Janet's Blog

  It's tulip time! It's arguably my favorite time of year, when the weather starts to warm up--at least sometimes. The grass turns green and the spring flowers begin to show off their magical colors and alluring aromas. The birds are beginning to sing again. Finally, after months of freezing temperatures and monochrome landscapes, God is showing us again, right on schedule, that he has the power to awaken the slumbering earth and bring forth new life.  I remember the first time I ever noticed the tulips on the farm, when I was about three years old. Mom had planted spring bulbs along the house yard fence. When the flowers began to bloom, she made sure I knew their names. I loved the yellow daffodils, which were the first to bloom, but the red and yellow tulips were absolutely gorgeous! That particular combination of tulips is still my favorite.   I've had some tulips in my front flower bed, right next to the house, for many years. They usually bloom beautifully, although I&

I can hardly believe that this is Blog #500! When I wrote my first blog, more than 13 years ago, I didn't really think about how long I would keep writing blogs, and I certainly never expected to write so many. In fact, I would have never written the first one if I hadn't attended an informative session at our annual winter teachers' in-service training, where the presenter walked us through the process, step by step, so each person in attendance was able to start a blog of their own.  I signed up for that session because I had heard a little about blogs, and I was curious to see if I could use a blog as a communication tool for the parents of my preschoolers. At that time, though, I discovered that our school district would not allow its teachers to use the new technology in that way, so I decided to write a personal blog instead. I was exhausted when I got home after a grueling day of sessions, but I sat down at my computer after supper anyway, and began to write my first

We don't often stop to think about the light that brightens our days. We take it for granted, expecting it as our right. After all, the sun comes up each morning and gives light even on the cloudiest of days. The moon shines clearly from many nighttime skies, and the stars twinkle brightly even when the moon is absent. And on those dark, cloudy nights, we still have street lights and headlights outside, and plenty of electric lights in our homes and businesses.  I woke up suddenly around 3:00 a.m. yesterday. The stillness was startling; even with the wind rattling the windows, I was aware of the complete absence of normal inside, background murmurings. The darkness was all-encompassing--no night lights glowing, no street lights casting their faint light through our shaded windows. When I picked up my phone to check the time, it lit up immediately, providing the comforting light we've all come to expect. That's when I realized that we were in the midst of a power outage. I r

I was a diligent student, but not an exceptional one, when I was in the fifth and sixth grades at Central School. I was a good speller, but not good enough to qualify for the county spelling bee. All of the fifth and sixth graders took a spelling test in our classrooms to determine who would represent each of the six classes, and I was not the best one in my class in either fifth or sixth grade. However, I was the alternate in my sixth grade class, and the best speller’s family decided to take a vacation that spring, right at the time of the county spelling bee, so I got to go after all. My teacher gave me a book that contained lists of spelling words for me to practice. There were so many lists! I didn’t study too hard until the morning of the event, which began a little later than school started, giving me some extra time to prepare, but I didn’t have time to study all of the lists in that intimidating book. I dressed carefully in last year’s light green and pink Easter Dress, since

It was 51 years ago, in March of 1973, when Mom and Dad opened the Stable. They had managed the Hotel Mary-Etta, located just a half block north of the Stable, for nine years. The Mary-Etta was a thriving business, but Mom and Dad did not own the building, and the landlord did not want to put any money into it for any remodeling or other upgrades. Additionally, Mom and Dad were just spread too thin, managing dozens of employees, and running the hotel business (with both overnight guests and permanent renters who lived in apartments or single rooms), the cafe and tavern, the on-site major events and weekly service club meetings, and catered off-site events. So, sometime around 1970, Dad bought the building that eventually became the Stable. It was a sound brick building, divided into two separate business sites by a solid brick wall, and littered with the remains of an old bar on one side, and various trash on the other side. My brother, Dan, who was a young teen at the time, was electe

Lately, when people ask me what I do all day, I am somewhat embarrassed to give an answer because, some days, it seems like all I do is self care. I often long for those mornings, long ago, when I could hop out of bed, throw on some clothes, eat a leisurely breakfast, brush my teeth, and head out the door for school, all in half an hour. Those days are long gone. Now, I wake up at a reasonable time in the morning, but I often find myself adjusting the bed to a comfortable reading position and turning on the built-in massage feature while I catch up on some reading and play a game or two on my phone. Realistically, I'm just putting off that inevitable morning routine that seems to take forever these days but, in reality, takes me 30-40 minutes in the bathroom before I can even think about sitting down for breakfast. (And, if I take a shower, that adds even more time, because those long, hot showers soothe my aching joints.) Getting dressed is the easy part, although I fumble around

February 29, 2024--it's Leap Day again! At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all, I’ll just mention  that a leap year is a year containing one additional day in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the seasons. But you knew that, of course. This leap year, since there isn’t much new information to share about it, I’m going to revise and recycle a couple of blogs I’ve written four, and even twelve, years ago.  You probably know that the astronomical events that cause our seasons don't happen in a  precise whole number of days, so a calendar that had the same number of days every year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. Early astronomers wanted the spring equinox to stay as close as possible to March 21st each year, so the concept of a leap day (or month, in some calendars) was proposed and instituted.   It's amazing to think that functional calendars, including leap days, or even leap months, have been used for more than

Be kind to each other,  tenderhearted,  forgiving one another,  just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32 I've noticed a fairly new trend on social media. According to popular wisdom, when someone close to you offends you in any way, the most accepted reaction seems to be to go "no contact." In other words, stop speaking to them immediately, and shut them out of your life completely and permanently.  Now, I agree that there might be a time and place where this would be appropriate. If your life is in danger, or if associating with a particular person or group of people might lead you to participate in risky or even illegal behavior, then it is probably best for you to limit your time with them.  The Bible says that there are some people that we should just not associate with because of their sinfulness:  But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abu

I was reading an article the other day about a mom in England who let her young daughter ride her horse to school one morning. The mom rode along, too, on her own horse, and led her daughter's pony home afterwards. The main issue with this was the fact that the school children all gathered around the pony, just outside the school gates, to pet the horses. When one entitled eight-year-old insisted that she wanted to ride the other girl's pony, the horses' owner let her know that it wouldn't be safe for her to do that, since she had no helmet or prior experience. Upon hearing that response, the girl's equally entitled mother pitched a fit, insisting that her daughter be allowed to ride and, when that failed, she complained to the school authorities that horses should not be ridden to school unless everyone (especially her darling daughter) was also allowed to ride. I guess that riding horses to school has become a novelty. I've ridden horses since before I could w

I didn't plan on spending the first part of 2024 with Covid. I've had a few goals in mind for the New Year, but this kind of illness wasn't really on my radar. Aren't we all supposed to be past this by now? Regardless, this particular Bible verse, from Proverbs 19:21, has been on my mind these last few days: You can make many plans, but the Lord's purpose will prevail.    Isn't that the truth? Or, as Scottish poet, Robert Burns, wrote way back in 1785 in his poem, "To a Mouse," The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.  No matter how carefully we prepare for a particular project, something may go wrong with it, or things may go even better than we had hoped. We can make all the plans we want, but only God knows whether we will prosper or struggle, live or die.  I'm feeling a bit healthier now, and my Covid test was finally negative this morning, so the end seems to be in sight. I rarely make New Year's resolutions, but my forced quar