Grandpa

Thanks for all of your prayers for my grandpa! He had surgery in Springfield, MO, on June 28th. I arrived that night and spent the night with him; he was very restless and in some pain. I spent part of Monday and Tuesday with him at the hospital and he’s doing much better.

I also got to spend some time with my parents, and it was nice to have some time to talk with them. Grandpa will be in the hospital for at least another few days, then go to a rehabilitation facility. We continue to pray for him to heal and gain strength.

July Paper

WOW—another month has gone by already! The paper is on someone’s computer at the Wayne Herald, waiting to be printed on Monday.

A new columnist is featured on The Playroom pages this month; Morgan Burke! Morgan is 15 years old, loves to read, and wrote several book reviews for teenagers this month. She will be writing occasional teen book reviews for the paper. Marcie Sextro’s column also contains recommended reading to put on your summer reading list, so I hope you'll find some time to enjoy a Christian book this month.

The paper will be mailed and delivered sometime next week. I’m not sure of the day right now; my grandfather fell and broke his hip yesterday, in Bolivar, MO. He’ll be having surgery either tomorrow or Monday, and I feel like I should be there for him as well as for my mom and dad.

Please remember him in your prayers and pray for a fast and uneventful recovery. He has some underlying health problems but is cheerful and positive. He’s a very special man in our lives and we hate to think of him in pain. He has a strong belief in God and that gives us all a sense of peace. Marcie and Lori might be taking over the mailing and delivery for me this week but never fear, you’ll get your paper!

Christian Cross Festival

Top: Roger Miller and part of his family, winners of the June Summer Fun Giveaway

Middle: Macy and Morgan helping set up

Bottom: Lori Clausen and Shelly, taking a break

We had a wonderful time at the Christian Cross Festival in Norfolk! Morgan and I picked up her friend Macy at about 9:30, and we picked up Lori about 10:00.

The skies were threatening rain, and by the time we got to the park in Norfolk, it was pouring! None of us wanted to get out and find someone to tell us where to set up, so we sat in the vehicle for 45 minutes waiting for it to ease up. It didn’t. Finally an official at the event told us that because of the rain they were going to have to change the location of the event to the Divot’s Event Center . . . but that it wouldn’t start until 5 PM, giving the bands time to move and set up their equipment.

We took advantage of the time and went shopping! None of us had a long list, but it was fun to wander through the mall without being in a hurry.

We arrived at the Events Center and set up our table, and soon people began to arrive. Since the drawing for the Summer Fun Giveaway was at the event, we encouraged people to sign up for that and for the hourly giveaways. The hourly giveaways consisted of Winter Jam bags with CD’s and one of my books, “Home is Where the Mom Is; A Christian Mom’s Guide to Caring for Herself, Her Family, and Her Home.”

The June Summer Fun Giveaway included 10 tickets to the College World Series, a gas card, a cooler full of snacks to enjoy on the way to the game, and money for snacks at the game. After several hours of listening to Christian music by area bands, we drew for the Summer Fun Giveaway. Congratulations to winner Roger Miller and family of Battle Creek!

I lived in Battle Creek until I was 12 years old, and Roger said he remembered being a neighbor of ours! He and his family were thrilled to win the tickets and other goodies. Thanks to sponsors Preferred Insurance Agency, Battle Creek; Norfolk Transmission and Muffler Service, Norfolk; and Dr. Roger Curry, DDS, Omaha. These sponsors made the Summer Fun Giveaway possible!

June Paper

It’s paper time again! Even though I know exactly what will be in the paper (I either pick out, approve, or write every article), it’s always fun to see how it turns out. The process goes like this. I also get to pick the accent color for the paper. Some months there’s a good reason for a certain color--May is pink, in honor of Mother’s Day, June will be pink for Father’s Day—but often I pick the color for the month . . . just because.

I pick out, write (the articles I write have either my name by them, or [NFT]—denoting “Nebraska Family Times”—in front of them), or approve (by other writers, usually Marcie Sextro, who writes the “Open Door” and “Upcoming Christian Events” columns) the articles for the paper, and e-mail them to an account that the lady who does the layout, Jennifer Gleames, has access to.

I also e-mail information for new ads to Jennifer, and let her know where certain articles should appear in the paper, and if I have any suggestions for how they should be arranged (usually I don’t—she does a better job than I ever could!).

Jennifer arranges the articles in the paper according to what fits where and looks good, and she also fits the ads in. Jennifer also picks out the graphics—the pictures that go along with some of the articles. She does a great job of finding graphics that compliment the articles and add to the look of the paper.

When she’s done doing that, she emails me a file of the paper for proofreading. It’s neat to see the paper in semi-finished form on the computer. The way the pages of the paper are layed out for printing, on one computer screen I see the front and back page of the paper, on the next screen I see pages 6 and 11, and so on, so it’s not in order or the order in which it will appear. If there are any corrections or changes, I e-mail Jennifer about them and she makes the corrections or changes. She then e-mails the file to the Wayne Herald, where it is printed.

Marcie’s husband works in Wayne, so he now picks up the paper at the Wayne Herald and Marcie and I meet somewhere in between our homes (usually in Madison), and once the 16 or so boxes of papers are in my vehicle, I get my first look at it in “real life”!

Mother's Day

This picture was taken on Mother's Day last year (also Morgan's Confirmation Day). No, I didn't wear the pink Crocks to church; they were a Mother's Day gift. Laugh all you want--they're COMFORTABLE!

We had a nice Mother’s Day. My kids are so special, and it’s such a blessing to be a mom. When I got up this morning and went into my office, there was a small remote control on my desk, with a note that said, “turn to the right,” “press power,” “ENJOY!” Cody and Morgan had gotten me a CD player/radio for my desk, and Cody had it all set up and ready to listen to. It was so nice of him to get it out of the box and all unwrapped and hooked up for me.

Later in the afternoon we went to the graduation party of a good friend of ours, and I got to see some of my mom-friends I know through cattle showing.

It is hard to believe that Cody will be graduating from high school next year! We will certainly miss him when he goes to college! But we also know that it’s our job as parents to raise our children to be independent, productive members of society. On the way home from the graduation party, Cody (who has been to several other graduation parties of friends) and I started a list of the things he would like at his graduation party next year. It was fun to start planning—I’m sure the year will go very fast.

Delivering the Paper

Today Lori and I delivered the paper to sponsors in Norfolk. It’s always fun to deliver the paper and talk with customers at the various businesses. (If your business is interested in sponsoring the paper—providing complimentary copies it for your customers or patrons to read—contact the NFT at shelly@shellyburke.net or call (402) 750-3496. New sponsors and advertisers receive a 25% discount!)

Lori has two children in high school (Ryan will graduate next month). Ryan, Cody (my son), Rachel (Lori’s daughter), and Morgan (my daughter) are stair-step in age—Ryan’s a senior, down to Morgan who is a freshman(woman). It’s so nice to have several hours to talk with Lori about our kids and families; even though our conversations are interrupted frequently when we get out to take papers into a business, we seem to be able to pick up our conversations almost mid-sentence when we’re together in the vehicle again.

I’ve found that as my kids enter the teen-age years, the worries don’t decrease, they just change. Even if Lori and I don’t come up with any solutions to our current “kid issues,” it’s good to talk about them and share ideas about why kids do the things they do, and ideas for getting them to do something different!

Thanks for a nice day, Lori!

FFA Banquet

We had a great time at the FFA Banquet tonight. It’s always fun to see Cody and Morgan with their friends, and they received several awards. Tim and I also enjoy talking with the other kids’ parents . . . it’s always a relief to know that our kids aren’t the only ones to (insert embarrassing/appalling/worrying/silly event here).