Daisy Scout Love Tubes: Zinni Considerate and Caring Petal

I loved this idea so much! All the girls were so excited and the parents loved it too!!!

It was part of a Valentines celebration but this can really be done so many different ways all throughout the year.

Love Tubes:

Materials:

• Crystal light tubes (shown in  pictures), toilet paper or paper towel roll use resources wisely!
• craft paper
• Pencil, Markers or crayons (to write with)
• fun stickers
• Red Sharpi
• cloth squares (2 for each tube) *if your using toilet paper rolls
• rubber bands (2 for each tubes) *if your using toilet paper rolls
• tape or washi tape

Using toilet paper rolls-cut your craft paper to the size of your paper roll. Enough to wrap around the tube and an extra half inch. Use tape to secure the paper. If you have some extra on the ends you can fold it over the role. Seal one end with a piece one of the square cloths and a rubber band.

For everything else- Have each girl put her name on their tube with the sharpi marker.

Cut out strips of craft paper for the girls to write their notes on. I suggest a width of  inch. Length will depend on the size of your tube.

Start with one of your girls and have each of the girl scout sisters write something nice on a strip of the craft paper. It can be one word or a sentence. **I actually wrote out several different words for the girls to use in case they got stuck. Having the words in front of them or on a sheet of paper will help with the spelling and keep the notes a surprise!

When the girls are done writing their "caring" notes, have them put them in the girls tube and seal it up with the lid. If using a toilet paper roll,  use the other piece of cloth and rubber band. Have each girl decorate their own tube with stickers or washi tape and they're done!

Don't let the girls read them until they get home or the end of the meeting. It can be a surprise!

Make sure you complete one for each girl scout in the troop even if she is not present. Our girls really loved this idea and it was a nice self-esteem booster!

How to Handle Bullies: What I Tell My Kids About Bullying

When my daughter first started kindergarten I was taken aback with the concept of bullies at this age. I thought kindergarten was a little pre-mature to start the heckling but then I realized that "mean girls" didn't just exist in high school. Within a month I started seeing anxiety and fear wash over her sweet face every morning as I dropped her off at school.

I was torn between the two ideas that 1) kids need to learn some thick skin and tough it out or 2) bully behavior is never a positive socialization experience (which honestly, it's not).

We battled this problem all year long and it started to tugged at my heart. Okay, really it felt like it was ripping it out. I was brought back to memories of when I was a young girl, still in elementary and was oh so worried about what I was wearing and being so intimidated by the popular girl... in 4th grade!

That anxiety was crippling and the thought of my already sensitive daughter having to endure this felt shitty!

Then there was that one day. It was before a Girl Scouts meeting and I was setting up the activities as we started to discuss her concerns about THAT girl in her class. That is when I told her this...

"It's not about you, it's about them."

"No matter how hard it is to believe that, you have to know that it has nothing to do with you"

"Do you know why people bully and tease?"

Blank stare...

"People only try to hurt another person because there is something inside of them that makes them unhappy. There is something so sad that they need to hurt another person to make themselves feel better."

"Sometimes they wish they could have what you have, sometimes they wish they could feel loved like you feel loved. Bullying is NEVER okay but maybe you can try and be the better person and find out why they are sad."

I'll admit, this is not the normal way I feel about these situations and the thought of someone intentionally trying to hurt my kids does bring out the Mama bear in me. 

What I saw from her reaction is that she totally got it. She totally understood and it took the teasing away from her. It took the anxiety and self-doubt out of her mind and brought a sense of confidence.

She realized it wasn't about her and it wasn't because she was less than. It wasn't personal even though it seems so personal.

She smiled and looked comforted.

She looked me in the eyes and said "Mommy, I love you" in a sweet soft voice. 

At the young age of 6, she was learning how to turn the cheek and help those who need love when it's often the hardest.

Wittle Birds Cooking Show!!

My girls are fascinated with the video world and it didn't help when the hubby gave EACH of them their own Flip Video camera that he happened to get free through a promotion! 

They love watching YouTube videos (thanks to our smart TV) and have been wanting to record their own for a long time. I was hesitant at first but they had a ton of fun with this! So here it is... their first stab at YouTube stardom..lol  

What a Parent of a Congenital Heart Warrior Wants You to Know

I wrote this blog post about 2 years ago but in honor of CDH awareness I thought it would be a good repost.

For the most part I try to be optimistic, but I can only be that way for so long until something breaks inside of me and I am just pissed. I get angry when people say the wrong things even though it's with the best intentions and love.

We recently discovered our soon to be third little girl has a heart condition just like her older sister. I got through the crying and depressive stage pretty fast but the anger side of grief is not ready to pass. I am tired of the responses from people looking from the outside in. I just really don't want to talk about the situation but people want to push and say things like "it will all work out" or "you've been through this before so you've got this" and "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". These all seem like uplifting things to help a grieving parent but they don't help.

The killer one that really turns in my stomach is "God only gives us what he knows we can handle." As someone who has found Christ through my struggles, I find this statement to be false. I do think certain things happen to us with purpose, despite how awful they might be. Regardless, things happen that go beyond the laws of what we can handle and sometimes it does break us. It can break us in tragic ways where one takes their own life and it can break us in smaller ways, where one suffers deep down inside where no one else can see. This is not strength. This is change and not always for the better.

I know that how I'm feeling in the NOW can be off putting and make some people want to turn away. I don't blame them.

I'm struggling.

But please, put your advice aside and just be there when I'm ready to talk. Even if I am never ready to talk, that's okay because sometimes I can talk things out just on my own.

We recently raised funds for our annual Congenital Heart Walk in Chicago. This was the first year that Bella really understood what we were walking for and why. Yes, I walked at 38 weeks pregnant!

Holding her sister's hand as she proudly walked for herself!

What a Parent of a Congenital Heart Warrior Wants You to Know

1) Just because they've had corrective surgery does not mean they are cured.

2) The first time your child starts complaining of chest pain your world starts to feel like it's caving in.

3) We can be strong and make this look easy but deep inside we are screaming with anxiety.

4) As much as we try not to, we hoover. It's just something we do and we are always on the lookout for something so please don't judge.

5) We blame ourselves. Maybe just in the beginning. Maybe for years. We always question if there was something we could have done differently. Sometimes even after the guilt has gone away it starts to creep back.

6) This is a lifelong battle not just for our kids, but for us as a family and as parents.

7) We pray our children will out live us.

8) This never gets easier to deal with. We live with the constant awareness of the path ahead.

9) Strep throat and other illnesses are scary... Rheumatic fever can affect the heart even in patients that don't have any heart conditions. It can significantly complicate existing heart defects and conditions and all of this from the common strep throat.

10) We are fighters, too. We fight the feelings to cry, to freak out and rush to the ER when something goes wrong. We fight ourselves to stay calm and be brave so our kids can be.

11) We get angry. We get angry that we are up against CHD and it can be a ruthless fight and it impacts the quality of life in all members of the family.

12) It changes the family dynamic. It changes the way we are towards one child over another and everyone picks up on this. Everyone in the family feels this battle.

Thank you for listening and thank you for just being there:)

Baby number 3 is due in less than a week and I hope to have some cute baby pictures soon!!!

Making Choices Financial Literacy Leaf Badge

This past week, in preparation for our cookie season, we focused on the Making Choices leaf for our Girl Scout daisies.

We had a three station set up (small groups and station rotation works best for our large troop)

Station 1: Cookie booth pricing guides and practice with monopoly money.

Each of the girls had an opportunity to fill in the cookie pricing guide together. They used monopoly money to help them count and determine the prices. After the meeting I laminated the pricing guides for the girls to use at the cookie booths. Our cookie booths last year were very busy and it was soooo time consuming to have the daisy scouts calculate each purchase. By doing this ahead of time each girl got to practice her financial literacy and save us some time during cookie booth sales!

Once they finished their sheets they got to pretend shop and practice their money skills with the monopoly money. They loved this idea!

Here is the link to down:--->>>Download here <<<---

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Station 2: Wants VS. Needs activity

The second station consisted of a wants vs. needs sorting activity. An adult volunteer first discussed the differences between the two and each girl had an opportunity to sort the pictures. After each girl had a turn my co -lead assisted in a discussion about wants and needs for our cookie goal. The girls voted to spend their cookie proceeds on wishlist items for a local animal shelter that we had recently visited for our 3 Cheers for Animals Journey. My co lead had the girls list out the items that the animal shelter might need and then think of items that might be a want for the animals. Once we have reached our cookie goal (which I know we will!), the girls can decided if they want to buy "need"ed items or "want"ed items (or both) for the animal shelter by referencing this list.

Free wants and needs pictures here--->>>Download printable here <<<---

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Station 3: Cookie Booth brainstorm sesh

We started planning our cookie booth design and decorations in this station. I talked with the girls a little about marketing. It was really cute because of their age. Imagine their faces when you ask "have you every heard of the term marketing?" LOL Here is how I explained the idea....

• 2 Different books: I used two different books to explain the impact of good marketing. One book was missing it's cover so it was completely white and the second book was decorated with illustrations and fun colors. I asked the girls if they were in a bookstore which book would they be more likely to pick up. Most of the girls picked the pink illustrated book. I asked them why they picked this one.... ex. "It's pink!" or "I like the picture!" I explained how the way the book looked impacted their decision and how this is marketing.

• 2 Different cookie booths: Using this concept I asked if they saw two different cookie booths (one with just a table and some boxes and another with decorations and color) which booth would they buy their cookies from. They all said the fun decorated one! Rolling with that concept I talked about they way a product is presented can impact our customers decision to buy. 

• The girls come up with some fun ideas for cookie booth decorations to get our customers excited to buy from us and increase our sales. We talked about themes and they jotted down a list of materials they would need so we can work on the decorations at the next meeting.

It was a very productive meeting filled with lots of decision making and skill building! They really did have so much fun and I could tell they really gained from our activities!

Happy Cookie Season!

How remembers this movie?

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