tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-173565802024-03-13T06:16:36.587-04:00IndianaJane'sJournalLife, culture, theology, & politics through the eyes of a midwestern mom....Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.comBlogger940125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-3599567046176806442022-03-02T11:34:00.000-05:002022-03-02T11:34:32.140-05:00Funerals, again A few years ago I wrote a post about funerals that is one of my personal favorites. I also got a lot of positive feedback about it at the time.I was thinking about it on Monday when we had our first funeral at church since early 2019. We have only had two members die since then, one in late 2019 and one late last year. One opted for a funeral home funeral and the other had a private family Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-59940181414320797812017-01-06T14:01:00.000-05:002017-01-06T14:03:09.705-05:00Dinner's in the mailThe bad timing of our first Hello Fresh delivery was not their fault. Who would have known almost a month ago when I scheduled it that there would be seven people in the house, instead of the two that I ordered meals for, and that five of them would be throwing up?
There are currently a number of companies offering delivery of ingredients and instructions for meals. They offer a variety of Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-9629356126239002112017-01-01T18:26:00.000-05:002017-01-01T18:27:00.264-05:00Joining the bullet (journal) trainSeveral months ago my daughter started talking abut her bullet journal. I did some cursory investigating and decided it was not for me.
Since then, I've seen more people talking about it. I've read blogs beyond the bullet journal basics that I originally saw. I've come to the conclusion that the flexibility of it may be exactly what I need, and what is always lacking in the planners I buy.Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-67073129681509979222016-08-31T12:34:00.000-04:002016-08-31T12:44:37.322-04:00A little change of plansLast night I had an almost completely sleepless night of worry about the when, how, and how much of the kitchen project.
I was worried about how busy our fall is and how we weren't going to have time to get things done.
I was worried about how the timing of everything was going to make our vacation stressful, make my fall scrapbooking retreats stressful, make everything stressful.
I was Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14331696366301727996noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-54866152537720078032016-08-29T22:38:00.000-04:002016-08-29T22:38:14.259-04:00There is some good news
I have my floor. It's in a pile of boxes on my front porch, but I have it.
That's especially exciting because when we were ready to purchase, I discovered that it had been discontinued. A few cartons were available spread over a 100 mile radius. I was picturing a couple of days of driving from store to store buying 1-3 cartons at a time.
Then I remembered that the husband Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-51165466996021605022016-08-28T20:36:00.000-04:002016-08-28T20:36:07.093-04:00One step forward, four steps backAs I promised, this kitchen thing isn't going to be quick.
After getting cabinet prices from a local family-owned place, I decided to compare what the big-box stores had to offer. Sticker shock, mainly.
Our kitchen presents some challenges. It is small. The measurements are such that the most standard cabinet sizes don't fit without leaving more space than we ideally want to leave. We are Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-12889012007587885242016-08-16T08:13:00.000-04:002016-08-16T08:13:48.390-04:00It has begunMy long-awaited kitchen remodel is not going to be quick. It is going to happen in small increments interspersed with bursts of activity.
This happened Sunday:
There are actually two more like it now.
We can see the original plaster ceiling above the lower ceiling that was put in in the late 1940s. We can see the water damage that happened in one corner of that ceiling sometime in the last Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-56418517498991262672016-05-13T16:45:00.000-04:002016-05-13T16:45:00.135-04:00Hanging on
The photo above is of a couple of paragraphs from Unstuffed by Ruth Soukup. If you have trouble with clutter or organization, you may find her books helpful. I have. And her website is packed with money-saving ideas.
These paragraphs have been so helpful to me, and I keep returning to them to remind myself that getting rid of things isn't getting rid of my memories of the person who they Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-67202555357814135032016-05-10T08:08:00.001-04:002016-05-10T08:14:06.427-04:00Funerals: The good stuffWe have had a lot of funerals at church in the past eighteen months. We've had three since Easter, with one more coming soon. So many of our dear saints who lived full, active lives into their 80s and 90s have left us, and it has left a hole.
I am in charge of the funeral dinners at church, but I have always gone to the funerals anyway. In our earlier years at Redeemer, I went to most of them Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-87740496085920666592016-05-08T20:43:00.000-04:002016-05-08T21:23:07.101-04:00Things you never saw being a part of your lifeSometimes life takes us in directions we didn't expect to go. Definitely the most profound and life-changing of those for me was getting married at 20 and having my first child at 21. I wasn't planning on kids. Certainly not at 21. And definitely not many!
And no way was I going to be a stay-at-home mom.
Well, things changed. Four kids. HOMESCHOOLING stay-at-home- mom. And the only changes I Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-24545086153238989902016-05-07T08:35:00.000-04:002016-05-07T08:35:30.615-04:00Taking controlThe realization came to me slowly over the last couple of months; I've been just letting life happen. I had totally lost control of everything: my house, the way that I was eating, my activity level, but especially the way that I was spending my time.
I was a wreck. Physically mentally and emotionally. I was spending hours each night binge-watching crap TV shows on Netflix, instead of just the Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-58540938762711507872016-02-23T13:38:00.000-05:002016-02-23T13:38:18.163-05:00Forty albumsSo, one of my Facebook friends posted this earlier today, and I couldn't get it out of my mind. So I decided to take the time to jot these down now, partially because I want to look at other people's lists, without influencing mine.
"Here are the rules: List 12 albums that have stayed with you (okay, so I went with 40, ‘cause that’s just how I rock ‘n’ roll), but only one album per artist. Don'tJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-62055494120487192122015-09-10T17:43:00.000-04:002015-09-10T17:43:20.875-04:00Trying to regain lost groundI have always been in decent shape. I've never been a great athlete, but I've always been relatively strong, have had good stamina, and worked hard to stay flexible. And I've always enjoyed moving, whether walking, playing tennis, swimming, or dancing.
But the last few years have really taken their toll. I was rear-ended at a low speed, which really fired up my existing neck problems. Then I Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-26481001857045558102015-07-20T20:39:00.003-04:002018-06-17T08:21:31.586-04:00The measure of a life
Teaching me to tie a tie. 1983
So. I lost my step-dad last Friday.
People who don't know me or our family well assume that means that my mom's husband, who was not my father, died and that while I'm sad, it's not--as someone said to me--my father that died.
No. It's not. It's far, far worse.
I know this, because 11 years ago my father, the man who was biologically responsible for my life, Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-62972812853859408532015-06-08T22:46:00.000-04:002015-06-08T22:46:53.828-04:00Caught by surpriseSo, last month this happened.
And this happened.
Those are my first and second sons, with their brides.
In the space of less than a month we went from a household of five on the weekends and four during the week (with a friend of the family often upping that to five) to a household of three on the weekends and two during the week.
Just four years ago we were a full-time family of six.
I amJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-31818265060866711632014-11-28T09:10:00.000-05:002014-11-28T09:12:29.828-05:00Family and thankfulness
I have a pretty big, pretty crazy family.
For the first 22 years of my life, I only had one brother.
Little brother Todd, with mom.
Then my mother remarried and I suddenly gained two step-sisters and two step-brothers. And with them over the years have come their spouses, children, childrens' spouses, spouses' children, grandchildren, spouses' grandchildren. . . . It has made Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-57204992525140924882014-11-03T19:37:00.001-05:002014-11-03T19:37:55.196-05:00Don't mind meI'm working on a project and need to get these photos onto Pinterest. The quickest way is to put them here.
Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-87578336821147903022014-10-29T20:14:00.000-04:002014-10-29T20:49:52.450-04:00Big happeningsI haven't posted for a while, but not because nothing has been happening. Quite the contrary, the last five months have been quite eventful.
My middle son became engaged to a fine young woman, whose family we have known for over ten years. And there was much rejoicing.
I had a long visit from the daughter and grandkids, and then spent over a week with them in Tucson.
The baby son started Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-17821375856100800612014-06-02T08:14:00.000-04:002014-06-02T08:15:16.902-04:00New dayThis morning has a strangely first-day-of-school, New-Year's-Day feel for me.
All of my kids have graduated from high school. Yes, this is normal and expected, but when you've homeschooled for 18 years, it's a big mental adjustment. I've just lost a big chunk of my identity. Of course, I've known this was coming and have been mentally preparing for a long time. And although the boys still live Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-34303129337197483972014-05-28T18:51:00.000-04:002014-05-28T19:03:01.424-04:00Still adjustingI love to entertain. I love to have a couple of friends over for a glass of wine, several couples for a nice dinner, whole families for a weekend, or big shindigs for whatever occasion I can drum up.
I'm not Martha Stewart. All those cool party ideas on Pinterest are merely aspirational for me. When we invite friends over to hang out at the pool or the fire pit we throw together a plate of Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-13050260257681659922014-05-07T23:51:00.000-04:002014-05-07T23:51:33.873-04:00Times to remember
So, for the last 11 days I've been in Tucson. This is a new adventure for me.
I'm in Tucson because my beautiful daughter lives here now--thank goodness not permanently--and she is having a bit of a busy time, having given birth to our first grandson, John Ronald, a couple of days after I arrived.
My main occupation, joyfully so, has been chasing after, feeding, playing with, bathingJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-56984957992168202892013-12-17T19:29:00.001-05:002013-12-17T19:29:58.120-05:00Plannin' some mealsYou would think that with two sons in college and working and with one son who is, for all practical purposes, finished homeschooling and is also working , I would be feeling like life is getting less complicated.
Ummmmm. No.
It will help when we have another car. We've been down one since that unfortunate event in the Menard's parking lot. (Can I just take a moment to say, "Sven, I miss you!")Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-64723932636093680262013-12-16T21:55:00.001-05:002013-12-16T21:55:39.987-05:00This is definitely what you call a first world problemI know that some of you are going to think that I'm crazy, but this has been bugging me.
I want to go someplace that requires me to dress up. Really, really dress up.
We used to have some fancy holiday events to attend for Colin's job. At one time there were some fairly formal events for the Bach Collegium. But since Colin's job left town there are no more parties or events, and the Collegium Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-81303724667078391922013-12-15T16:02:00.000-05:002013-12-15T16:02:10.616-05:00My Anthropologie knock-off hat rackLast year I saw this hook rack on Anthropologie's website.
I liked the idea, but I knew that my hubby could make me a rack for way less than $88.
We spent about $22 on wood and hooks, and used stain from several old cans in the garage. It turned out exactly as I hoped.
Since the men in this house are regular hat wearers, this is a really, really useful thing to have.
Thanks, honey!Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356580.post-88002446796068996972013-12-13T13:48:00.001-05:002013-12-13T13:48:36.729-05:00The first decorations
My Gaudete tree.
Really, I just fell in love with this little tree when I saw it at Target, but what better time to put it up?!
What a reminder it will be to rejoice!
Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984938560695736640noreply@blogger.com1