Serve by Design

Like me, some of you may be fascinated by numbers. My love of math goes back to sixth grade and a before-school tutoring session with my teacher/principal, Mrs. Martha Ortegren. For several weeks, she gave up her prep-time to “catch me up” on some math skills so I could join the advanced group in our class. I will never forget her patience, encouragement, and how this built up my confidence as a student. Mrs. Ortegren believed in me and knew that I could do the work! Image: vecteezy.com While I never became a mathematician, I do think I passed some of my love of numbers off to one of our daughters, who is a math teacher today. Our eldest son, who is a public policy “wonk” also has an aptitude for math and recently took two challenging seminars in statistics from Harvard. A few years ago, one of our grandsons blew us away with a near perfect grade in his high school statistics class! Do you have a favorite math fact? I still love to recite 8 lines of Chaucer in old English, especially...

Hardly a day goes by when Monique or I must search for something that has been misplaced! It could be our phone, keys, a shopping list, an item from our billfold or a purse. I’ve concluded that we are simply trying to keep up with the younger generation who boast of their ability to juggle multiple tasks all at the same time. I’m sure that it isn’t a sign of forgetfulness or old age!😉 "Found this... do you need it?" I recently received a text from my beloved sister who was wondering if I had seen a special angel bracelet that she thought she might have dropped on the floorboard of my car after our Sunday dinner together. No sooner had I returned from searching the backseat, I picked up my phone and saw this reply, “I just found it on my bedroom floor! Thank you!” I’m thinking that this misplacing of things may be catching! Last month, Marc and I made a trip to take Ben’s car to him on the campus of Texas State about an hour away. The vehicle needed some repair work, and th...