Janet's Blog

A light saber has become the marvelous weapon of choice for the younger generations in my family. This relatively harmless, Star Wars-inspired toy has everything: bright colors, buttons to push, realistic sounds, and bright lights. Levi and Tobin love to compare their light sabers; they engage in make-believe battles almost every time they get together. I've been told that Tobin and Andy spar with each other often, too, most recently outdoors, by the light of the blood-red full moon. How exciting for a three-year-old and his dad! Light Sabers Others in my family have used more dangerous weapons (real ones!) when they hunt for ducks, pheasants, or deer. My dad, most of my uncles, and at least one aunt, as well as various cousins and a nephew, all are proficient marksmen. Their weapons of choice include all kinds of shotguns, rifles, and handguns. It is important for them to choose the right weapon for the particular type of game they are hunting; shotguns work best for sm...

Paint is a wonderful invention!  Just think about it.  With a little paint, you can transform dingy, dirty walls into pristine and stylish backdrops.  With minimal sanding and a couple of coats of paint, outdated furniture becomes new again. Fresh paint transforms old windows into new ones, or so it seems.  Brightly colored paint gives well-used doors a more welcoming face.  Old houses regain their youth when someone takes the time and effort needed to apply a fresh coat of paint.  Paint can cover up a "multitude of sins." Best of all, paint is relatively cheap, and easy to use.  Most do-it-yourself-ers can afford to buy paint, and they can apply it themselves with little or no training. New furniture may cost hundreds of dollars; a new house, hundreds of thousands of dollars.  In the whole scheme of things, then, what is a can of paint?  Liquid gold? In case you haven't guessed it yet, we have been painting.   In the past eight m...

Meagan was eight when we moved from our tiny, two-bedroom house to our current, much larger home.  She was so excited to choose her own second-floor bedroom, the long and narrow, pale pink room.  Meagan loved that room, and was perfectly content with it, until three years later when she started sixth grade. That's when she learned that her teacher, Mrs. Bahl, had grown up in this house, in that very room.  And, what's more, Mrs. Bahl and her sister had chosen that pale pink color for the walls. That's all that Meagan needed to hear.  As soon as she got home from school that day, she insisted that we needed to redecorate her room. So, a few weeks later, we bought two new comforters for her bunk beds, and decided to sponge-paint a matching color scheme on the walls.  First, we painted the walls white, cutting in carefully around the three windows and three doors with a paintbrush, then using a roller to complete the job.  Next, we used a narrow roller to pa...

In fourteen-hundred-and-ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. I remember learning that ditty way back when I was in early elementary school. Back then, Columbus Day was observed on October 12 every year, even if it wasn't on a Monday.  In first grade, we celebrated by crafting the explorer's three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, out of halved walnut shells.  Each student got to make three ships!  (It was a big deal....)  I remember choosing the biggest walnut shell I could find to be the Santa Maria, because that flagship, captained by Christopher Columbus himself, was known to be bigger than the other two.  Then, I pressed a marble-sized ball of gray, oil-based clay into the bottom of each shell-boat, and stuck a toothpick in for the mast.  I must have used old-fashioned paste to attach one rectangular paper sail to each mast.  I think we got to float our ships in a small tub of water in our classroom before taking them hom...

My Grandma and Grandpa named him Leland, the first of three sons whose names started with the letter "L."  Most people called him Lee.  I called him my uncle. He had lived on borrowed time for years, or so it seemed.  In spite of several chronic health issues, and one serious fall from the top of a t-a-l-l ladder, he apparently took lessons from the Energizer Bunny, or maybe a Timex watch. He certainly "took a licking and kept on ticking." And, Uncle Lee lived his life to the fullest.  Married to Rose for 61 years, he was a father to five, grandfather, and even great-grandfather, to quite a few more. He had been a teacher; I'm sure that he was a good one.  He also worked as a principal, a pastoral assistant, a grocer, a house painter, and an investment representative.  He was a community leader, a cub scout leader, a leader in his church.  He kept a stack of good, clean joke books in his living room, so he would always be ready to speak to a group ...