Janet's Blog

It was probably April when my daughter, Meagan, asked if I would be willing to help Evie edit and publish her book. Until that moment, I wasn't aware that 11-year-old Evelyn was writing a book, but I agreed to help her, just the same. All of Meagan and Andy's kids are homeschooled, and the four oldest kids are pretty good writers, hand-writing letters to various friends and relatives at least once a week in recent years. The best way to learn to write is just to do it often. So, Evie brought her Chromebook to my house at least once a week for the next few weeks. I sat next to her as we read her story together, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter. I soon learned that Evie really knows how to tell a story! Her story was a riveting adventure tale that left me wondering what would happen next. Evie had decided, at the outset, to name and model some of her characters after her siblings and other friends and relatives. That makes the book extra special fo...

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 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...

These Kids Are Driving Me Crazy is a book for adults who work with kids with neurodivergence or mental health issues. It is currently available on Amazon in Kindle ebook format as well as paperback. I started the book several years ago, soon after I officially retired from teaching. However, as long as I was homeschooling my son, Levi, I didn't have time to  concentrate on writing this book. It was much simpler to publish my first children's book,  Grandma Whatcha Doing? , which is also  available on Amazon. I decided that the Covid-impacted winter would be a good time to buckle down and finish writing the book I abbreviate as  Crazy! --as in   "the thought of actually finishing this book is driving me crazy!" When my church invited me to participate in a book signing earlier, I was motivated to have this book ready, too.      Life is all about building relationships, but that can be hard to do in a school or extracurricular setting, or even at ...

I was seventeen or eighteen when our traveling ministry group sang at a nursing home in Oklahoma or Minnesota, or some other state on one of our three-week-long journeys. I remember seeing a sign that stated "Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life." Another popular sign urged the residents, and perhaps the staff, as well, to "Bloom Where You are Planted." Our Traveling Ministry group, Wheels of Faith . Pictures like this make me grateful for recent, digital photography. I don't know why I hated those signs, and their implied meanings. They make perfect sense now. But then, I probably thought they didn't really apply to me, since I was sure I had my whole life ahead of me. Perhaps it seemed like it was asking too much for nursing home residents to do anything meaningful with the remainder of their lives. Or, maybe, the signs just seemed like clichés, even then, when the sayings were new. Now, I know differently. I've had an active ...

My first book,  Grandma, Whatcha Doing?,  was published by Covenant Books on September 25, 2019. For a long time, I've had the idea, in the back of my head, that I need to write children's books. This book came about one summer afternoon, as I was outside, working in the yard, thinking about what my grandkids would like to do with me as I worked. One thing led to another, and pretty soon I had a whole summer story in mind. Then, when I went inside, I sat down at the kitchen table to cool off with a refreshing root beer float, before picking up my guitar and turning the story into a song. Over the next several days, I began to think about the things my grandchildren like to do with me during the other seasons, and before I knew it, I had written a whole book, set to music, encompassing all four seasons. Then, I added the lyrics/story to the notebook of songs I've written, where it sat for a few years, just waiting until the time was right for...well, I wasn...

I am feeling discouraged about my blog. If you are one of the few people reading my blog lately, you may have noticed that I'm not writing as often as usual, certainly not once a week, as I have intended. I just can't get excited about writing since my readership has declined so drastically since October. I can attribute this sudden decline to a couple of things. First of all, Facebook has changed its algorithms again and, this time, it affected my blog immediately, and not for the better. Secondly, Google is dropping Google +, which also directly affects the number of people who read my blog. I know I am not the only person who is grieving the changes that have been happening on Facebook. For me, and for many others in my extended family, Facebook originally provided a simple, suitable way to communicate when our family was enduring some challenging times. Later, I was pleased to be able to spend a few minutes each day catching up with old friends, and getting to know some...