By Ron Hutchcraft

They say we can see some 3,000 stars. I'm looking out my window right now. I don't see even one star!

That might have something to do with the fact that it's almost noon. Give it a few hours and they'll all be there.

Because stars shine the brightest when the sky is darkest.

By Ron Hutchcraft

My phone's been blowing up for a week or more. Mostly not good news.

Lots of storms. Lots of sadness.

Severe thunderstorm alerts, tornado and flood watches and warnings. Stacked up in my texts like planes waiting to land at O' Hare. Like much of the country, it's been a "Groundhog Day" cycle of one stormy day after another. I miss the sun.

One moment they were in their apartment building. The next they were under it. Ninety people trapped when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar suddenly leveled their building.

Fifty Myanmar children went to pre-school that day. At least a dozen died there in the sudden collapse of their school. The rest were listed as missing.

One doctor in Mandalay said: "Wherever I looked, I saw collapsed buildings. Only dust."

By Ron Hutchcraft

Sometimes "Breaking News" is really "Heartbreaking News." This is one of those times.

They're running out of disaster words to describe it. The damage done by those monster California fires that have consumed everything in their path.

"Devastated." "Obliterated." "Apocalyptic."

By Ron Hutchcraft

"But wait! There's more!"

No, not the line at the end of a TV infomercial...

But the line that lingers at the end of Christmas. Despite all the great that Christmas offers - there's more! So much more!

All those people in the Christmas story - Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Wise Men - they had been living with anticipation of the coming of the Messiah.

By Ron Hutchcraft

Health clubs and spas love January! Business skyrockets as December bulges turn to January workouts.

A "new year" sounds like a great time to work on a new you. Thus, the infamous New Year's resolution. "A firm decision to do or not to do something."

Sadly, research shows that about 88% of our resolutions won't happen.

By Brad Hutchcraft

It's our daughter's first year of college, and I don't really try to hide the fact that I miss her. Even if I did try, my eyes would tell the full story. So, it should come as no surprise that the anticipation for her Christmas break hits a little differently. In the midst of all of the baking and decorating, while hanging Christmas ornaments, while balancing on the ladder with lights in hand, there is this recurring thought...

"I can't wait to welcome her home!"

​​​​​By Ron Hutchcraft

Poor Charlie Brown. For over 50 Christmases the same frustrated question has wailed from his mouth - "Can anyone tell me what Christmas is really all about?!"

My eight-year-old son could have told him. We were at the kitchen table devouring a Christmas Eve pizza, eager to start opening gifts. That's when the call came. Our kids sort of groaned collectively.

Living in New Jersey, one of the nice things about our yard was the trees. Also, one of the frustrating things about that yard was the trees. See, every fall we would fill about a hundred or more bags stuffed with the leaves that came from those trees. We appreciated those leaves most of the year, but there was a month where they weren’t much fun at all.

Our then-18-month-old grandson rapidly became a bulldozer on two legs. He didn't actually walk anywhere; he ran everywhere. Of course, he didn't always get around like that. First, he only went where one of us carried him. Then the crawling started. He didn't do that for long. He graduated to walking real fast. And, like every baby who ever learned to walk, he began by taking a step or two and then he fell down. I guess he could have said to himself after a couple of falls, "Oh well, I guess I wasn't cut out to walk. It's just too hard. I keep falling down. I think I'll just lie here from now on." Oh, great! Fast forward to when he's 18 years old, and his mother has to vacuum around him. His friends come over and he says, "Hey, you want to roll into my room with me?" No, it didn't work that way. After he went "step-boom," he got back up and went "step-step-boom." And then "step-step-step-step-boom." Then you couldn’t stop him!