Welcome, here is my binder.

When I was in medical school I very rarely missed a class lecture, and I took a lot of notes. In the evenings after class, I would rewrite all of my notes so that they were legible. I would try to fill in things I missed or clarify things I wasn’t sure about by asking a classmate or professor. I placed all of these handwritten notes in a three ring binder.

There were some students who would miss class for various reasons. Once word got around about my notes, people would ask regularly if they could photocopy my notes. I was happy to go to the copy machine in the library or lounge with them, open up my binder, and make copies of the notes they needed.

Some students were surprised that I would just share all of my hard work for nothing in return. They told me about other med school classes which paid students to be scribes and take notes. They were apparently paid fairly well. But my rationale was that I was gaining intangible benefits and losing nothing by sharing. I am a multi-sensory learner, so hearing, writing, and reading to rewrite notes was quite helpful for me to learn the material well. The process helped to imprint in my mind the concepts I needed to learn. I believed that helping others by sharing what I learned actually made me want to take better notes and gave even more purpose to my education and what I was doing.

So my prayer is that this place will be like my binder. God has taught me so much through decades of motherhood, medicine, homeschooling, and living a life of faith in this broken world. Through my mistakes and milestones, challenges and celebrations, God has been gracious and faithful. Recorded on these digital pages through blog posts and resources are my notes. I’m sharing my binder with you. I pray it is an encouragement and a helpful resource for your journey too.