Serve by Design

When I was a boy, I spent my summers building forts in a locust tree grove. The setting was just across the street from where I lived on an uncleared vacant lot. I never knew or even thought about who owned the property, but I have a feeling that the lot owner was grateful for the industriousness of the neighborhood boys. After all, we were saving him the trouble and cost of clearing out those thorny little trees! 😊 We used our imaginations every time we went to work. Usually, we were building a small community of shelters with a barrier or fence around it for protection. We pretended to be a party of hardy explorers setting up camp and building defense structures to protect it against any enemies, real or imagined! Hours of work sawing, knife scraping, trimming, and rope tying were invested in the project each day. We did not care how hot it was or how much we sweated! In our minds, we were adventurers creating a new world! At the end of the day, we would bathe, eat dinner, and ret...

Our daughter, Michelle, made a post recently on social media. She does this a lot as she encouragers so many of her friends and contacts. She is a homeschool mother of four these days after spending fourteen years in the public schools teaching math. She has a small business on the side that promotes a healthy lifestyle. She serves as a part time administrative assistant for her church and serves another not-for-profit business as well. She is busy and productive! I’m proud of her! Dawson Michael In the "Lap of Learning!" She wrote this “on the fly” a few days ago, “Today, we untraditionally learned! We took our school supplies in the car and did our work while we waited for the boys’ haircuts to be finished! This is what I want – learning whenever and however! Learning anytime and every time!” I love how she “practices what she teaches!” The other night or shall I say, early morning, I was awakened with some mild discomfort from my osteoarthritis. I decided to spend the ti...

We did not homeschool our children. We are fortunate enough to live in communities that have excellent public schools. On occasions, many of these educators attended our church. We have five public school teachers in our family! Monique taught at Sherman Elementary for over 22 years, retired in 2013, and until recently (due to the stay-at-home mandate) has continued to substitute at the same school three to five times a week.  Our twin daughters are educators as well. Melissa has taught fifteen years and Michelle is in her thirteenth year. Dan, our son-in-law, is also a teacher and has six years of experience. The combined total of this ongoing instruction in the classroom is sixty-three years!  As you can see, we are a family of educators! Eloise "Zooming" at home with her teacher and class! Well, the COVID-19 Pandemic these days has shaken up the setting for education. It has moved from the school buildings of our communities into our homes. I realize that homeschoole...