Well here is my late night work-around.
The code I kept finding in tutorials talked about “query-posts” and that is not used in this portfolio.
Then I looked at tons of plugins.
I decided to use Post Types Order for my solution ONLY because I may not have more than 2 posts each month.
So, whenever I publish a post I use the plugin to alphabetize the posts by title. That makes them show up alphabetized on the portfolo pages.
But I still want the latest posts to show up in on the home page. So, I created a “Featured Post” category and put my last 3 posts also in the featured post category. Then I set my Featured Post widget to only show posts in the featured post category.
And that works for me.