Girl Scouts

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know that I love working with the scouts! I have been a Girl Scout leader for 18 years (with no end in sight…). I figure I can retire from scouts the same time my sweetie retires from his job unless I have some granddaughters by then who happen to need a leader.

I’ve told you a bunch of our adventures this year including our trip to the zoo. We also took all the girls to an outdoor theater and watched the musical Camp Rock. We had a sleepover and tied a quilt for Teach’s Relay for Life team. We planted trees and went swimming. We played basketball and volleyball and we learned how to paint with pastels and use a compass. We even made jewelry and learned how to play jacks!



So this past week we had our Annual Awards Family Picnic for the girls and their families. My sweetie dragged his event-sized BBQ grill over to the bowery and grilled burgers and dogs for everyone. We invited some of our girls to show off their amazing scouting skills and we sang camp songs. Then we formed the promise circle and sang “Make New Friends.” It’s sort of like the Kumbaya of Girl Scouts in Utah. My girls were excited to receive their awards and bridge to the next scouting level. I was excited to be finished until October.

The best part of Girl Scouts is the cookies (but not selling them) and working with the girls. Every year I question my sanity, but I still send in my paperwork and make up a calendar. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve thought about quitting. Trying to convince these very different girls that we have to be a “sister to every Girl Scout” is hard!

Most girls only stay with scouts for a few years and then they move on to other things. There are so many good activities (and lots of bad ones too) competing for our time and energy. I’ve told you before that I have a secret wish…I want all my girls to earn their Gold Awards and all my boys to earn the Eagle Scout. So far I have five of the twelve who have made it.
 

My secret fear is that I will get too tired and old to help them be what they want to be. I’m 46 now and Baby Doll is not even a year old yet. When she graduates from high school, I will be 64! It makes me tired just thinking about it. Does anybody have any idea where I can find the Fountain of Youth? I may just need it…and a couple dozen boxes of Thin Mints.

Food For Thought - Strawberry Crepes

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that I have a Girl Scout troop that meets at my house every other Friday. Officially we have 12 girls in our troop, but only 9 attend regularly. Our troop is a little different from most because we have a mixed-level troop; that means we have girls ranging from 17 to age 5. It’s more of a challenge to run a troop this way, but I like it because I can have all 4 of my scout-age girls meet together. I have been involved with the Girl Scouts as a troop leader for the last 17 years. 

We started our first troop when we lived in our old house and Bossy was nine years old. She was so excited to be a Brownie! I was not a Girl Scout as a child since I grew up in small-town Utah and they only had 4-H there. When I became a leader, I really didn’t know what I was doing, but I wanted to make Bossy happy. So I coerced my neighbor who happened to have a daughter the same age into being my co-leader, rounded up the rest of the neighbor girls, and we were a troop. From Day One I accidentally broke rules right and left. This proved to be very effective and our troop enjoyed many fun activities. When I got pregnant with the Dog Walker that spring and had so much trouble, we dissolved that particular troop. Then we moved and started all over. 

My three oldest girls all graduated from Girl Scouts and have participated in my troop as co-leaders. We have some fun traditions like our end-of-year Annual Family Picnic where we have a potluck BBQ and give out awards. For the last five years we have also had a Sleep Over at my house around Memorial Day weekend. This is a fun time when I can teach the girls things that can’t be done in an hour and a half on a Friday. We have sewed pajamas, learned to knit, played jacks, made chocolates, and for the last couple of years we have tied quilts for Teach’s Relay for Life team. Then on Saturday morning we always have Strawberry Crepes. The girls love them and even my skinny little Princess can eat about six of them. Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think.

Strawberry Crepes

 2 cups flour
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
2 cups milk
½ tsp salt
Mix well with electric mixer. Heat small skillet and spray with cooking spray. Pour about ¼ cup batter into skillet and rotate pan to thin and cover. Cook until golden brown, flip and cook other side. Remove from heat and add filling and fruit.
 

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
12 oz of sour cream
strawberries, bananas or other berries
chocolate syrup
 

Mix together in blender until smooth. Put filling and fruit in crepes and roll up. Drizzle with additional filling and more fruit. Then add a little chocolate syrup in a pretty pattern. Strawberries and bananas are our favorites. This year we added blueberries and blackberries. Modify it to fit the tastes of your family.

Secret Goal

I have this secret goal for all of my kids. It was one of those that sort of evolved after the first few kids. Our Gym Rat was only 15 when he earned his Eagle Scout. Even though they lost his paperwork for a year and he had long outgrown his scout uniform so I had to buy a new one, I was so proud to watch him receive that Eagle Scout pin and speak at his own Court of Honor. 

Bossy became a Girl Scout at age 9. They didn’t have Girl Scouts in my hometown, so I was not at all familiar with the program. I learned quickly that if you wanted to put your kid in a troop, you had to be a troop leader. So being a kind, ever-loving, long-enduring masochistic martyr, I signed on as the leader. Thus began my love/hate relationship with scouts. Mostly I love it, but on Friday mornings when I’m madly cleaning the house and preparing my lesson for 10 restless little girls I sometimes wonder why I volunteered for such misery. Anyway, I stuck with the Girl Scout thing, not always as the Troop Leader, but always involved with cookie sales or as an assistant leader. 

So Bossy moved through the program, earning every possible pin and award (because that’s her personality!). I wasn’t surprised when after Silver she moved on to her Gold Award. A Gold Award is the equivalent of the Eagle Scout for girls. That’s when I decided it would be cool for all of my kids to receive the highest awards available in scouting. Of course I didn’t have nearly this many kids when I thought that…we’ll see if I poop out before they get that old. As of now our oldest five children have managed to make my goal. I’ll keep you posted on the rest…Princess and Prima Donna have both earned their Silver Award so they are well on their way. Only 10,000 boxes of cookies, 1,000 hours of service, and 100 merit badges to go.  Makes me tired just thinking about it.