Baker's heartbeat

            Dad's gravestone at National Cemetery at the Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, Ill. When my father, a veteran of World War II, passed away unexpectedly in 1989 he failed to give his five children any idea of where he'd like to be buried.
 My husband, Steve, suggested National Cemetery at the Rock Island Arsenal. It was the perfect choice for Dad, who was proud of his service in the U.S. Navy. He retired as a lieutenant commander, having had served in the Navy's intelligence services during the actual war years. On a recent Sunday my brother and his family came to visit us, and we all decided to visit Dad's grave. I was at the cemetery in May, but that was part of an organized bus trip. In May, we were told to have our driver's licenses ready in case the guards would need identification, but it turned out no one checked the bus riders. That was not the case when I had my brother, sister-in-law and nephew in the car. They are from St. L...

Bulletin boards in a second-grade classroom; there is black fabric on the walls outlined in colorful borders. This is typical of many classrooms in Iowa. School starts in just a few days in most of Iowa's public schools, and a few tips could help parents get the school year off to a strong start. According to scholastic.com, the publisher of books for school-age children, regular bedtime and wake-up routines are to be established ahead of the actual first day, which in this area is Thursday, Aug. 23. This includes reading to the children on a regular basis, perhaps, just before bedtime. Reading aloud is a proven way to raise readers, perhaps the greatest indicator of academic success. In the mornings, it's most important to provide the child breakfast, or to direct the student to free breakfast at school if it is offered. Hungry children do not make ideal students, and there should be no hungry children in a state like Iowa. Other suggestions from Scholastic: * Wa...

                             This is an example of a bulletin board that took two days to build. While most children in Iowa will be starting school next week there's a very good chance that their teachers started preparing for the youngsters almost a month earlier. 
 This is particularly true in the primary grades, where our state's youngest students are learning to read, write, do math and science projects for the first time. 
 In Ankeny, Iowa, second-grade teachers got a jump on the season, where classes are to start Aug. 23. In one elementary school in this fast-growing district, the four teachers all changed classrooms, which meant they had to build new billboards in each room. This would be a dozen billboards or more. Tasks like this preparation take more than 65 hours of time ahead of the school year, and cost each teacher more than $300 out-of-pocket in costs. 
 Each of the four teachers brought...

Japanese beetles loved this part of the yard which includes day lilies and a sunflower grown from seeds acquired free at a highway welcome center in Kansas. It might have been the fourth time I found a Japenese beetle in my thick hair, screamed, grabbed it by my fingers and threw it as far away as I could. Or maybe it was when I was walking down the driveway, holding a dish of hot soapy water, and a Japenese beetle fell from the Linden tree above ... right into it. Score! At a point I decided to blog about several benefits to fighting the Japanese beetles, one at a time. Humor helps when you do a chore you hate. With regrets to David Letterman, I offer ... FUN benefits re: A  beetle fight 9. Tree leaves: When the Japanese beetles make the leaves of your trees look like a spider web, the leaves will fall off your trees, and tidy tree owners will have at lease a month's edge on neighbors who also need, eventually, to rake up leaves. Bonus: The trees will look like they do...