First Presbyterian Church of Valparaiso

Lately, I have been reaching career milestones. The one that recently struck me was the anniversary that I have been practicing as a lawyer for 25 years. This concurrently means that it has been 25 years since I graduated from Valparaiso Law School. I have several memories of that graduation day. One memory that has influenced me, and has recently come to mind, is a conversation I had with my grandfather. We were walking from the ceremony to the cars to drive back to my home

I recently had the opportunity to hear General David Petraeus speak in person at a nearby lecture series held on the campus of Purdue Northwest. General Petraeus is one of the best-known American generals of the post-Vietnam era. He has a degree from Westpoint, was the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College class of 1983 and earned a Ph.D. in international relations from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton Univer

At our weekly Thursday morning gatherings of the Comfort Stitchers our skilled multi-tasking members accomplish several things at the same time at each meeting. Usually, each one of us has a needlework project that is in process. We are mainly knitters and crocheters but other projects do crop up from time to time. In addition, we catch up on each other’s lives and the events in our families. We offer spirited opinions on various activities of the church and the town and the

Do you have any bad habits? Probably you do. We all do. Biting our nails, leaving dirty clothes on the bathroom floor, spending too much time with our eyes on one screen or another. I like to crunch ice with my teeth, a sound that drives my husband crazy—and probably isn’t very good for my teeth, either! I also sigh a lot. I think it’s something I inherited; my mother did it, too. Sometimes it makes other people think I’m feeling impatient or sad or exhausted—but really, it’s