Paperclips, Selfishness, Crayons, and Weddings

Sammy and I were making some copies for a class Monday.  The copy person was working on it and I was standing at the counter waiting.  Sam commented about all the paperclips he'd found on the floor, and I turned to see him putting one into a paperclip box on a display next to me.  He wondered aloud why someone would spill the paperclips and not pick them up.  I told him the paperclips he was finding were probably from people bringing in things to copy and dropping the paperclip holding their things together.  As he closed the paperclip box he said, "Then whoever buys that box is going to be really happy they got all those extra paperclips!"

Tuesday during Vanguard we were talking about service-oriented leadership.  We used John Wooden as an example of that since he coached his team to be their best as team players and as people, and that winning was never the focus but it became a natural result.  Adam helped me with the leadership skill portion of our day, and both while he was teaching and while he was giving comments during the rest of the class he kept mentioning "self-oriented leadership" instead of "service-oriented leadership."  We are never going to follow him.

Adam had a great experience today, though, helping to interview about 50 boys that want to serve on NYLT staff.  Since he was asked this last year when he interviewed, his favorite question to throw out was "Which Disney princess would you want to be and why?"  Adam's answer was Rapunzel, because she beats everyone up with a frying pan.  Hopefully we can realign his leadership methods before the course.  He is serving as the senior patrol leader (the youth head of the course), and Sam was asked to be a quartermaster.  I get to be there to watch.  Should be fun!

Madeleine got a box of triangle crayons for Christmas (triangle vs. the way normal crayons are round), and she was peeling the paper and break them.  I told her to leave the paper on so it wouldn't made a mess and so they wouldn't break.  "I'm coloring with naked crayons." 

Yesterday Sammy and I sorted through all the Lego minifigure packages he can earn by reading to see which extra minifigures we have (when we've shopped, we've bought extra of some of the cooler ones for birthday presents and such).  A witch package was opened, so I declared it mine (after all, I'm the wicked witch, right?) and put it together.  When we found an extra bride minifigure I declared that mine too, opened it, and put it together.  Madeleine played with both while Sam and I finished up, then she and I were looking at them and talking.  I asked her if she's going to get married someday, and she said yes.  I asked her if she's going to get married in the temple, yes again.  She pointed out all veil, flowers, and even Miss Lego Bride's makeup and said she was going to have each of those things.  I asked her who she's going to marry.  "I'm going to marry daddy.  He's going to be really surprised!"  

We have been dumped on with snow around here the past few days.  Melanie and I figure that the last time we had this much was when she was 1 or 2, because I have pictures of her and the boys playing in giant snow piles.  Lots of snow means lots of shoveling.  What a perfect opportunity for service, though.  Jamie and the kids have helped shovel a lot of neighbors' snow.  Even an accidental one.  Jamie was heading somewhere this morning and called to say he'd noticed someone out shoveling alone, and asked me to send some of the kids out to help them.  When he said her name I thought of a pregnant woman in the neighborhood, so I sent them her direction assuming that her husband had to work or something.  A bit later Sam came back and said no one was outside there and the snow hadn't been touched.  I dialed the phone to ask Jamie if I got the right person, and the light turned on that he was talking about our next door neighbor.  Oops!  Carolyn headed out to help her, and Sam and Melanie still shoveled for the other family.