Happy Birthday Lars

Webster defines Leadership in four ways; The activity of leading; The body of people who lead a group; the status of a leader; and The ability to lead.

But does that really define leadership?

Wikipedia says this; “the ability to affect human behavior so as to accomplish a mission designated by the leader”

My 7^th grade English teacher, Mrs. Daley, said that you cannot define a word by using that word in the definition. So, what is the definition of leadership?

Feel free to share your thoughts.

We are going to sell Eden to the Circus as soon as she learns a few more tricks

Lars had his 1^st Birthday this week, on Thursday. They say the first year is the hardest, but I’m beginning to realize that my son is going to be hard no matter how old he is. One year down, 17 to go…

I went to an EMS Leadership conference this weekend in Grand Island. I had a five hour drive alone on
Thursday (after brownies and cinnamon ice cream for Lars) and at first, it was nice. Then, it just became boring. No cell phone signal in the hills, not much for radio stations, nothing to look at out the window except, well, hills and prairie land. No kids demanding my attention for pacifiers, crazy music, cups of water, crackers, books or ‘magna-noodles’, as Eden calls it. It was relatively quiet and peaceful. It was very weird.

The conference was extremely useful and got me thinking. I think the hardest part of being a leader of a small town volunteer squad is that, many times, you have people who don’t want to be lead. You can’t be an effective leader if you don’t have people who want to follow. So, the real questions becomes not “How do I become a good leader?” but rather, “How can I effectively help people desire to be good followers?”

Daddy had the kids this weekend, or at least, he was the taxi driver. He took them to daycare on Friday, but Stacey called him and said Lars wouldn’t stop crying and what should she do. I guess the rest of the day was no better. Laura had them on Saturday and, naturally, Lars slept for her for 3 hours. Then I had the long, solo, boring, dusky-watch-for-antelope drive home.

Eden loves Sunday School. However, she is convinced that the Psalmist is saying, “Oh sing to the Lord, for He is Good” instead of, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is Good”. So, her memory work is a bit off, but she’s getting the idea.

Lars, though a year old now, is not yet crawling. He takes the scooting concept to a whole new level and it’s hilarious to watch.

Weather is still warm here most days. Wake up to 50 degrees and by afternoon, it’s 85 and toasty. I took out all my annual flower gardens & pots in preparation of canning season. I did tomatoes & corn this week and with it so warm outside, I was literally cooking myself in the kitchen. Next week, I may can while wearing a bathing suit. Doesn’t really fit the theme of ‘autumn’ but might be more comfortable.

Our street is still unusable and we continue to park in front of our house on the dirt slash mud road. We have a brand new from the factory, shiny red fire hydrant in our yard now, in a new corner, which they had to tear up our concrete sidewalk to put in. In preparation of putting in the new pipeline on the driveway side of our house, the old line on the dirt road kept blowing valves, and they’d have to dig farther and farther in front of the house to seal them. I was feeling bad for them and we gave the workers some of Lars’ birthday brownie. That cheered them some.

Hopefully, we’ll have access to our garage someday soon…

This week’s YouTube video is, as Al quotes, “Like a Train Wreck. It’s horrible to see, but you can’t stop watching it…” We sincerely hope you enjoy it and want to puke, all at `the same time.

Happy Birthday, Lars!

September is half over

Here it is, four days from Lars’ 1^st Birthday and I didn’t realize it until I read it in today’s bulletin. Mother-of-the-year right here.

This week was a hodge podge of activities.

Al had a Winkle all day on Tuesday.

I became a piano teacher this week, picking up two students on Tuesdays after school. It works out well, the kids and I walk up to the city park and the girls walk from school and meet us there, then we all walk home. I had a good time, but we’ll see if I still think that in several weeks.

The ‘w’ on my keyboard is not working well. It’s amazing how often that letter is used, really.

Eden fell asleep reading a book

Evenings this week went something like this: Monday evening, the kids went to Laura’s while I had an EMS board meeting and Al had LWML. Tuesday evening, Al had a meeting. Wednesday evening, Al had confirmation class. Thursday evening, Al had an Elder’s meeting. Are you sensing a pattern here?

Lars was not feeling well this week. Runny nose, sneezes, up all night, etc… Two chiropractor apts later, he’s feeling better and on Friday, we went to Scottsbluff to pick up photos from Olan Mills and do some ‘odds-n-ends’ shopping. I was coming down with the cold that he had, but pumped enough Cold Tylenol into me to make it through the day.

Eden was all ready to go to the races with Daddy on Friday night in Gering, the last race of the season, but because it had rained all day, the track was closed. Eden was sorely disappointed, and asked all the way home when it was going to be time for the race. Unfortunately, the next race isn’t until next season.

A drooling Lars, looking through the rail down the steps.
He loves to push things through the rail and hit the dog,
laying at the bottom of the steps. Very funny.

Saturday morning, the kids and I went up to church to clean out the old parsonage basement for the upcoming construction project. Mark, Laura, Pastor & I all stood around, debating what to keep, what to burn, and what to haul to the dump. By noon, we had a full dumpster with several pieces of furniture standing by for free dump day next Saturday. As luck should have it, I will be out of town next Saturday and will not be able to help haul. Bummer.

Eden’s new phrase is, “What you say that for?” and she crinkles up her brow when she’s thinking, which makes me laugh every single time.

It’s now Sunday night and Al is up at church looking for Eden’s blanket. We think it’s in her Sunday School room and I’m hoping he can find it quickly, because if I hear one more verse of “The Farmer in the Dell” I’m going to lose my mind.

Blessings on the eek to come.

A week gone by in a blur

Labor Day was a bonus day in our house. Al took an incredibly long nap and then got to work on my cabinet doors. We decided that we couldn’t afford a paintbrush this week, so he stained the doors and hung them without the polyurethane. That and I was too lazy to go the hardware store with two kids.

Tuesday was a typical Monday. Eden and I cleaned the house up. She’s starting to really be a big helper, in a slow and methodical 3 year old way. When I tell her to pick up these clothes and take them to the laundry room, she does. I have to be more specific, though, and tell her to put them in the basket when she gets there. I found her standing in the room, holding the clothes, wondering what to do next…

That evening was the voter’s meeting at church and we decided to go ahead with the finalizing of the paperwork to break ground on our new building project. Hopefully, the weather will be kind to us, and the contractors can begin in a week or so. In the meantime, Pastor and secretary have to clean out the entire “office” space, which is the old parsonage and move across the lawn into the Sunday School Rooms. This will be a huge task, and I imagine the bulldozer will be there to take out the small house and my husband will be furiously packing up boxes and running back and forth. Just a guess…

Potty training is going wonderfully. Whenever she comes out of the bathroom, she’s pulling her pants up to her armpits and saying, “I pull my pants up so people can’t see my underpants”. I sometimes wonder where she gets to thinking that.

This is what Eden wanted to wear to church on Sunday.

Wednesday, Eden went to Stacy’s house for her daycare/preschool time. She seems to really enjoy it there and I couldn’t be happier. Al was gone all day, due to a ministerial association meeting over lunch, and he had a total of 6 visits in one day, his record. I mowed the lawn, and then met with a State Official while the baby napped. Lars and I spent the rest of the day together on the floor, scooting after toys that were just out of reach, and listening to music. The evening was filled with Confirmation class (Al’s first of the year), a fire meeting, and a little girl who had a major meltdown at bedtime.

I have no idea what we did on Thursday or Friday. My calendar is a blank square, but I didn’t have any blank moments all week…

At one point this week, Eden helped me change Lars’ diaper, like she often does. I pulled off the tape, pulled it down and Eden gasped, “Mommy, what’s on Lars’ bottom?!” I said, “um, poop” and she said, “NO, THAT!” and grabbed his penis. “Oh”, I said and after a lengthy explanation, she cried, quite worriedly, “Mommy, it’s stuck to his bottom!” and I said, “Yeah, Lorena Bobbitt, it’s attached. It’s supposed to be.” “OK, Mommy”. I don’t think she was convinced.

Napping boys

The weekend was busy. Al taught an all day class on Saturday about Oprah and the Christian Woman. I didn’t get to attend, due to two small children and no free babysitters, but it looked as if he had a big crowd. Laura came over while I had to run out for a bit.

When I came back, they were begging to stay and play with Eden. Laura escaped while she could and I kept hers the rest of the day. The girls all had a great time, doing arts and crafts projects from my scrapbooking ‘scraps’. They took a break for sloppy jos and a quick jaunt outside to the swing-set, but returned to the craft table until it was time to go.

Sunday was Eden’s first day of Sunday school and she loved it. It was great for me, as well, because I only had ONE child during Adult Bible Study. She carried her Sunday school papers around the rest of the day, taking them to Marky and Laura’s house that evening for supper.

It’s starting to get chilly here. Supposed to be 80 next week, but I’m looking forward to the cooler weather and cleaning up my garden. Actually had jackets on tonight, but the wind makes everything feel colder here.

Now it’s bedtime for all and tomorrow will being anew…