Janet's Blog

How do you get rid of several old shrubbery stumps, still taking up valuable space in an otherwise attractive flowerbed, after the bushes themselves have been gone for many years? In times like these, it might be nice to have a small tractor. Then, we could attach a length of chain around a stump, and simply pull it out with the tractor. We don't have a tractor of any size. And even if we did, I don't believe it would be able to maneuver around our two, rather large, pine trees on the south side of our house. Those old stumps have bugged me for several years now. Earlier this week, after we received several inches of rain, I hoped that the rain-softened dirt would aid in my attempt to get rid of those offending stumps. I suppose it was wishful thinking that made me hope that the roots had disintegrated sufficiently so I could just dig them out. I was right about one thing. The dirt was easy to dig. And, after grubbing out several inches of moist dirt from all around the...

We don't have many warm rains here, in western Nebraska. Most summer rains are accompanied by thunder and lightning, and gusty wind, and a sudden drop in temperature. Our spring and fall rains are usually frigid, like yesterday's rain. Here, we usually wait out the rain, because we know that the sun's rays will soon warm us up again. But, I remember other times and places, where the rain was almost as warm as my morning shower. Sometimes, I find myself longing for an all-day summer rain, like those gentle rains I experienced in Traverse City. When it rained there, I simply donned a brightly colored rain poncho, and worked in the garden as usual. The afternoon rain in Jamaica is heavenly; it pounds down briefly, nearly every day, just long enough to remove some of the heavy humidity from the air. Then, the clouds melt away within a few minutes so we can go about our business. Meagan and Erin still talk about the time we stayed in the pool, gasping for breath while the wa...

When we lived in Norfolk in the early 1960's, Aunt Tilly and Uncle Elmer lived across town in a white bungalow. Aunt Tilly was my Grandma Wegner's older sister--one of several, much older brothers and sisters. Grandma was the tag-along child in her family, the unexpected blessing that was so common, more than a century ago. Consequently, some of her sisters were grown and married before she was born. Sometimes, Mom would just set aside a morning for us to visit her old aunts. We visited Aunt Tilly regularly, and Aunt Frieda, too, another one of Grandma's sisters who lived in another part of town. But it seems to me that we spent a little more time with Aunt Tilly and Uncle Elmer because, once in a while, they babysat for Danny and me at their house, even overnight once or twice. If we happened to be there in the evening, we sat in their cozy front room so Uncle Elmer and Aunt Tilly could keep on watching their favorite wrestling program on the tiny black and white TV. M...

For the last couple of weeks, Levi has been telling everyone he sees that he is the world's only "vegeturkeyan." I think that word provides a good description of Levi--he has always been highly creative with language, and extremely limited with his palate. "Picky eater" doesn't even begin to describe his food choices. Other than some occasional chicken nuggets, and sometimes a McDonald's cheeseburger, turkey is the only real meat Levi will eat. Oh, he eats highly processed meats, like crisp bacon, hot dogs, Vienna sausages (those little mushy hot dogs that come in a can), and beef jerky. He loves beef jerky! But he says that none of those are really meat, and I am inclined to agree with him about that. Levi quit eating fish after we took him fishing for the first time. He loves to make himself a tuna sandwich, though. Please don't make the mistake of calling it a tuna fish sandwich, because I don't want him to stop eating tuna due to a ...

My niece, Lindsey, is celebrating another birthday this week and, as usual, I can't help thinking about that day, thirty-some years ago, when she joined the family. But the story really started several years earlier. Bill and I were married just a few months after his sister, JoAnn, married Bill Lathrop. I finished college in Nebraska before we moved to Michigan. JoAnn finished college after she was married, too, and she and Willy lived in Omaha for a few years before they moved to Gering. JoAnn and Willy found out that they were unable to have a baby naturally, so they decided to pursue adoption. Bill and I had decided to wait at least five years before having a baby, but when the time came, we also faced infertility issues. We looked into adoption, too, but when we found out that there was a seven year waiting list to adopt an infant in Michigan, we decided to seek the help of a fertility specialist instead. Bill and I both wanted a baby badly, but I can’t say that...