Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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Some of the best gifts received from family didn’t cost anything, except time. Memories of baking in both grandmothers’ kitchens still flood to mind every time I try a new recipe or attempt to roll pie crust to an acceptable thickness. P.S. Grandma Fields, I’m still trying to master that skill. Frozen pie crusts are so much easier but do not taste a quarter as good as yours. When I watch baseball, I’m back in Wausa, walking to the ballfield with Dad and Grandma, waiting for the town team to take...
What is your why? Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook posed the question to University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduates during Saturday’s virtual ceremony. His question got me thinking. Okay, actually his entire 11 and one-half minute address got me thinking and has been on my mind all day. Why? Mindset makes all the difference in life. Coach Cook is successful, so why not apply his lessons? First things first: What is my why? What’s my motivation? What inspires me - and you - to become our bes...
It’s been said that each fingerprint is unique. I contend a person’s handwriting tells a similar story. Dad’s handwriting - beginning to appear a bit shaky - is the quintessential teacher script: perfectly formed letters looped together in an orderly vertical cadence. Mom’s handwriting featured precise strokes, making it easy to read. Each capital letter, a flourish of serif elements and wide spacing. Even my children’s handwriting is distinct. Cassie’s resembles groupings of thinly-form...
All I really needed to know about gardening I learned from my grandparents. Gardening is hard, yet rewarding, work. Planting seeds, caring for tender plants, watering daily and harvesting require patience. You learn to adapt, sometimes you try new things. The end result, though, is worth the time. My Wausa grandparents grew rows of green beans, cucumbers, potatoes and a lot of sunflowers. I remember a few tomato plants, too, although I do not remember Grandma cooking a lot of tomato-based foods....
Henry David Thoreau wrote, “When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest of times, and to the latest.” The quote has been on my mind lately for a couple reasons. First, I like music. It powers me through the day, well, music and a strong glass of brewed iced tea. Our graphic designer, Jenna, has a beautiful voice and she sings almost every day. It never fails ... it will be Tuesday afternoon, deadline looming near, and she’ll break out in son...
The other morning, a Cheshire cat moon hung in the sky. Its typically upturned smile cast sideways - resembling a frown - brought thoughts of 9/11 to mind. A similar-looking moon floated in the sky as twilight neared on that September evening in 2001. The world turned upside down that day, chaos on Earth. The ancients believed celestial elements mirrored what was happening on firm ground. If they are correct, on Sept. 11, the heavens cried at the destruction occurring on U.S. soil. Are the heave...
A subscriber posed an interesting question this week. Amid COVID-19 concerns, how safe are everyday objects many of us take for granted? Can pieces of mail - more importantly- your copy of the Summerland Advocate-Messenger, transmit the virus? What about styrofoam boxes containing a carryout order from local restaurants? Take it one more step. What about foods we eat? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, data indicates it is highly unlikely any of these items carry the...
This is a love story, of sorts; a stream-of-consciousness gathering of thoughts and concerns, a song of praise for unsung heroes whose daily routines have been upended. Teaching isn’t an easy career to begin with. Sure, there are those people who think it’s an 8-to-4 job, with summer’s free and two weeks of Christmas vacation. What they don’t realize is, after staying in your classroom until 5 p.m., every day, you take work home - papers to grade, lessons to fine-tune, phone calls to parents...
As I neared age 40, a wave of depression washed over me, sweeping me into an abyss of self-pity. When I look back at that time, life was a jumbled mess and saying I was unhappy was an understatement. On my birthday, I took a long look in the mirror and knew I needed to focus on positive elements of life. Too much negativity already existed in the world. I didn’t need to add to it. My personal present - a bitchslap to the face - worked. I started by focusing on gratitude, listing the little t...
By now, you’ve more than likely seen photos on social media or in other media outlets showing bare shelves in grocery stores. Those photos give the appearance that America is running out of food (and toilet paper, but that’s another issue). Those photos lead to unnecessary panic and anxiety. While a picture is worth a thousand words, those photos don’t tell the whole story. Ask dairy farmers and meat producers. The food supply chain isn’t empty. In many cases, a large surplus of goods is stoc...
Sometimes, human nature amazes me ... and not in a good way. The entire coronavirus conversation makes me shake my head. While I understand worse-case scenarios are often used as a prompt to get people to think, a little common sense, a dollop of soap and a lot of hot water should clear up any misconceptions. Here’s what we know for sure: • As of March 9, 555 confirmed cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with individuals from 35 states and the District of...
When Billy Joel said, “Music is an explosive expression of humanity,” I hope he meant music shapes our lives and reflects current culture. I tend to associate music with certain events, an expression of mood and tone of a nation, a bookmark comprised of notes and rhythms denoting importance, a mix tape providing background accompaniment to daily life. Ask someone to name their favorite song. More than likely, they’ll pause momentarily, contemplate for a few seconds more and rattle off a curre...
If you believe the most annoying sound in the world is nails scraping across a chalkboard, you’ve obviously never slept with someone who snores. The sounds is ... well, in our house, a cross between a buzzing chainsaw and sputtering motorcycle. It never fails. Just as I drift into deep sleep, Scott rolls over and snores in my ear. I’ll whisper (okay, yell over the clamoring), “Stop it.” Or, I’ll attempt to roll him onto his other side, praying for a reprieve. Both are short-lived intervent...
You could always tell when I had attended a faculty meeting. The margin of my legal pad was outlined with daisies of all sizes and colors, a result of sitting through the bi-monthly after-school requirement. As soon as the principal uttered his last words, I’d slip across the hallway, toss the paper on my desk and start speech practice. Those doodles were the closest thing to art I could create. Don’t get me wrong. I can visualize how something should look, see how texture and color add dim...
American playwright Arthur Miller wrote, “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.” What happens when a newspaper quits talking? One community in Nebraska is discovering the effect of no longer having a local newspaper. When Coleridge residents received the Jan. 1 edition of the Coleridge Blade, a bold hammer headline stretched across the top of the page: Final edition. The paper, published for 131 years, was part of the Northeast Nebraska News Company, which owns new...
Author Eugene O'Neill, when writing his Dalmatian's last will and testament, wrote, "Dogs ... do not ruin their sleep worrying about how to keep the objects they have, and to obtain the objects they have not. There is nothing of value they have to bequeath except their love and their faith." For 12 years, our chocolate lab, Copper, freely gave her love and showed faithfulness, especially to the master of our house. Copper crossed the rainbow bridge over the weekend, entering doggy heaven, where...
I spent the summer of 1998 at Northwestern University, one of 10 speech instructors from across the United States selected as a fellow in the communications program, with an opportunity to work on a master’s degree. Despite living half a block from the El and easy access to Chicago and all it offered, despite the bustling city life surrounding me, I savored the silence and solitude of my dorm room, quiet walks around downtown Evanston, time to reflect on life and love and the future. I never f...
What word do you associate with German Chocolate cake? For me, it’s love. Every birthday, Grandma Larson would have her best friend, Anna Kuhl, bake a three-tiered German Chocolate cake. I looked forward to that cake each time. It’s my favorite cake, especially when coconut pecan frosting tops it. Homemade, of course. Okay, I’ll be honest. I associate chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies and gooey rice krispy bars with love, too. Primarily because Grandma made those goodies and toted them to...
The other day, I was sorting through a pile of jewelry on my dresser - the catch-all for necklaces and bracelets. (Yes, I know. I should put them away immediately instead of letting everything pile up until I cannot open the doors on my jewelry box.) One pair of drop earrings, comprised of five squares of cubic zirconia, was in the mix. When did I wear these? What special occasion required pushing the finding through my semi-closed pierced ears? Your guess is as good as mine. I opened the...
What will the world look like in 2030? The New York Times posed that question to a group of public figures, ranging from politicians to authors to academics. After reading most of the responses, the outlook seems pretty bleak. Former N.S.A contractor Edward Snowden discusses how the things society demands for the sake of convenience will be our downfall. He writes, “As consumer electronics get cheaper and more disposable, the more they will leach their minerals into our groundwater, poisoning t...
It’s late Sunday evening, the wind sounds like a freight train racing through town, and when I glance out the front door, I cannot tell if it is still snowing or if it’s simply blowing what snow already has landed. Scott is stranded at the farm. He tried to make the drive home, but after a mile, the pickup slammed into a drift. Thank God for cell phones and Dad, who brought a tractor to extract the vehicle. Farmers and ranchers never get to experience snow days. Livestock need to be fed and che...
For more than a year, I’ve been navigating the health care system for Dad. It’s been an eye-opening experience. I’m not sure you’re ever prepared to take over your parents’ finances and deal with insurance, Medicare and hospice requirements. I know I wasn’t. My saving grace: a family of medical professionals who are willing to help me understand the system and endless forms I’m filing. Our family agrees he receives excellent care at the facility in Battle Creek. We’re encouraged by his willingne...
Not that I’m in a Bah Humbug kind of mood, but Christmas has lost some of its luster. Wait! Hear me out, says the women who hasn’t - and probably won’t - deck the halls of the Schindler casa this year. (In my defense, the miniature Husker-themed tree stays up year round, so one room is decorated.) I like Christmas, the story of peace, joy and love brought to the world with the birth of Jesus. Listening to the story of his miraculous entrance in the world gives me hope and makes me realize how pr...
I don’t get enough sleep. I’m guessing, neither do you. Daily, as I sync my FitBit, I’m reminded that a sleep score in the 70s isn’t good. “Catch more Zzzzzs,” the app taunts. When I look at my REM pattern, frankly, it scares me. I know I need more deep sleep. Four to five hours a night may have been sufficient in college, or most of us convinced ourselves it was enough to get by. But now, four or five hours of rest leaves me feeling more tired then when I went to bed. The biggest reason I kn...
How do we sustain rural America? The question was discussed Monday in Norfolk during a town hall meeting titled "Growing Together." The event, sponsored by the Aksarben Foundation, included speakers who addressed brain drain - students who leave the area following graduation and do not return home - and how to make the northeast region of the state a more desirable place to attract young professionals. Former state senator Mike Flood presented data regarding the ages of population in area...
