Back to School!

School has started again and so has my little girl scout troop. My oldest child, my daisy, is now in first grade! I can't believe it. She was so excited to begin a new class and luckily she had a few of her old classmates in her new class to help ease the transition.

With first grade comes nightly homework, and weekly tests and book reports. Which has been a huge change for all of us, especially for my little Charlotte. She doesn't like not being right in the middle of everything.  Spelling tests are weekly now, with 10-15 words a week. Normally she does just fine thankfully, but we have started my dads old tried and true flashcard method. Even though she is only 6 she already has an amazing standard that she holds herself to. Which can be great, but also has led to some tears already this school year.

She still loves Girl Scouts and though we lost a few girls to other activities this year, we gained a few as well. Making new friends is a lot of what Girl Scouts is about anyway! This will be her last year as a Daisy. She is so impatient to become a brownie next year in second grade! I can't believe I have been a leader for 8 months now.  I wonder how far I will go with the troop, and how far my daughter will go with scouts. We are having a fall fundraiser, selling Nuts and Candies, and Magazines.  I don't expect to do as well as we did with cookies, after all everyone knows and loves Girl Scout Cookies!!  However, Jasmine has made her own goal to sell 50.  I only made the per girl goal of 25, which is what it takes to get the participation patch.

Charlotte also began a new journey, preschool! The first day of preschool is so scary, but Charlotte handled it like a pro. She has made some 'friends' in her school not just in her class. I think she will be very social as she gets older. Now I just need to get her back into a dance class. If I felt like I had the time to work it into our schedule.

Merging two schedules together was fairly easy with just my husband and I. Then we had Jasmine and I never went back to work, so it was barely two schedules.  I loved being with her every minute to watch her grow and learning every thing. Watching first hand and seeing her experiencing so many things for the first time was just amazing. I am so thankful that its worked out for me to stay home with her.  Which was much different then we had planned, but ended up working just perfectly. Then we had our second child as life we on, it become more complicated merging schedules. My oldest was in preschool when I had Charlotte, and she loved school even then. I seamed able to bring my new baby along where ever we went. Charlotte really has been a happy little girl. Life was moving along just fine.

Now with preschool I have two school schedules to merge into my husbands work and my family schedules. Having both kids out of the house for two whole (if I'm lucky 2 1/2 hours) to myself. Being a stay at home mom has been wonderful for my family, don't get me wrong.  However, some days I feel completely isolated from the world. These days, I feel like I am always rushing to drop off and pick up someone. Then throw in small daily and necessary visits like dentist, haircuts, soccer and piano lessons, often I feel like I am going crazy.

On the first day of both girls being in school I didn't even know what to do! I drove around turning left, then realizing I should go right to go return this, and no left, I should go to the grocery store. Imagine going to a grocery store by myself! The separation really set it. I had been telling everyone how good it would be for Charlotte to start school at 3. When I realized I didn't know how to be anything but 'Mommy'. I feel strange when I go to the store, no one is paying me any attention. With my girls everyday someone would watch my girls and smile, or say how cute (or pretty their dress was...etc.) and alone, no one cared! When I see other little girls, I am drawn into them, admiring their outfits and cute faces. I am reminded of my own, and long for them in a surprising way. I miss my kids for a few hours? I thought I was pulling out my hair, needed a break from them and I miss them. The truth remains I love my girls no matter how much they drive me nuts.

So, I have had the time, to get my car fixed, working AC is a necessity this time of year! Able to get a haircut, and shop for shoes for an upcoming family wedding. I still find myself rushing though things, but I have also realized its ok for me to take a little time for me too. Some days I don't do that much during the two hours other then dishes and or laundry and vacuum. And that's ok too. I have started to do some soul searching which often feels like despair, but I am looking to find what to do now. I know now, I do want to go back to work. I have more then I few ideas what I want to do, but no real plan on how to get to any of them. My brain has been stuck in mommy mode for too long. I talked myself into starting the troop for my daughter hoping it would help lead me to a more social mommy life. Its time for 'me' to come back out, and writing is a great way to help get the gears moving. I want to discover something I am passionate about, and go from there. Oh, and it has to fit into my small window of time I have to give. Who knows where I may find myself in 6-12 months from now, but I am aiming for a new path then the one I am on now.

Tie-Dyed Girl Scouts

It's really amazing that the year I get involved in the Girl Scouts again for my daughter, happens to be the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouts.  I was a Girl Scout as a child, and remember loving it.  I had a friend from school who's mom was the leader.  We went to camp, we sang songs, we went to the zoo.  I loved being a girl scout so my daughter thought she would too.  This lead to me being a troop leader in the year 2012. 

So, as a fun little troop project, I decided to have our troop tie-dye some white shirts.  I got the shirts from local crafting stores, and it took several stores over several days to get enough girls youth size small white shirts, but I found them.  I also purchased plastic aprons, and a simple tie-die kit.  The project went well with minimal mess. The shirts turned out better then I expected, and then I decided to make it more complicated.  I wanted to put a logo on the shirts, so the girls could wear their shirts to school on the 100th Birthday as a troop.  Then after that, they can wear the shirts anytime, and even under their uniform. 

I found some iron-on transfer paper online, and read some reviews and thought I would give it a go.  Well once it came down to it, I realized my approved Girl Scout Logo had a white back ground around the logo and the words. I printed it on my ink jet printer and it looked fantastic.  However the white, which would show on the tie-died shirts unless I cut out all the letters, which I was not about to do for every girl and leaders.  I ended up just printing and cutting out just the 100 logo and ironing them on each shirt over their heart.  The shirts as you can see below, turned out fantastic.  All the girls wore them to school, on the 100th Birthday, it was a lot of fun. 

The greatest part I had in all this, was when I handed each shirt back to the girl who had made it.  The excited, smiling face would just be beaming with pride.  "You made this."  I told them each, when they flashed the wide eyed look of surprise when I handed them over. The face, the emotion, the pride, the feeling it gave me was priceless.  All the running around and planning was worth it just for that.  Not to mention every time they wear them, they have a story behind it, that they made it. We also had a birthday party themed meeting with cupcakes and they all earned their first patch. It was a great week, we had fun celebrating.

Girl Scouts may be about many things, but I am so glad I became a part of it, again.  The rewards, even this early on in our new little troop are great, not only for me, but most importantly for each girl.  To have fun, happy, inspiring experiences with other girls that want the same things.  Empowering girls with knowledge and creativity is what I wish for my girls and all of my troop girls as well.

Cookies anyone?

Jasmine often plays with my old Girl Scout sash covered in patches and pins, and one day, she asked me if she could be a Girl Scout too. I immediately said, YES! About a year ago I did a little research to find out at what age she could join. I found that she could join at age 5, but she had to be in Kindergarten.  Finally after 9 months of attempted contact on my part to the local girl scouts council, I got a call back from someone in the girl scouts referring me to someone else. Discouraged but yet, in about a week I heard back and found there was no troop for Jasmine in our area. The Solution? I could become a Girl Scout leader myself. For some reason my answer was yes.

I have already set up a troop of Daisy Girl Scouts all Kindergarteners and we've had two meetings. I even found a mom to be a Asst. Leader. So please wish me luck. Only until recently had I begun to question my confidence and no problem attitude for taking on such a task. Why did I say, 'Sure, I can do that'? I have considered working with kids more then a few times in my past, but when I had my own kids I worried I would 'burn' out. I had looked into teaching after I had Jasmine and was discouraged from every angle in the field and after studying and passing the CBEST, I did nothing with it. I knew I could, with my bachelors already, and the CBEST, get on lists to substitute teach, but also heard discouragement from those who did the same, jobs were scarce. I was not about to get my Masters or any other degree knowing the job market was poor.  I decided it best to stay at home, which I don't regret.  I was able to spend that time bonding with my first born, and now even my second child.  I also realized I love to play more then I love school, who doesn't? I love teaching my daughter fun and interesting crafts, art, sports, and just dancing silly to loud music.  Maybe Girl Scouts will be fun and challenging for me, which I really need right now. I need to keep my mind sharp and learning and trying new things, or I will just get stuck in a rut.

Living now in Los Angeles, quickly realized many people just don't understand what Girl Scouts are all about.  Many parents have heard about Girl Scouts, but some really don't have any idea what they actually do.  Having grown up living in Colorado, being a Girl Scout and going to Girl Scout camps, was a simple choice.  I wanted and some would argue, needed, to learn camping skills, survival skills, horse back ridding and the arts and crafts were a plus.  I also had fun, made friends, who became pen-pals for a while.  Every patch has memory attached to it, now matter how small.  Nowadays the Girl Scouts really want to create leaders, girls with confidence and skills.  I love that idea.  I could have used more confidence growing up, and even still today.  I want my daughter to be strong, courageous, independent and motivated. Its not just about selling cookies, that's how they fiance their troops events for the year.  I hope I can convince the parents I am dealing with of the same.  Have a positive, fun environment for them to learn and create in.  So if you hear me ask, 'Cookies anyone'?, please know that its just for the fun and enjoyment of a little 6 year old girl.  Life is so exciting when your 6, life is full of possibilities.  I for one, will not be the one to tell that cute little face 'no', when she asks me to buy a few boxes of yummy cookies from her.  I will see the pride in her face of a job well done, when she sees just how many people love her and want her to succeed.