Girl Scout Cookies

We kick-off our cookie sales this Friday.  If you read this post between January 11th and 27th, and find yourself craving cookies, just comment and let me know how many of what kinds, and we will be glad to get them to you in February.  :-)

My co-leader/BFF and I are pretty laid back when it comes to cookie sales.  We expect everyone to participate, but we do not hold our girls to a hard and fast minimum or goal.  We discuss goals, how much we get per box, and how we plan to use the money, but we aren't crazy about how many they must sell.  Whatever funds we don't have, parents pitch in to make up the difference. (The thing that bothers me the most is that we only get $0.55 or $0.60 per box. We do a lot of work (and have a lot of fun) for such a small amount of money.)

We are well aware of a troop that has a point system or massively detailed system for how many cookies must be sold, what that covers (activities), etc. For every box not sold to meet the ultimate goal, that is more the parents have to pay or more service hours the girls must do.  This system is so complex that I cannot even begin to explain it to you.  It is just mind boggling!

Yesterday, my co-leader overheard two fathers discussing one father's daughter's cookie meeting and the expectations of the troop leader.  He was just blown away at her expectations for initial sales, but at the same time, his daughter barely sold any cookies--somewhere around 20 boxes.

Maybe it is just us, two girls, now leaders, who were selling cookies as Brownie Girl Scouts back in Kindergarten, but the cookies sell themselves.  I put a framed picture of my niece with a little explanation next to the cookie order form in the lounge at my school.  When I go back at the end of the day, I have sold at least 20.  I do this over and over until the end of initial sales. I carry my form to department meetings and other gatherings of educators. Normally, if one buys, another will buy.  My last ditch effort is to send out an email to the whole campus just reminding them to buy before the deadline.  Once the cookies come in and we have our booth sales stash, I take various boxes to work, and I sell them with no trouble.

Cookies sell themselves.  Remember, when you see girls (or their parents) selling in the next few weeks, you are supporting a wonderful cause.

Do I have any Girl Scout followers?  What are your secrets to selling cookies?

Great Blog

My dear, best friend, Jill, has started a blog to focus on education, books, and more.  I encourage you to follow her at ...and Jill Came Tumbling After.

She has also shared the 2013 Reading Challenge from Goodreads.com.  I encourage you to take part.  I haven't set a goal of how many I want to read this year, but I have finished my first, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.  I enjoyed this book, but I really liked Flynn's Gone Girl better.

Happy reading!

Caring for the Elderly

Have you been the caregiver for a senior citizen? If so, please share you thoughts, ideas, and ways of surviving.

My mother, the most amazing, strongest woman I know, has taken over the daily care of her mother, Granny.  We had some wonderful ladies who stayed with her 24/7 for the last 9.5 months, but due to finances, Mom took over at Thanksgiving.  You know it has to be an adjustment to do something like this, but I don't think anyone can really prepare themselves for what is involved. Mom has given up her whole life, and in order to check on both of them, my life has changed too.

Granny lived alone and still drove until May 2010.  She was followed, attacked, and robbed.  That very incident would impact anyone, but it was the beginning of the end of the lady we knew.  Because she was so scared, even in her own home, she would be awake at all hours.  One early September morning in 2010, she was moving through her house, fell, and broke her hip.  After surgery and a hospital stay, she went to a rehab facility.  She did great, and she was able to return to her home within 3 months. She continued to be scared, but she was determined to be on her own.  By this point, she was no longer driving, and she was pretty much in her home full-time, afraid to leave b/c someone might break in. She would leave if a family member took her somewhere, but she was afraid until she returned home.

In September 2011, she developed a blood infection and a few other concerns, so back to the hospital she went.  Again, a hospital stay led to rehab to get her up and moving.  She didn't recover as well from this.  Dementia began settling in.  She seemed to enjoy the rehab facility, so we decided to leave her there in the nursing home portion.  For the most part, she was happy, made friends, and seemed to be doing well. This was when things were going well, her mind was "right, and she was more herself. However, she also had another side. This side was angry and frustrated, and during this time, she would argue and argue about going home, accuse people of things, and more.  Finally, in order for Mom to survive, we gave Granny a choice, knowing she wasn't always in her right mind.  She could stay in the nursing home or she would go home with 24/7 care.  Because of the Dementia, she totally believed she could care for herself and didn't know why someone had to be there full-time. This has been the argument and struggle for 10 months.

Through the caregivers, we have learned about "sun-downing" and Dementia, but it is still so hard to see Granny like this, see how she seems fine and herself one minute and the next she is a mean, selfish, ungrateful person we don't know.  She talks to herself or to people who aren't there. She says things that she would never have said to Mom or in front of me.

Unless I keep a log of everything Granny says or does, no one can believe what this has been like, especially for Mom.

There has to be some sort of training for this.  I am sure there are support systems, but how do you go about finding them or becoming a part?  Caring for anyone, but especially a parent, is so stressful, which I have probably already said, and you don't get a lot of rest. It is exhausting.

Besides worrying about Mom and the toll this is taking on her and her health, this whole situation has started me thinking about when I become a senior citizen and have no one to care for me.  I know it may sound like I'm being selfish, but . . . Will I be that sad little lady in the nursing home with no one visiting? Who will know when it is time for me to have full time help? Who will pay for it?  What if I can't pay for it? Where do I go?

So . . . besides wondering about my future, this has also brought to my mind the need for families to start thinking, now, about the care of their parents and/or grandparents when time comes.  So many people think that is something to worry about later, but I tell you, the time is now to start thinking and planning.  Loved ones need to become educated on care-giving or caring for the elderly.  I don't have all the answers, but I just know more has to be done to get the info out to loved ones.

Good-bye, 2012! Hello, 2013!

Happy New Year!  

Do you have any resolutions? Goals? Plans?

2012 was a difficult year for me. Not one I'm ready to discuss in blog format, but one I know God led me through either to strengthen me or those I love. I don't wish to ever live a year like 2012 again--the sadness, pain, and anger I have felt, the major life changes I have endured, but I know that God has a plan, and I must have faith to see it through. He loves me and those I love more than I can imagine, and I believe all things happen for a reason.  I just have to have patience and faith.

I wish everyone the best in 2013.  Who knows what God has in plan for us this year!?!

Christmas

I got exactly what I wanted for Christmas--my niece and nephew at home to celebrate Christmas morning.  We waited for them to rise and open presents, we enjoyed Christmas lunch, and then they had the opportunity to play in the snow.  Yes!  Snow!  We actually had snow on Christmas Day for the first time since 1975. It didn't really do enough to build a snowman or anything, but they still had fun standing in it and catching snowflakes on their tongues.

They created the most precious Christmas gift for my mom and I--a set of Christmas dishes.
They did such an amazing job on their creations!

The one with the small tree says, "Love lights the tree."  The one with the snowflakes says, "Snowflakes fall when love is near." Well, our tree was shining brightly all day on Christmas, and we got snow, beautiful snow too.  Our house was absolutely filled with love!

 Snow on Christmas Day 2012

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas has had me thinking, remembering, and feeling grateful.
I have been blessed to wake up in the same house every Christmas morning since birth. For some, that may seem weird. To me, it is wonderful.

Most of my life, we spent Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family at Granny and Grandpa's house.  We enjoyed sandwiches, chips/dips, and pie before opening presents.  I remember when my brother, cousins, and I were the little ones who just couldn't wait to open presents.  I have been blessed to enjoy the same traditions with my niece, nephew, and little cousins.  They were just like us, lying under the tree wishing and hoping it was time. My great aunt and uncle would come over to be with us too.  I don't know when this tradition started, but it seems that we always did it.  It continued until about 5-10 years ago when had to do it the weekend before with my cousins b/c they wouldn't be here. Now, if we get together on Christmas Eve, which we always do with Granny at least, you never really know who will be there or for how long, but we still try to keep this tradition going as long as Granny is with us.

From birth until upper elementary school or middle school, we would open presents at home on Christmas morning before walking next door to have breakfast and open gifts with my neighbors and another family we were very close to for much of my life. We continued this tradition for one year after my neighbors moved to a neighboring town, and then we stopped.

We would come back home to choose a new outfit to wear and then head to Granny and Grandpa's for Christmas lunch. At some point, probably after my grandfather passed away, we moved lunch to my house.  We would have as many as 16 or more enjoying lunch and conversation.

After my brother got married and had children, we continued our traditions, but we would start Christmas morning at their house for the kids to open presents.  They would come back to our house to open presents with us and then stay the rest of the day for lunch and dinner.

As we were entering this holiday season, I had no idea what we would do for Christmas.  My brother and sister-in-law moved 5 hours away.  My mom has all but moved in with Granny to take care of her.  This was going to be my first Christmas waking up on Christmas morning alone. My first Christmas morning without my niece and nephew. Mom decided she was going to be with the kids no matter what, so she was going to drive the 5 hours to be with them on Christmas Day.  She said Granny and I could go with her or stay home.  Well, I was a little worried about Granny riding 5 hours down and then 5 hours back all in one day, so I was willing to stay home, but it was what Mom wanted.  I had gotten my mind set for this and ready for a different kind of Christmas.  It really didn't matter where we were as long as we were together.  Right? Well, God had different plans.

After telling my brother and sister-in-law about my great uncle's passing, they decided to come home to visit and go to the funeral.  After the services, they headed to Oklahoma to be with her family while they celebrated over the weekend. They are supposed to come home for Christmas Eve and wake up to celebrate with us on Christmas morning.  We don't have to make Granny travel 10 hours in one day. My niece, nephew, and I get to wake up in the home we know. God is wonderful!  I know there will come a day that I may live somewhere else, and a day that I may not even get to see my niece and nephew on Christmas Day, but this Christmas is not that time, and I am oh, so very blessed and grateful!

I was so excited when they drove in the driveway on Friday night!


Another tradition we have in our family is the Advent Calendar, which Granny made when I was tiny, each piece handmade and sequined, involves hanging the ornaments on the tree. I am so glad the kids were here to get it caught up to date.  The first 7 were hung by a set of Girl Scout sisters at our December meeting. I just left it alone the rest of the month.



I can't wait for them to get home tonight for Christmas Eve! I am so blessed.

Mom, Granny, and I got together for sandwiches, chips, and dips for lunch with my aunt and cousin yesterday.  I truly enjoyed that time.

My life has changed dramatically in the last 10 months, but God knows what I need, so He provides as only He can.  Thank you, Lord, for sending Jesus to be born in a manage all those years ago, and thank you for all you do for my family and me!
 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I Will Forever Be George

Today, we laid my Great Uncle to rest (Granny's younger brother).  As I was watching the picture slideshow, I remembered times spent in his and my Great Aunt's home as well as other random moments. He gave my brother a statue of an eagle in honor of earning his Boy Scout Eagle Award back in the 1990s, and he attended the Eagle Ceremony. He performed my brother and sister-in-law's wedding ceremony in 2000.  He was a lovable teddy bear with a great sense of humor, and he was quite a prankster.

One memory that came flooding back was that he called me George.  I used to think that was a funny name for a girl, but I would laugh each time he said it.  I don't know why he called me George or why it started, but I will forever be George, and when I hear that name, I will think fondly of him.

I also remembered family Christmas gatherings.  During most of my younger years, Granny's side of the family would all get together for Christmas.  Granny, who had two children, had one brother, who had four children, and one sister, who had three children. The last time we all got together was at Granny's house in the mid-1980s.  One of my Great Uncle's granddaughter's was only a few months old and in a baby carrier at the time. I don't think any of the grandchildren were of marrying age.  Also, my Great Uncle would put the bows from the presents on his bald head every year.  There are many Christmas pictures with bows on his head.

While it was for a sad occasion, we were all back together today during the Christmas season.  Those toddling around or still infants in the 80s are now grown with spouses and children of their own.  Those grandchildren and great grandchildren who weren't born yet were also in attendance.  His two youngest great grandchildren, twin girls, were there and only 4-8 weeks. He had four children with spouses, nine grandchildren, some with spouses, and five great grandchildren at the time of his passing.  While it was a sad occasion, it was a happy one because we got to see so many we haven't seen in years and meet others we have never met.

So . . . I pray for my Great Aunts, Granny, and cousins who are mourning his passing, I will remember him fondly, and . . . I will forever be George.