Serve by Design

I’m not accustomed to seeing very many Mourning Doves in the springtime. Many hunters in our area like to harvest these bullet-fast birds for sport and food in September. I do know that it takes a good mess of dove’s breasts to make a delicious bread-dressing recipe! I have read and understand, though, that many of the eleven varieties of the dove species, who habitat in Illinois, do not migrate, but spend their winters in the Prairie State. In late April and early May of each year, doves begin building nests and mating in earnest. Mourning Doves receive their name from their low and soothing mating call that sounds like a lament or sorrowful song. Some have mistaken this sound for an owl! I looked out the kitchen window recently and saw one of these beautiful birds gracefully moving about our rock patio. It was pecking and foraging for small seeds. Ornithologists say that a dove eats up to twenty percent of their body weight daily! That’s incredible to me! The dove plays a prominent...

When was the last time the little weather rodent from Pennsylvania got it right? Well, this time! Ignoring our hopes for an early Spring, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on February 2 nd and predicted six more weeks of winter! I woke up to winter this morning! Just before daybreak, I looked out my window and saw a half-inch of blowing snow, white-out conditions with reduced visibility, winds at 35 mph, and temperatures well below freezing! Yikes! Will this ever end? By contrast, yesterday, we cautiously drove to church in a fierce thunderstorm of driving rain and pea-sized hail with temperatures in the mid-fifties! By the end of the week, the forecast is calling for temperatures of 72 degrees on Friday and Saturday. No wonder the morning news led with a breaking story about, “A New Round of Extreme Weather! 30 million are under a winter alert!”   For the middle of March, yes, it’s extreme! But it also feels surreal to me. It is disorienting and unbelievable! One of my mentors a...

When I think I am through writing about technology, then another “new thingy,” (at least to me!), comes along! Our middle-aged son, Marc, was recently in an Austin area Apple Store when he captured a moment that had him thinking about his own future. Apple does an excellent job of supporting their customers by giving new iPhone users a hands-on tutorial. The presentation involved a group of mostly senior adult newbies who were learning skills, like how to enlarge a text font, as well as where   to locate the “magnifier app” in utilities. The latter app was of interest to me because the fine print of grocery item labels is getting finer these days! It is another level of “shrink inflation!” "What's this thingy?" iPhone 101 - Marc K . Monique continues to teach as a substitute and often struggles using technology in the classroom. The younger students are more than happy to help guide her! 😊 At the end of this year, our local elementary school will have transitioned to us...