Serve by Design

I have been eating Mars’ M&M’s chocolate candy for years! In every serving, I have enjoyed eating all six colors – brown, green, orange, red, yellow, and blue – of these delectable candies that “melt in your mouth and not in your hand!” However, those who know me best will tell you that I favor the blue ones most of all. My secret goes back many years until I was outed by some preacher friends with whom I met weekly in a small group. Imagine that?! Blue Makes Me Happy! During one of those meetings, a friend had spread a selection of M&M’s from his stash out on the table for the taking. I looked at the multiple-colored candies and immediately began to retrieve several blue ones and lined them up before me. This friend looked at me incredulously and asked, “What are you doing?” I answered sheepishly because by now everyone was staring at me, “I’m gathering the blue ones. They’re my favorite!” He said something like, “You’re crazy! They all taste the same!” From that day until ...

The MJK's are celebrating another wedding anniversary, June 10th!  This celebration is just shy of the big one! Next year it will be "Golden!" I don't think it occurred to me when I met Monique Jeanne during our early college days that should we ever marry, we would have the same initials! Now, I can be pretty sure that Monique was doing all kinds of calculations without my awareness because after our fourth child some years later, she would acknowledge, "I really had planned on five children!" "Uh boy!" I sighed and said, "I didn't know that!" And I meant it! Our firstborn would be another MJK and so were the other three that followed! Six MJK's in total! Therefore, we learned to be clear when signing MJK as to which specific one of us it represented! I have tried to pull rank by referring to myself as "THE MJK!" The other members of our household have not be amused! Every once and a while, I will be surprised by how ot...