Monday Mom-blings

Ok...there are seriously so many things to post about today I don't know where to start.

I suppose I'll start with the obvious...it's St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. WooHoo! I hate to admit it, but I'm not really one of those cool moms that does really fun things for her kids for the little holidays (Is St. Paddy's day considered a holiday??) Our box of Lucky Charms is about as festive as I get with this one...oh, except that I do LOVE to make sure that each of my kiddo's (and Kenny of course) get a little love pinch, even if they're wearing green. Wearing green is fun (and who couldn't use a wee bit o' luck) but that silly little excuse, "...it's on my underwear..," to avoid the pinch is WEAK! Maybe I'll be ambitious this year and make some green shamrock cookies...shamrock's are pretty cool. What about you? Do you do anything to celebrate St. Paddy's day or are you a grinch like me...come to think of it, the grinch is green, so at least I'm on the right track.

#2 - (I guess I've started numbering now) Is anyone tired of their kids being sick??? Luckily we only had a small bout of the flu this year but we've had that lingering cold and cough thing on and off since Christmas. It must have been a rough weekend, cause the kids are all coughing AGAIN...even Bright. I can handle it when the older kids get sick, but when the baby is sick, life is miserable. He just wants to be held all day long so I don't accomplish anything. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll at least avoid the ear infection this time around.



#3 - Did you happen to catch Glenn Beck's program last Friday...We Surround Them? I didn't get to watch it live, but we recorded it on the DVR (cause Kenny loves Glenn Beck) and watched it last night. I'll admit, he's probably not my favorite (I'm a Hannity kind of girl,) but he is passionate about our country and I think he's got the right idea. He's starting a project called the 912 project and is encouraging everyone to join in. Basically, he says it's our responsibility to take back our country so he is encouraging us to meet with our family and friends and discuss what is going on in the country and what we can do to make it better. If you missed the program, go to the link to read about the 9 principles and 12 values that Glenn thinks we should get back to. I like it! I think it could be interesting meeting together and having discusions about the state of our country and what we can do to improve it. Is anyone interested? Let me know...we'll arrange it, and of course treats will be provided!!

#4 - (This is the lst thing...I promise!) I've mentioned in previous posts that I'm taking an on-line seminar by Time Out for Women. The focus this month is The Divine Gift of Influence and last week's topic was the first half of Sixteen principles of Leadership. I've really been enjoying the classes and I thought I would just share a couple of things that I found interesting. One of the 16 principles of leadership is Less is More. What I loved about this principle is that Sis. Dew made a point of saying that not everything we do deserves our best effort...sometimes it just has to be done...on the other hand, some things demand our best effort. Does this mean anything to you? I've always been one who says that if you're going to do anything you might as well do your best, but I think Sis. Dew is right. There are some things we need to do just to get done (ie. the laundry) but there are other things that require our best effort (ie. our families.) Another principle of leadership she mentioned was Leaders Communicate But They Do More than Just Talk...specifically (for me at least) that leaders speak the language of those they lead. She's right. People respond more to yoiu if they feel like you are speaking their language. I tend to take the authoritative position with my kids (which, I suppose as a mother I should do) but I think that if I learned their language I would be able to talk to them more and be more of an influence in their lives because they would see that I understood them. I guess I'll be taking a few languages courses over the next little while. How about you? The final point I wanted to share with you was a kind of cool story that Sis. Dew told. It had to do with the principle, Leaders See Opportunities Where Others Don't. She shared a story about Tiger Wood. In the 1999 Phoenix Open Tiger hit a shot that landed behind a rock (more like a boulder.) The rules, at the time, stated that if something was blocking your shot and you could move that "something" you could do so without any penalty. If you couldn't move whatever was blocking your shot then you could take a penalty and move your ball. When Tiger's ball ended up behind the boulder, knowing the rules, he turned to the crowd and jokingly said, "...so what do you think? Can we move it?" A bunch of people watching in the gallery came out of the crowd and moved the boulder. Who else besides Tiger would have thought to involve the crowd? Who else besides Tiger could have even asked and then had people willingly volunteer to move the boulder? The point of the story was three fold. Leaders see things differently than others. Leaders seize opportunities where others overlook them, and Leading is usually not about doing more, it's about doing something differently. (I mention this last point because I think it fits in well with the whole Glenn Beck 912 project.) I will just mention that although you may not consider yourself a "leader" remember you are a parent and that is probably the most important kind of leader there is.

Well. that's it. I'm one. Sorry...that was a lot of mombling about a lot of different things, but if you made it to the end of this post, congratulations! Hopefully the baby will be feeling better soon so that I can get to the rest of my posts this week. If he's not then I'm sure you'll understand the lack of posts as I will be speaking Bright's language and holding him until he does feel better!