We have a friend who was generous enough to give us a truck load full of mulch for the play set. He owns a tree cutting business and has to pay to dump his chipped up trees off site; so we asked him if he would let us have a load, instead of him paying to have it dumped. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

When the truck arrived it was six inches too big to pass through our gate to the back yard. The plan was for him to dump it inside our timber box and all I would need to do was to spread it out. (six inches!!!) When we realized that it would not fit in the back he pulled back around to the front yard and I asked him to pour it on the parking pad.

He backed pretty close to our garage door and the truck bed pitched upward. The mulch began to flow out and flow out, and flow out. It was five foot high and ran the entire length of our drive way. We have been parking on the street for over two weeks now. I don’t know how many cubic yards that is, but man it looked like tons! I began by taking my wheeled barrel and knew after half dozed trips around to the backyard that this was not going to work.

I borrowed Crag G.’s truck (again) and have loaded the mulch truck load after truck load. In the rain, the dark, and the severe heat I have loaded mulch. The other night I actually had a dream I was shoveling mulch. As I write this entry, there is a full load on the truck, which I will move in the morning, and what I hope is one last truck load on the ground. Then I will be finished with the pile of mulch.

Drew, how interesting! Ok, I do have a point to make. Kimberly asked me several times, “why don’t you get some help!” But that would have completely ruined this whole thing for me. When I saw the pile as it avalanched off the truck, I knew this would either break me or make me stronger – I wanted the challenge. There were times when I wanted to quit. But as I saw the pile get smaller one truck load at a time, and one shovel full at a time it became something that I had to do. If I could move all this mulch, then I could do some other things that looked impossible as well. I will just attack them one shovel full at a time. We have also scheduled a children’s camp at our house so everything has to be completed by Monday.

Have you ever just wanted a challenge that seemed a bit overwhelming?

Many of you have asked how Caleb is doing, so sorry for not posting anything about him sooner (regarding his health anyway). He is doing fine and has had no complications. Yesterday he ran through the house to find me and with absolutely no cloths on he said, “Look dad!” And I asked, “what am I supposed to be looking at?” “And he pointing to the area where the surgery was performed (if you are confused look back a few posts). The discoloration is almost gone and everything is almost like it should be. So I said, “yeah! it looks great!” — What was I supposed to say? Thank you for your prayers and support.

There are times in leadership when you have to react in such a way as to get people’s attention. In stage acting when you make gesture you exaggerate your movements and words so that those far away understand what the actor is seeking to convey. So there are some instances when a leader has to over react to show the significance of what has happened. Even when his temperament is “even keel,” he must take up a few notches just to make a point.

In the instance I want to tell you about today it is with me as a father, the leader of my home. Caleb and Joshua got off the bus a couple of days ago as usual but upon entering the house Caleb disappeared. I knew something was up, because he always wants a snack. Joshua was more than willing to tell me what had happened earlier in their classroom. Joshua while cautious not to repeat the same motion told me that Caleb had held up his middle finger while the other fingers were held down, and made this gesture toward his teacher. He was copying another boy in the class.

In that instance I knew this was one of those times when the normal sit on the step, lose a toy, etc… simply wasn’t going to be impacting enough. I sent Caleb to his room until I had a second to think. There are times as a parent when you have to have a heavy hand and that was one of those instances. He needed to know that we don’t disrespect adults, and we don’t follow others if we don’t know what they are leading us to do. Even if Caleb did not know what “the bird” means, he did know it was wrong and that is was disrespectful. I wanted him to remember this day and what happens when he crosses the line, and when he does something he knows would disappoint his father.

After his punishment we talked about what had happened and how not to make the same mistake again. We discussed at how God had given him to me to make sure that I raised him according to His ways, and how I would one day be held accountable for this.

When our boys entered the public school system last year I was concerned that they would see and be exposed to this kind of stuff all the time. But this is the first this year, and I don’t even remember anything from last year. Figures it would be the last week of school!

The Take-Away Point: Some times you just have to go ballistic to make a point. But don’t do it too much or people will think you are neurotic. This is a magic bullet you tuck away like Barney with a bullet in his pocket on Andy Griffith.

There is something very special (and fun) about a baseball game. There is the smell of concessions, the feel of sun on your head, and the excitement of the crowd. Families are having fun, couples are experiencing first dates, children are jubilant. There is a sense of common patriotism as you remove your hat, hold your hand over your heart, and sing the “Star Spangled Banner.”

Joshua, Caleb, and I went to a Frederick Keys game tonight, and it was their first. They had millions of questions and I did my best to explain everything. There was so much “newness” that they sat very still, looked, asked questions, and never even got out of their seat.

At the end of the second inning it began to rain, so we went under cover. We bought popcorn (which was awfully stale), a Pepsi drink, chicken tenders, and fries. We leaned against the wall, huddled with hundreds of others escaping the rain and ate. We laughed, talked about the game so far, and answered even more questions.

Eventually the rain stopped and we watched the grounds crew remove the ground cover tarp, and then put it back again. I decided it was time to go, when there was no sign of the game resuming and it looked like another front was coming.

The boys were happy and I believed they enjoyed their first game – even if they missed the seventh inning stretch, and the other five innings — perhaps next time. We did get to see one batter splinter a bat, and a double play. One last thought – this is why I don’t watch baseball on tv very much, you miss all the real excitement of the game.

Kimberly and I have been putting off Caleb having surgery for over six months. Up until today he had a pediatric inguinal hydrocele that was repaired. If you are not aware of this condition, it is common among children and you con go to this link for more information.

http://www.taumed.com/content/adam/browse.jsp?pid=13&cid=100163

Overall the day was stressful. We left the house at 10am and did not return until after 6:30pm. It took all day. The actual surgery only took about 50 minutes, but the preparation, waiting, and waiting for him to wake up afterwards took all day. They allowed us to watch as the anesthesiologist put him to sleep and we were asked to leave the room. It is very unnerving to know that they are going to cut on your child, and he is so small, and his parts on the inside are so small. But I guess the people at Children’s Hospital in Rockville, MD know what their doing. I took my rolling briefcase packed with stuff to do (even write my sermon) but I could do nothing other than dumbly flip through magazine that I really cared nothing about and wait. I just couldn’t focus on anything else but what was being done in the other room to my son.

The doctor eventually came out and gave us a report, and the first thing out of his mouth was that he was fine. He even explained the surgery once again by writing with a pen on his scrubs pants. Somebody get that man a flip notepad.

Caleb eventually awoke, asked for a ice cream pop and some water and has not slowed down since. They insisted on wheeling him out in a wheelchair and Caleb insisted on pushing it himself with his arms – no assistance please, thank you very much. His brother and sister met him at the van as we pulled up into the yard and they actually acted like they were concernbed for their brother’s well being.

He is not supposed to play outside (jumping, wrestling, bike riding, etc…). In other words, all the things that he loves to do are off limits for two weeks. This is going to be hard. He does have a war wound about one inch long about three inches above his groin area. He’s not supposed to touch it, especially not to scratch it. He hasn’t complained of pain and is moving a little slower, other than that you’d never know the difference.