We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
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Dan, I just read the article that you wrote about the Bro-Dogs and I could not help but reach out to you. How incredibly disappointing that you would use your platform to insult parents, athletes, and an entire school. You do not even have your facts straight. An Orangeville student came up with the name “Bro-dogs”. Not an Aquin parent. I encourage you to really think about whether your article splits a community or brings a community together. Your article did absolutely no good. Even a child knows that if you have nothing nice to say it...
You come from dust and to dust you will return. This is why I don't dust. It could be someone I know. Summertime means kids, lemonade and cookies, popsicles, ice cream, and Vacation Bible School! Great little story - We thought we were going to need to send out an all points bulletin on the need for more cookies for VBS. But then, on Monday afternoon my phone rang. It was from a lady who lives in Lexington, Illinois and is the bookkeeper for Fellowship of Christian Farmers International (FCFI)...
I am not a camper. I have never been a camper. Growing up, my family’s idea of camping included maid service and an indoor pool. But a few years ago, my wife went with her uncle camping in his RV and fell in love with it. That led to her buying her own R-Pod camper, and decking it out with wallpaper, and strings of lights … which are pretty cool. She has gone camping with it to the Palisades and is Hs come in very handy when she goes up to see one of our daughters to be the grandma bab...
While Alice Cooper’s School’s Out may not have been blaring on the steps of the State Capitol in the wee hours of the morning of June 1, Democrat legislators still delighted in their wins while turning in sloppy homework and asking for extra credit before leaving town for Summer Vacation. Due to an insistence by House Democrat legislators to reinsert legislative pay raises removed from state spending plans by Senate Democrats and panned by Republicans in both chambers, last minute changes wer...
There's no limit to what you can achieve if you don't mind who gets the credit. After reading about the happenings taking place at Martintown Community Church over the last several months, several of the faithful readers of this column have taken the scenic drive to Martintown, Wisconsin to visit us on Sunday morning. Some have even come back. One person referred to us as “a spot in the road.” That’s a pretty accurate description of Martintown, Wisconsin and we’ve adopted that phrase as our own...
So what do you like best about the Fourth of July? I think my tastes have changed as I've gotten older. As a kid, my favorite part was the fireworks. Now, I'm not talking about the big boomers in the sky that everybody "Oohs" and "Aahs" over. No, I'm talking about the personal fireworks that we used to light off as a kid. You know, the Black Cat firecrackers, and bottle rockets that screamed across the sky before they exploded, and ... (We interrupt this column for a legal interjection. In no...
We’re remodeling a house. By remodeling I mean, getting it ready to move into. Last week the story was about changing the pump in the well and successfully getting life-giving water to the house. The house has sat empty for a few years. Exactly how many years, no one seems to know, although I know someone knows. This week, the story continues. You may or may not be aware of the fact that the housing market is somewhat crazy right now. If you have a house to sell, I suggest you list it as soon a...
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more crazy … they do. OK, I’m not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but I held the power of attorney for my mother, and was also the executor of her will, even though I am the youngest of her three children. Originally, my older brother held those duties, but when he was overseas working as an engineering contractor in Iraq, she switched it to me because nobody knew when he might be back in the states. Later, after he did return, he suffered a strok...
You’d be hard-pressed to find a coach of any sport who will not echo the sentiment, “nothing good ever happens after midnight.” Doing anything in the wee hours of the morning is usually not a good idea. Coaches know that the phone calls they get after midnight are a harbinger of a bad day to come. Usually someone’s been arrested, been in an accident, or been in a fight. When it comes to legislating after midnight, it is usually the harbinger of really bad days to come. But, unfortu...
Moving water is fascinating. Creeks gurgle, waterfalls plummet, springs bubble, ocean tides crash. The bubbles, foam and noise draws us. The water sustains us. We need water for our physical life, but it also somehow soothes our spirit. We’ve been helping our son and daughter-in-law get a vacant house ready to be moved into. It’s a beautiful structure that has been empty for several years. It just needs someone to live in it and make it home again. A little cleaning, paint, and TLC makes all...
No matter how careful we are, and what precautions we take, it is bound to happen … you are going to have one of “those” days. Even though my car is the “newest” one in the family – it stays outside on the driveway – and for good reason. “You treat your car like crap!” Now, admittedly, it is not a car for me – it is my mobile office. So the floor of the front passenger seat makes for the perfect waste basket. (I mean, I wouldn’t want to litter.) On a routine basis I clean it out, but that entail...
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God,” (Luke 12:7). The other day a gust of wind ruffled the trees in our yard and when I went outside later, I saw a bird nest and five baby sparrows lying on the ground. They were naked little sparrows but I could see that they had just started getting feathers on the tips of their wings. They were just sparrows - pesky little sparrows who grow up to make messy nests everywhere you don’t want them to be and they...
Dan was gone to Champagne for his Mother’s Memorial Service, so we’re re-running one of our favorite columns of his … enjoy. The story you are about to read is true - however, for obvious reasons, the names are being omitted to protect the monumentally embarrassed. A friend of mine who we will simply refer to as, “Bob,” was set to go into Freeport to do a little much needed shopping. Unfortunately, he decided to take his “rather unreliable” pickup truck into town in order to haul back the arra...
Open Letter To Jo Daviess County; Are you aware of what the Jo Daviess County Board is planning for the future of Jo Daviess County? The County Board is in the planning stages to develop a County Park working with the Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation. They are stating that it will not be a tax liability for the tax payers. The funds will come from outside sources. About every municipality in Jo Daviess County has a park that is on their tax rolls. We also have three State Parks in our local area. When you have control of a park, there are...
Today’s column is meant for parents and grandparents. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them.” We have a job to do. Our son graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine on May 8, 2021. It’s been a long road. We are thrilled because he took a job close to home and our new granddaughter will live close by. He will be working as a licensed DVM for Northern Illinois Veterinary Services in Stockton, Illinois. He is licensed to practic...
There was a wedding ceremony last Saturday. And while the days of being a participant are well and gone for me, I was still caught off guard when my loving wife began to present her list of things I needed to do leading up to it. “Get a haircut.” Now, being told on Saturday that I needed a haircut before the following Saturday seemed like a relatively easy task. But when I still hadn’t done it by Tuesday, I could tell she was getting a little flustered. She never said anything, but … trust m...
The first job I ever had paid $2.50 a month. I was eight years old at the time. My job was to shake the straw bedding for our 42 cows in the dairy barn. My younger brother helped me. We’d climb up into the hay mow, throw down the bales we needed then “roll” them to the place where we’d cut the twines and shake the straw. It was a big job for a couple of little kids after school everyday. We’d get off the bus, grab a snack, change clothes and head out to the barn. Dad would be in to milk at 5...
What is a dog? I mean, can you describe a dog? Some might say, “A four-legged carnivorous mammal with floppy ears and a tail.” But that doesn’t fit because not all dogs have floppy ears, and I swear my family once had a dog who loved grapefruit! You can try to look up “dog” in the dictionary, but even they can’t lock it down in spite of multiple paragraphs all trying to answer one simple question – What is a dog? If you think about it, the question is nearly impossible to define. And yet, I co...
Last weekend, my wife and I visited our daughter and son-in-law in Nashville, Tennessee. They’ve lived there now for over two years. Last year they bought a house on a quiet street in a nice neighborhood. A couple times a week, several of the neighbors will bring their lawn chairs and gather in their driveway and sip ice tea and share everyday stories of their lives. It’s a curious thing - kind of like Mayberry in a way, only not so much. A few weeks ago, a flash flood ravaged their nei...
My apologies to all area principals, but now that graduation is rapidly approaching and most seniors are out of school - I can now do this column. You see, I knew if I wrote this one too early, I’d get accused of giving students ideas - so my advice to area students ... save this one for next year. The topic, is about senior pranks. At least when I was in school, it was the traditional obligation of the seniors who were leaving school to mark their exit with some form of “prank”. The key is th...
During the Lena-Winslow School Board meeting last week, new Board Member, David Schexnayder of Winslow, held up a statistic that pointed out the very best school District in Illinois had 59% of the students considered proficient in Reading. “Only fifty nine percent? Isn’t that failing?” he asked the Board. “How is it that 54% of the Lena-Winslow Math students need to take remedial classes at Highland Community College?” The point trying to be made, was basically – “This District is failing....
I’ve had the privilege of being born and raised in the greatest country in the world. A country where, if you dream it, you can achieve it! I’m blessed many times over thanks to a capitalistic society which allowed me to pursue many endeavors and take risk. Where else in the world could I have been so blessed? Sadly, our current leadership is working overtime to eliminate capitalism and give us socialism. Hasn’t history taught us better? Our country is one that is rapidly deteriorating into...
Happy Mother’s Day everyone! In honor of our mothers, today’s column is about children. The old adage says that children are to be seen and not heard. Really? Show me a child not making noise, and I’ll show you a child who isn’t feeling well. I’ll take a rambunctious, happy child any day of the week - including Sunday. Some of the simplest words Jesus ever spoke are found in Mark 10:13-16: “People were bringing little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, but the disciples r...
Escalators never break down. When they quit, they become stairs. Not long ago, I was traveling in a strange town when I had a flat tire. I knew it was flat because the low tire light was flashing on the dash - then it started beeping at me. I breathed a prayer asking God for help and limped into a gas station where I aired it up. I couldn’t hear any hissing noise so I decided to travel on. A short while later, the light came on again. I pulled over into a parking lot and decided God had p...
I don’t know about you, but one of the best investments my wife and I ever made at our house is the addition of a fire pit in the back yard. There is nothing like sitting around an open fire with friends, enjoying a beverage or two and solving the world’s problems on a bright summer night underneath the stars. But as fire pit season officially begins with the end of the school year, I realized that while some nights are a lot of fun, there are others that can be ruined by guests who break one...
