When Dad was working on a project — home improvement, car, whatever — we ALL worked on the project.

Along with my siblings, I was go-fer (“bring me some coffee, find a doodad, get me that ratchet with the ¾" socket"), assistant (“hold this, push that”), secretary (“call the hardware store and see if they have 16 thingamajigs”), and clean up crew. By example and hands-on experience, there isn’t much we didn’t learn how to do from steaming wallpaper, to laying tile, to cleaning sewers, to siding houses, to you-name-it.

Therefore, I knew tools!

After high school graduation, I took the train — on which I learned more about life (!!) than I can write about in a family blog — to Kansas for cousin Charlene’s wedding. She and Vic fixed me up on double dates with a couple of their friends — very nice guys. If you’ve seen American Graffiti, you were looking at Concordia, Kansas, in the summer of 1965.

One night we arrived at a drive-in, and something was loose on my date’s car. He asked me to look in the glove box for a screwdriver. I did. Handing it to him, I questioned, “All that’s in here is a phillips; is that okay?”

The guy recoiled and shouted, “You know what a phillips is? Hey you guys, this little girl knows what a phillips is!” Like I was a freak of nature. When the shock wore off, it was clear that he was impressed.

Did he impress me? Not after, as the movie was starting, he pulled a can of Right Guard out of somewhere and sprayed his feet.

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. Galatians 6:4