Janet's Blog

It was probably a year ago when Bill brought me a free Fitbit that he picked up at a convention. A Fitbit is an exercise tracker, in bracelet form, that works with your computer to keep track of the number of steps walked in a day, how much sleep you get, how long you exercise, and how many calories you burn. Some models of the Fitbit do even more, but mine, as a freebie, is the most basic "Flex" model. My new Fitbit sat in its box, on my nightstand, for several months before I asked Bill to help me set it up. (He reads fine print better than I do.) I had already been using the built-in health app on my phone to keep track of my steps, but it was only useful to let me know how far I went when I was purposefully walking for exercise, since I don't typically carry my phone around at home. Someone has arbitrarily decided that 10,000 steps a day is a good goal for most healthy people. I don't know how many steps I accumulated when I was teaching preschool, but I suspe...

Today, on the day traditionally known as Maundy Thursday, I finally learned the true meaning behind the day's label. I am surprised to learn that  "Maundy" means "commandment." The word “Maundy” was originally an Anglo-French word derived from the Latin “mandatum,” which translates as “commandment.” After Jesus washed his disciples' feet on that eventful evening, he gave them a simple, new commandment to "Love one another. As I have loved  you, so you must love one another." (John 13:34) When I googled the word just now, I found that the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines "Maundy" as "a ceremony of washing the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday." I suppose that the meaning has changed over the years to reflect popular practices, although I've never been present for a foot-washing ceremony on the Thursday before Easter. All these years, as I've celebrated Communion with my church family every Maundy Thursday, I'v...

My house has an extended hallway leading from the kitchen to the master bedroom on the right, and to the family room on the left. There is also a small guest bath off that hallway, and the door leading to the backyard is at the end of the hall, right next to the closet where we store the vacuum. For lack of a better spot to put it, Jackson's kennel is right by the back door, along with the cat's food and water dishes, and the necessary litter box. For years, it was just a long, boring hallway, with six doors leading to various places in and around the house. It didn't really matter, I suppose, because the hallway is mostly used by family, and an occasional guest in need of the bathroom. In recent years, though, the hallway has turned into the Bauer Hall of Fame. Long before we moved into this house, I remember visiting a home with a similar hallway, lined with generations of family pictures. It was so much fun to look at the pictures, old and new, to see who looked like...