Janet's Blog

I made the 400 mile drive from Fairbury on Thursday without incident, my trusty iphone plugged in, providing the GPS guidance I needed to stay on track. But then, after I arrived back home that evening, my cell phone abruptly stopped working. As I plugged it in to recharge it, it suddenly got stuck in a loop, cycling between the white screen with the apple in the middle, and a black screen. Eventually, it just settled on the white screen. I've been told it's a common problem with iphones. So now I'm singing the no-cell-phone blues. For such a little thing, my phone certainly occupies a lot of my time. Like most people, I use it for so many things besides just talk and text: it's my alarm clock and ever-ready camera, my GPS, weather forecaster, reference guide, phonebook, and cookbook, my source for daily news and social media. I use the Gateway Bible app every day. In fact, since my eye surgeries, I find I can avoid a significant amount of eyestrain when I read almost e...

We like to think that we are civilized people, here in the US in the 21st century. For the most part, we have been living busy, predictable lives. We work hard, and we play harder. Until just a few months ago, every minute of nearly every day has been scheduled, and we have been stressed by our ceaseless and, in our opinion, decidedly worthwhile activities. Now, our stress is caused by something different: the uncertainty of these unexpected, unparalleled times. So many things have changed in just a short time: our job and school situations, our limited ability to travel or gather freely, our inability to seek services and products we once took for granted, and our sense of freedom and personal safety. Was it really only four months ago that our biggest concerns revolved around our families' activities and favorite sports teams?  Now, we have been coerced to stay close to home and cooperate with new rules that have been totally foreign for most of us, until now. We don't like t...

It was just after Christmas when I decided, seemingly on a whim, to order myself The One Year Bible from Amazon. Since I wanted large print, I had only two choices of versions. I certainly didn't want the King James Version, so I settled, somewhat reluctantly, on the New Living Translation. I was excited to start reading as soon as we returned from our after-Christmas trip to Fairbury, so I was only a day late getting started. For those of you who are unfamiliar with The One Year Bible , it is the entire Bible broken down into daily readings, one each from the Old Testament and the New Testament, as well as a daily segment from the Psalms and a verse or two from Proverbs. I've read the entire New Testament several times before, sometimes in one sitting, and I read the Old Testament all the way through when I was taking Bible classes in college, but I have never before used this format, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I have found the NLT to be exceedingly readable...