A headline about Lori

I've spent the past two weeks reading scholarship applications, which always gives me a window into how people think about the future.

Over the past two months we reworked our fertilizer strategy because the kerfuffle with Iran sent prices skyrocketing. The wheat is running four weeks ahead of schedule because it has been so warm. That’s not a bad thing on its own, but a smaller crop than we'd hoped because the ground has been so dry. Right now we are waiting on rain so we can plant corn.

A wind farm project near us was scrapped this week, and the most revealing part was not the policy debate itself or even the formal decision.

Yesterday, about 45 minutes before we needed to leave for a wedding, I was trying to cut my son’s hair. He wanted a fade. I had limited skill, limited time, and an 11-year-old offering heated commentary with nearly every swipe of the clippers.

I’ve been accompanying choirs and groups on the piano since high school, which means I’ve had many years of practice in the fine art of being essential and not the main attraction.

I was in Hays, Kansas, last week for the Hansen Forum, where I spent the first day with community foundation staff and the second with a broader group including board members, economic development staff, and community leaders from across northwest Kansas.

We just got back from spring break. Family ski trip (year four), and for the first time, all four of us could ski at roughly the same pace. Which means this year was the first year that actually felt like a vacation rather than an elaborate exercise in family conflict management.

This week we sent annual reports for Cobb Community Foundation and West Central Initiative to the printer.

I was just in Phoenix for AdNet, a conference for community foundation development and communications folks.

“General public” is not an audience. It is a location. It tells you where people live. It does not tell you whose behavior must change to gain traction on a goal.

“I’m sick of it.” That’s how a community foundation CEO opened our meeting last week.