Janet's Blog

To begin with, let me just say that Mr. Hill was one of the two or three teachers at Fairbury High School who scared me. The main reason I was scared of him was because he liked to put students on the spot, suddenly, without warning. I was still pretty shy at that point, so I was worried that I would be his next victim. For the most part, my concerns were unfounded, but it took decades until I was able to say that Mr. Hill was one of the best teachers I ever had. The building we called Fairbury High School still exists, living on as an upscale apartment building. Mr. Hill's class met in the southwest corner room on the third floor, on the far right side of this photo. Mr. Hill taught Senior Honors English. Students were assigned to his class based on grades and recommendations from other teachers. I knew most of my classmates quite well, since we had taken numerous other classes together since Junior High. Most of my best friends were in the same class, so that fact alone helped ca...

I walk two or three miles nearly every day, as long as the temperature is above 20 degrees and the wind isn't blowing a gale. That means I haven't been able to walk outside much in the last week, due to the frigid temperatures and sometimes ferocious wind. But yesterday, the freezing weather moved on, and the west breeze was tolerable, so I pulled on my down jacket and mid-calf snow boots and ventured out into the sunshine. Our eight inches of snow was rapidly melting into mounds of slush and widening puddles in the streets and on the sidewalks that homeowners hadn't bothered to shovel. It was the first time I had walked outside in several days, so I enjoyed the sunny afternoon, even when I had to make my way gingerly across the sloppy streets and expanses of un-scooped walks.  Walking outdoors in God's beautiful creation is so much better than walking laps indoors or using my strider in the basement. I was almost home when I came to a corner that seemed impassable. A c...

Sulley is not yet two years old, but he has already perfected the art of manipulation. I don't know if I would have been so willing to adopt a male, orange cat if I had realized that they are reported to be the feistiest types of cats that people can choose to keep as pets. Some people like feisty, but I prefer cats that are mild mannered and relatively unopinionated. Sulley was a Stobel kitten, one of many that have been hand-raised by my grandchildren. Sulley's parents and grandparents were all excellent mousers who have done an amazing job of keeping the voles at bay. That's why Meagan and Andy are willing to raise cats; they definitely prefer cats to rodents. Ari with Sulley, when Sulley was still a kitten Before he moved to our house in town, Sulley himself was an outdoor cat whose only secure shelter was in the garage. I'm sure his mama taught him how to catch mice and voles as soon as he was weaned. The funny thing is that Sulley hasn't wanted to set foot out...

Have you noticed the widening chasm between different branches of Christianity in the US? And, if you've noticed, do you even care? I know and love family members and other Christians on both sides of the growing rift between Christian groups. It hurts to be caught in the middle, to hear the hostile, bitter, and sometimes gloating words that are tossed back and forth so thoughtlessly. Now--especially now, when times are hard for so many people--why won't Christians try to get along? Historically, an Evangelical church includes any of the classical Protestant churches, or their offshoots, that have stressed the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Since the late 20th century, though, the term  evangelical  has come to mean those churches that not only preach the gospel and actively reach out to share the Good News of Jesus with the people in their communities and throughout the world, but who also insist that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and that each person can k...