An unexpected snow day gave me time to make the Arrow!

We had the good graces of having a snow day Thursday and Friday.  We had a really bad snow storm moving thru the area that was slated to hit Thursday morning.  School got called Wednesday night for the following day.

I have no idea why people complain so much about snow days.  I should have every reason to bitch, since there is no pay for me if I don't have kids to drive to school.  I am just sick to death of people living in their own insular little worlds that because they live 1/2 block from the school and they can get their kids there then everyone else should have to go to school.

COME THE HELL ON PEOPLE!!!!!

There are alot more streets than yours in a school district.  It has to be safe for ALL OF THEM to get to school.

But I digress, I decided to take advantage of the day off of work and get some errands done.  The storm wasn't supposed to hit until around noon and at 930 I headed out with the 2 oldest kids to go to the Scout Shop to get the uniforms they were gonna need for their upcoming transition into Boyscouting from CubScouting.  $200 later, we headed home.  And the weather had hit.  Not only did it take me an hour to get home when it should have only taken 15 minutes, People were driving like clowns.  (to steal a favorite phrase of my dad's)

I got to sewing and managed to get all the required insignia on both of the boys uniforms.  Then I turned my attention to the Career Arrow Kit I purchased for my son earning the Arrow of Light.  (I had really wanted to make on, but ran out of time)  My snow day turned out to be a blessing.

I planned out how I was going to stripe the shaft (and had to leave stuff off because I ran out of room!)

I ended up using black for a background, and white for the arrow of light, green stripes for each webelos pin he earned, red white and blue for his national good turn, purple and white for the world conservation, dark blue for the webelos rank, silver and gold for the corresponding arrow points, baby blue for bear, red for wolf, orange for tiger, yellow for bobcat, green and brown for leave no trace, and tan for the outdoor activity award.

I think it turned out pretty cool, the only thing I still want to do is get silver pony beads for all the beltloops he earned and thread those onto the eagle feathers.  But they were out of them so I guess it will have to wait!

Arrow of Light (take 2)

So yesterday I talked a little about how I wish I had the time to do a project for my son's Arrow of Light award/ crossover ceremony.

Here's what I planned on doing.

If you click the picture it should take you to instructions for how to make it!

A Career Arrow.  I had my own plans for how I was going to do it after I read that arrows cost like a trillion dollars for a wooden arrow.  (Okay, not a trillion, but in the $20 range which is high enough). 

I was going to use a dowel rod.  I planned on wrapping it in Embroidery Floss for the colored bands.  I wanted to make a fake glued on fletching (the feather's on the end) that would be blue and yellow to represent the Cub Scouts, then I wanted to use a Fleur Di Lis instead of an arrow head for the Boy Scouts. 

I still might do this, but I know it will take a bit of planning and I only have until Saturday!  YIKES!

Growing Up and Moving On

My 11 year old is about to get his Arrow of Light at our Pack's Blue and Gold Banquet, the same night he crosses over into Boy Scouting from CubScouts.  It doesn't seem like it is much, or that it would be such a big deal, but ask any Scoutmom and they will tell you it is HUGE.

The Arrow of Light is the highest award that can be earned in Cub Scouting, as well as the only award that you can wear on your Boy Scout uniform.  The award itself is significantly different from other achievements in cub scouting, and is structured more like a Boy Scout Rank than other awards are.  To earn this simple looking patch, my son (and hundreds of thousands before him) have had to memorize the Scout oath, Law, Motto, Slogan, and tell what it means in their own words.  He had to earn certain Webelos Pins, and 'interview' several Boy Scout Troops.  And perhaps the hardest requirement of all:  He had to sit down and have a ScoutMaster Conference with a grownup all about his work on this rank, without his Mommy holding his hand or even standing by his side.  It was the first of many Scout Master Conferences he will have to attend, and I will nervously be waiting in the wings, biting my nails, hoping he doesn't choke on his words.  It symbolizes him coming one step closer to becoming the man I hope and dream he will become.

I have been an active Scout Mom for the last 5 years, and this marks a bittersweet end for me.  I can now have my weekends and evenings back.  I can clear out my hoard of "I can't throw that out, because one day the scouts might be able to do something with it" junk that consists of dozens of large coffee cans, baby food jars, oatmeal containers, tupperware boxes of glitter, crayons, and gluesticks, hunks of pvc pipe presawed into neckerchief slides waiting to be adorned with clothespins and felt.  I have done my part.  As my good friend Jennifer said to her son "I have held your hand and pulled you thru cubscouts, but now you have to hold my hand and pull me thru boyscouts with you".  The ball is in his court.  His success is now determined by his own determination.  He is the master of his own fate.  I hope he continues on in the path that we have both worked so hard on for all these years.  But I cannot do it for him.

It is a small baby step in the journey of growing a man out of a small boy, and perhaps just a taste of what is to come when he brings home a girlfriend, drives a car, goes away to college, gets married, moves out, and starts a family for the first time.  And I don't know if I am going to be able to handle it all that swell.  I still want to hold his hand, to guide him along, to shield him from failures.  But now that he had "graduated" into Boy Scouting, he will have to walk along this road on his own.

Many cubscout packs give their boys a Career Arrow as a special memento of earning this award and graduating into a Boy Scout Troop.  I wanted very much to do something similar for my son.  But as usual I have run out of time.  He crosses over in just 5 short days and I don't know if I will be able to get it all done in time.  I might just have to try.  I want him to have something to hold onto that is tangible recognition of all that he has done.  I know that it is really going to be a memento for me, because he will always take with him the knowledge and experiences he has gained along the scouting trail.

Slow Cooker Roasted Almonds

My dad is impossibly hard to shop for.  Really, he has enough money to buy whatever he has even the remotest interest in, so you are stuck with ideas that he didn't know he wants.  And he is kind of a technophile (I had to get it from somewhere!)  Which leaves me at an eternal loss for gifts for him.  One year I got him one of those SD cards that automatically uploads your photos to a website for sharing or sends them to your email.  I thought it would be perfect for him since he often works out of town, and my mom attends all the grandchildren stuff.  He could configure the card, slip it in her camera, she could photograph away and BAM!  As soon as she was within range of a WIFI connection, he could view the photographs instantly.  Plus it would auto backup the photos as soon as he took them via wifi so if it was ever lost or stolen the photos wouldn't be lost.  I really thought I did a good thing.

Until I found it in his office, still in the package, 3 years later.  I guess the EYE-Fi wasn't such a cool idea.

So that pretty much leaves him with food gifts.  I usually make him hard candy.  Lemon Flavored.  But I wanted to do something different this year.  See, he has grown accustom to our traditional gift exchange of homemade hard candies for him and something really nice techie and expensive for me.

I found a recipe for Slow Cooker Roasted Almonds and they are JUST LIKE the ones you get from the mall.  And they are super easy.  And they make your house smell good.  Only downfall is that Almonds are kinda expensive as far as nuts go.

Slow Cooker Roasted Almonds
Makes 3 cups

1 and 1/2 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg white
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups almonds
1/4 cup water

Pour sugars, cinnamon, and salt into base of slow cooker. Mix until evenly combined throughout. In a separate bowl, whisk egg white with vanilla. Add almonds and stir until all almonds are coated with egg wash.

Pour almonds into slow cooker and stir with sugar mixture

Cook almonds in slow cooker for 4 hours on low heat, stirring well every 20 minutes. When 1 hour of cook time remains, pour water into slow cooker and mix thoroughly.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread cooked almonds to cool. Make sure to break up any clumps and don't be afraid to let there be a bunch of 'topping' pooled between the nuts.
(I am too cheap to buy parchment paper so I used cooking spray on a cookie sheet and when the nuts were cooled, they popped right off the tray.)


They were a huge hit, and will probably become a holiday favorite.

Family History

One of my biggest regrets in life was that I didn't remember all of the stories and things that my Grandmother told me.  She passed away while I was a preteen, and although she often told me stories about herself, I don't recall many.  The ones from my Grandfather are even foggier, since he died 2 years before she did, and always seemed 'older' than she was.  He was of course, but even in old age people can just have 'old people personalities'.  Now that I am in my mid thirties, I really would give just about anything to sit down and have a conversation with my grandparents and have all of my questions answered.

My dad's side of the family is just as bad.  My grandmother is suffering from altzheimer's disease, and barely remembers anyone, much less any details about her family or childhood.  At least, I remember a touch more from her stories than my mother's family.  Possibly because my NeNe (my dad's mom) ALWAYS told us stories about her family, and did so up until she began to loose her memory.  I was in my mid 20's by then.

I have been working on documenting my family history ever since I had my first child.  I never wanted him to feel the way I did, or to have the questions I had.

This past Christmas, I put together a family history album for my grandparents about their families.  It was a simple plan.  I wanted to highlight the family as it stand right now.  My grandparents, all of their children, their grandchildren and great grandchildren, as well as their siblings and parents.

I wanted to make the family history come alive for anyone who read it.  I wanted to make it enjoyable and easy to understand, and I wanted to be able to included photographs and documents that detailed the family.
I plotted for over a year trying to figure out how to lay it out.

What I decided to do was feature a main page with an overview of the tree.  I wanted to show both my grandfather LOU and my grandmother JENNIE and their parents and siblings as well as their children and their children's children.  I was thinking of a bowtie tree with siblings listed to the side but I wanted this to be an overview.  With photos and lines only.

It was the beginning of a good plan.  I planned out the rest of the album and decided that the next pages would include a dual page layout of my grandparents, and on that page, I would include smaller photos of thier children (as children).  Each of the pages after that would be of the Childen as adults.... with their children photos smaller on that page.  Followed by pages of the grandchildren (with their children if applicable).

I searched for scrapbook templates to make this easier, since a template and a repetitive layout and style will make for a more cohesive look to the finished project.  Once I found one I created a plan of the pages.

I used google docs to make a plan of the pages, and was able to add scans of things I had found to show the quick plan better.  For instance, I bought some of the Ancestry Pedigree charts and Family Group sheets at a local store and scanned images of them in, so I could plot out how it would turn out.

On the 'Coming To America' page, I wanted to use some file folders to keep an immigration file for each family.  I kept the album interactive by making a place for these file folders to pull out and be read when desired.  I also wanted to include all of the census records that mentioned direct ancestors, so I printed them off and highlighted our family then put them in a flip book style layout.  I provided translations of the census information for ease of reading (instead of writing Doe, Jon Jacob, m, s, 48, farmer, Illinois I would write Jon Jacob Doe was a Single male residing in Illinois during the 1900 census.  He was 48 years old having been born in XXXX in Michigan)  (I just made all that up, so my apologies if you are searching for information about Jon Jacob Doe from Illinois and stumble on this page!)  I found quite a few newspaper clippings that I was able to copy and I wanted to include these marriage announcements, obituaries, and stories of interest as well.

After collecting all my supplies, and hounding my family for old photos,  I set off to work.  And as the saying goes THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN... OFTEN GO A-WRY.  I was off to a great start, but it didn't come together the way I had hoped.  I winged it, and made some changes based on what photos I had. And I put together an awesome album.

Everyone enjoyed it, and I have a few good ideas for how to put one together for my own children.

If all the other kids jumped off a bridge, I know now that my son wouldn't.

I just came to the realization that choosing a Boy Scouting Troop is alot like choosing a college.  You visit the troops, interview the Scout Master and fellow boy scouts, talk with your family, review financial records to see what you can affort, then make a decision and HOPE AND PRAY you didn't make the wrong choice.

My 11 year old has been involved HEAVILY with Scouting since he was in 1st grade.  Actually, he saw the Cub Master at the kindergarten open house and BEGGED me to let him join.  I concented only to find out that he had to wait until the next year.  And he was sure to remind me the very next year, even though we had moved and he had to change schools.

After that first TIGER year, I was recruited into a leadership position.  I ran a den of boys for their WOLF and BEAR years and co-ran a WEBELOS 1 den.  This year he is a Webolos 2 (or a 2nd year Webelos since the webelos program is an 18 month program).  I have been stepping back, and not actively leading a den this year, instead focusing my time on SCOUT COMMITTEE membership.  I have been running an active recruitment campaign to replace all of the leaders and committee members who will be leaving the pack to join a troop this year.

My son want's to earn his EAGLE rank.  I have no doubt that he will earn it, but I want to do what I can to find the right troop for him to do so.  I guess when you think about it, it is similiar to stacking the deck.  I mean we want our children to succeed, and it is the job of the parents to "stack the deck" in anyway we can to set them up on the road for success.  For my children, this means I make sure they have the tools they need to accomplish their goals.  I make sure they have all the school supplies they need, the clothes that won't get them made fun of, etc.  I also know that college will be out of the realm of something I can pay for, so we find something they like, and work the hell out of it so that they can have a shot at something.  My 11 year old wants to join the service.  (really I think it's more of an obsession with Call of Duty games)  He would be perfectly cut out for it.  And he realizes that earning his EAGLE rank will help him in obtaining a higher pay grade upon joining the military.  And he has fun in scouts.

But I digress.  We have been working on visiting troops to find a good match.  It helps that it is part of the Arrow Of Light award too!  For the last 5 years in scouts we KNEW that we were gonna join Troop 942 out of St. Andrew's Methodist.  95% of the boys in our cub scout pack joined there.  And it was the 'big names' of our pack.  The overachievers.  The ones with parental involvement.  It just seemed like a natural progression, both for me and for my son.  We were even sold when we visited the troop.  I spoke with the other parents that had joined in the years before me, and really felt like it was going to be like a reunion for me.  My son liked the active calendar and seeing his old buddies.  The meeting was CHAOS.  Lots of high energy.  I asked a giant list of questions to the Scout Master.   I was hooked.

Until I visited with another troop that the remaining 5% of our cubscouts cross into.  Troop 829 out of St Sabina Catholic Church.  My son and I walked into a small group of Webelos 2's sitting down with the Scout Master.  He was telling the boys all about the differences in Cub scouting vs. Boy Scouting.  It was the way he did it that was so special. He was asking questions and letting the boys tell each other.  If they got stuck, he guided their answers and thought processes by asking different questions.  It was the very embodiment of BOY LEAD with an ADULT guiding the process.

Things just got interesting.

I really was liking what I saw.  I liked how they seemed to be working the scouting system the right way.  Then the meeting opened.  The boys repeated the oath and the law.  It hit me then that I didn't see that in my meeting with 942.  Both troops worked on merit badge requirements, one was more active meeting once a week, and seemed to be into activity and fun, and the other was slower and met only 2 times a month but participated in more of the serious side of scouting.

My mind was made up.  I wanted the serious quieter troop, since they seemed to be 'growing MEN' instead of just providing a fun after school activity.  (don't get me wrong, the busier troop also had plenty of advancement, but it seemed that it was the core super involved parents kids who were advancing, which made me question if my son would do it without me PUSHING him)  I had no idea how to get my son to go along with it.  I was certain that he would want to join the troop we had been planning on crossing into since we found out about it.

Then a miracle happened.  He and I sat down and I asked him which he would like to join.  He told me he was still thinking about it, and wasnt sure how to decide.  I asked him to think about pros and cons of both, and think about what he wanted to get out of being a scout.  He told me he wants to be an EAGLE scout.  And he was kind of thinking that the SLOWER more Serious troop would be the best place for him to make Eagle.

My heart skipped a beat.  I was so astounded that an 11 year old could come to that conclusion on his own.  It helped show me that the Scouting program and all the work I have put into participation has been worth it.  I am raising the kind of kid I want to raise.

Then it got even better.  He informed me that he wants to make 1st class in his 1st year, and he knows that 829 is the best place for that, AND he figures that after he gets all of the basics covered, if he starts to get bored, he can transfer to the more active troop.

It was like he was reading my mind.  I had been thinking that it would be a good tool to have in my parent arsenal that he could transfer to a more 'fun' troop when I start to loose his interest due to cars, jobs, and girls, and sports.  If he joined the more active fun based troop then it would be harder to convince him to join a more  serious troop if the time came that his interest was waning.

So we emailed the Scout Master and told our Cub Scout pack the news, we were going to buck tradition and go with a different troop than most of our other scouts.  We were going to go somewhere that my son didn't really know many of the kids, and we made an unpopular choice.

I think that unpopular choice to go against what the whole crowd is doing is an important thing.  My son learned (and demonstrated) that what everyone else is doing is not the same as what  is best for you, and that it is okay to go against the main stream.

I have never been so proud.