under Heaven.” Job 5:9 (The Message) “God’s famous for great and unexpected acts; there’s no end to his surprises. God definitely surprised us, with His latest directive. We thought we would stay in NC until He comes again to take us Home. But He made it clear that it is time to go back to our roots in KS and spend those remaining years with family and dear friends we’ve known all our lives. We have perfect peace about the move and God has confirmed the decision in many ways already. We have always followed His peace in every move and season, but this one truly did surprise us…at first. However, now that we are mostly packed up and only a week and a half away from putting Macs MountainView on the market, we see His Hand and Voice guiding and directing us all along the way. So, our new home will be Macs MeadowView! We will miss the mountains, but look forward to the vast KS sunrises, sunsets and golden rolling flint hills. Until this property in NC sells, we will be staying with a close friend, (pics are from his backyard!) But we are looking for our own “MeadowView” to re-establish our Kansas Ruby Cottage and Macs Music. (If we build again, someone besides Dennis will do the building, although he may choose to help with some fun stuff!) Our assignments of writing books and songs has not changed—just the location where we will continue to accomplish them. Please pray with us for God’s timing on selling and buying (or building again.) We both tend to want to get things settled on our time schedule, but we are both determined to wait until God shows us exactly where He has already planned for us to be. And what a BLESSING to not have any pressure to move quickly because we have a wonderful place to stay with our friend John, until that time comes! Jeannie’s website will remain the same, as well as our cell phone numbers and, for the time being, our email addresses. But note our new temporary mailing address below. Check the website Vision Page for current updates on what is happening with us. We are leaving behind our wonderful church family and many friends, but we will keep in touch! We want to thank everyone in North Carolina, Morganton, Hickory, Franklin, and Cherokee, who have made our 23 years here so enjoyable. We are happy for the memories, especially living close and singing with our precious daughter as the Macs. Her friends (our adopted family) have been such a BLESSING, as well as all the people who helped us navigate a new path after Stacie moved to Heaven. God is so good. He always gives us what we need at the time we need it. At this time we know we need to be with family and friends back home in KS, and we are looking forward to this new season that our amazing Father has planned for us. Thank you all for your prayers and for being part of our journey thus-far. We will see what God surprises us with next! Until further news in the Harvest/Holiday Edition… All our love and prayers, Dennis and Jeannie P.O. Box 186 Silver Lake, KS 66539  Dear family and friends, We have had a wonderful year here at Macs MountainView in NC. We’ve enjoyed our first year in Ruby Cottage and Macs Music. But instead of our usual update on us, we decided to share an article that Jeannie wrote many years ago. We hope you enjoy this timeless story filled with memories of special holiday times. Have a very BLESSED Thanksgiving and Christmas season! Love and prayers, Dennis and JA (Christmas photo from a couple years ago)  Holiday Cardboard Memories It sounds strange, but when I think about childhood holiday time, many of my memories started out as just plain old everyday cardboard. But in that magic time of year, ordinary cardboard was transformed into a colorful cornucopia centerpiece, full of perfect fruits and vegetables that looked good enough to eat. Fold pieces of cardboard in half, have the cousins write names on them and add a sticker, and they became handmade personal place cards, which sat atop each sparkling plate that surrounded the family table. Cardboard turkey cutouts hung on the front and back door windows, greeting visiting neighbors and Thanksgiving Day guests. The next day, the turkeys on the windows were replaced with grinning cardboard Santas. Cardboard bells hung in the doorway, silently ringing in the season. Homemade cardboard ornaments, each with their own special memory, were lovingly hung on the Christmas tree every year. Underneath the tree lay cardboard boxes of every size and shape, wrapped in bright paper, ribbons and bows, waiting to be opened. The cardboard fireplace burned bright with it's flaming logs and painted red bricks. On the cardboard mantle sat a whole cardboard Christmas Village, each little town building placed side by side over the cotton-snow. A tin foil ice rink held little cardboard skaters and a cardboard sleigh was suspended between the housetops, paper reindeer hooves resting on cardboard chimneys. But my favorite was the little cardboard church that got assembled every December 1st. The steeple held 25 little cardboard gifts and every morning during the month, my brother and I would take turns opening one of the gifts. Each little package held a piece of the Nativity; the shepherds, the animals, the wisemen and the Holy family. Number 25 was opened on Christmas morning, and the precious baby Jesus was always in that very last gift box. That ordinary cardboard box held the reason we celebrate Christmas. God still used the old, ordinary "cardboard" in our lives by transforming it into some of His very greatest gifts. Over 2000 years ago, God used the ordinary of this world to bring us a Savior. Jesus is His greatest gift of all. It's all there in the book of Luke, chapter 2. Read the Story. -Jeannie
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Archives
November 2025
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BooksKingdom Corner Connection
Tresia Book III -- A Perfectly Magnificent Cane (Includes short allegory, A Glimpse, The Truly Excellent Scepter) Tresia Book II -- A Quite Extraordinary Umbrella Tresia Book I -- A Most Remarkable Hat I Will Not Fear A Chosen Life Dawn of Day |
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