Janet's Blog

It was an exciting day when Dad brought the dinosaur home from the Sinclair station across the street. It was a bright green dinosaur, the kind you blow into to inflate. The gas station owner, who worked across the street from the Oxnard Hotel in Norfolk, had given it to Dad just for us! Back then, we didn't have too much stuff. Most of our toys, Dan's and Laura's, and mine, fit into one old, metal, brown trunk that we called the toy box. We had trikes, and then bikes, but they were kept outside. My treasured Barbie doll and the clothes Mom sewed for it at the front desk when she worked in the evenings, after we were asleep, were kept in a shoe box in the bedroom I shared with Dan. Most of our books were borrowed from the public library, although a few were purchased at school, for a quarter, from the Scholastic Book Club. We also had a full set of Collier's Encyclopedias, which Dan read from cover to cover before he finished grade school, and a well-loved, acc...

Every Christmas, beginning when I was a very little girl, my family had a brightly painted, plaster, nativity set sitting on top of the TV. At first, our set consisted of only Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus, lying in a manger. But each year, until I was out of grade school, Mom, Dan, and I, and Laura, when she finally entered the picture, would walk to the dime store, first in Norfolk, then in Fairbury, to buy one or two more pieces for our nativity set. I remember standing in front of Hested's display table, gazing at each possible addition to our set, and discussing which ones we should buy that year. The figurines didn't cost much, certainly less than a dollar apiece, but each one was still a significant purchase for our family. We added shepherds and sheep first. It was a banner year when we were able to afford the cardboard stable. The wise men and camels were added two pieces at a time. After we had all of the most essential characters, we added an angel, a cow and do...

As I was growing up, I never expected to be married before I turned twenty. Bill and I met In January of 1974, when I was a freshman at Concordia College, and he was working toward a degree in electronic engineering at Milford Tech. Ours was a whirlwind romance. By the end of January, we were spending every evening together, and talking on the phone daily. Bill's biggest concern then, besides passing his classes, was scraping together enough money to afford gas for his Camaro, so he could drive the twelve miles to Seward and back to Milford every day. We were engaged by May, and married in December. When we announced our engagement, my dad's first question was, "Where's the ring?" It was a logical question, I guess, even though we considered ourselves engaged without that enduring symbol of our approaching marriage. We looked at rings in Lincoln that summer, but we waited until we made a trip to Gering in August, for Bill's sister's wedding, t...

We are so blessed to have all of our children and grandchildren living close by. And, I must say, our family seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. We were pleased, but not really surprised, late last winter, when Erin called to let us know that Reed had proposed and they were planning to be married. The wedding, on November 4th, was a small, mostly family wedding, at an art gallery in Denver, with a string quartet consisting of cellos and guitars (!) that played tastefully appropriate Beetles music. The reception had a more traditional DJ, but Erin and Reed chose all of the music, because music is a big part of both of their lives. They are living in Cheyenne with their black Pugapoo, Bowie, for the time being, where Dr. Erin heads up the instrumental music department at Laramie County Community College. Reed commutes to Laramie, where he is a finance manager for a large group of orthopedic surgeons. Meagan and Andy's family is growing. It's hard to believe tha...

When I was born, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States. Even as a young child, I knew that he was the president, and I had a somewhat vague idea of his job description. I knew that he was worthy of my respect because all of the adults I knew spoke of him in a respectful way. Since then, ten more presidents have come and gone, and number 45 sits in the White House now. For the most part, I have respected our presidents, even when I haven't always agreed with all of their policies. Some presidents have done a better job than others, although U.S. citizens have not always concurred about which presidents were most effective. My whole life, though, I have believed strongly that our country is, indeed, led by a person we call the president. Even now, for better or worse, I believe that Donald Trump is the president of our country. I know what he looks like. I know about his policies. But, I don't know him personally and, quite frankly, as with most ...

I lost over two pounds in one week's time, without even trying. I highly recommend this effective weight loss method. I think I'll call it the Dental Work Diet. Now, I rarely diet, since I have been blessed with a fast metabolism. In fact, until I hit menopause, I had to work hard to maintain a reasonable, healthy weight. I must admit that I got mighty tired of hearing people accuse me of being anorexic, because I wasn't. Instead, I was a rare woman who could eat anything I wanted and still stay too thin , according to my mother and other assorted friends and relatives. My metabolism has apparently slowed down just a touch over the past several years. I've put on a few pounds, in mostly the right places, enough that the A word has not come up in quite a while. In fact, I wouldn't mind losing five pounds or so. And now, I have a head start with this new Dental Work Diet. There's only one catch. First you have to have some expensive dental surgery. In my cas...

This morning, when Levi first woke up, he asked me if he could watch a movie called Matilda . I didn't have to give it much thought. After he finished his Saturday morning chores, Levi found the movie on the free cable Pay-Per-View channel, and I let him watch the movie he had requested. Then, I sat in the family room and watched part of  Matilda  with him. Perhaps you remember the movie, which first came out in 1996, or even the book it is based on, a 1988 classic by one of my favorite children's authors, Roald Dahl. He also wrote eighteen other children's novels, like James and the Giant Peach , and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . Like many of his works, Matilda is a rather quirky tale about a child who is magically able to overcome a desperate situation, emerging in triumph at the end of the story. Today, National Adoption Day, was a perfect day to watch Matilda with Levi. Our youngest daughter, Victoria, was almost five when she joined our family t...

This is the time of year when I remember the hotel people, those permanent residents who considered my family to be their family. This time of year brings them to mind because my family usually included them in our fall wild game feeds, and even Thanksgiving dinner, when we stretched out two or three banquet tables, in our apartment living room, to accommodate everyone. While my family attended the Christmas Eve children's program at church, one or two of the old men usually played Santa, moving our presents from their hiding place in some storeroom or convenient hotel room, to our apartment, where they carefully placed the gifts under our Christmas tree. I was only five when we moved to the Oxnard Hotel in Norfolk. All of the permanent residents there were lonely, old men, mostly retired from their lifetime livelihoods. I was too shy to talk to them, but my brother, Dan, who knew no strangers, got to know them well. They got a kick out of his large vocabulary and willingness to ...

A black cat crossed my path today.  I spotted him on the edge of the street, standing at attention as my car approached. He stood up on all fours and slowly began to cross the street right in front of me. I stopped my car to let him pass, and he paused in the middle of the street to look directly at me, his piercing, green eyes gleaming in the morning sunlight. Then, he continued on his way to the other side of the street, in no hurry to reach his destination.    "Black Cat, Black Cat,    What do you see?" "I see a person looking at me." He was a young, fluffy cat, pure black, without even a speck of white fur, obviously clean and well-loved by somebody, even though he wasn't wearing a collar. In spite of the old traditions that insist it is bad luck to have a black cat cross your path, especially so close to Halloween, I don't expect to have any bad luck today. In fact, I was thrilled to see such a perfect, black cat with strikingly green eyes...

Sleep--who needs it? Sometimes, I wish I could do without it. Just think, if I didn't have to sleep, I could accomplish so much more in a 24-hour period of time. Without sleep, I would have plenty of time to clean the house, do the laundry, home-school Levi, try out a new recipe, even watch an occasional movie.  I would have time to paint more pictures and write more music. I could schedule extra quality time with the grandkids. Oh, the books I could read, and write!  Limitless energy would be quite a gift, wouldn't it? Yet God, in his wisdom, made us with a need for sleep. As we are reminded, in Psalm 127:2, In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.  "He grants sleep to those he loves." That's a little hard to grasp. It is challenging to think of sleep as a gift, when we are so enmeshed in useful activity. It's go-go-go, from dawn to midnight, as we rush from one diversion to another....

As I was driving home from Cheyenne the other day, it became obvious that we are entering the dreaded brown time of year. I don't like it! To me, a landscape that is devoid of any color, except brown, is just depressing. During the brown time, from the end of October until early March, I have to work harder to be content. I turn on more lights in the house. Levi helps me bake cookies. I curl up on the couch with a good book. I am thrilled when Bill brings me some flowers, but sometimes, just to brighten up the house, I even resort to picking up a colorful bouquet of mixed blooms from Walmart. Of course, there is Christmas, with all of its exhilarating sights, and good smells, and gorgeous decorations. For a few weeks, the brown time seems much brighter, as we get ready to celebrate Jesus' birth; Jesus always makes our lives better, if we let him. When Bill and I lived in Michigan, I learned to appreciate winter. There, we embraced the endless snowy days, going sleddin...

From the time my mother sang "Jesus Loves Me" and "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" at bedtime, when I was just a toddler, I've been singing along--quietly, because I didn't want my singing to be noticed. My kindergarten teacher, Miss Steele, lined us up in three rows for music, with the best singers in the front, the so-so singers in the middle row, and the monotones and shouters, and the nearly silent singers, in the back row. I was in the back, of course, because I didn't want anyone to hear me sing. But one day, Miss Steele asked me to come and stand beside her in front of the class, where she put her arm around me and encouraged me to sing some little ditty along with her. I must have been able to carry a tune to her satisfaction because, after that, I got to stand in the front row for music. I was so proud that I ran all the way home after school to tell Mom I got moved to the front row! As a child, I always sang my heart out for our church Chris...

Certain people in my family have definite OCD tendencies. None of them have specific OCD diagnoses, but I suspect we could find a doctor somewhere who would support my unscientific determination. I assume you know what those initials stand for: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is defined by the International OCD Foundation as "a mental disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, ideas, sensations (obsessions), and behaviors that drive them to do something over and over (compulsions). Often, the person carries out the behaviors to get rid of the obsessive thoughts. " When one family member persistently rearranges the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, I accuse him of OCD. Another family member exasperates me when he repeatedly closes appliance doors that shouldn't be shut tightly, like the dishwasher and washing machine that may develop mold and mildew problems when their doors remain closed at all times. It's funny, though, that he leav...

It was the first official day of fall when Levi and I headed to the ranch, up on the South Dakota state line, near Gordon. My family has been congregating there to hunt and vacation since long before I was born. Most people would think the ranch is in the middle of nowhere, and they would be mostly right.  Click here to read more about the ranch. This time, Levi and I were on our way to see my Mom and Dad, Uncle Gary, and my sister, Laura, and her husband, Kent, who had come to cut firewood and get the place ready for the fall hunting season in November, when many of the family's hunters will return to hunt the mule deer that are so plentiful on the ranch. It didn't matter that the weekend was predicted to be a rainy one, but the amount of rain mattered, so I checked the unpaved roads carefully to see how much gravel was on them, just in case it rained a lot. I didn't want to get stuck when it was time to drive home! We arrived just as the sun was setting, although ...