Growing Avocados (Wolf Cub Scout Elective 15 - Grow Something)

My kids and I decided to grow avocados.  Partly for one of my son's requirements to earn the Conservation Badge and partly just to give us something to do.  We ate the avocados (well, mostly me) on the same day and suspended them in water on the same day, but had vastly different results.  Here is our avocado journey:

Week One

Week 2 - Still nothing

Week 3 - One of the avocados starts sprouting a root!  the other one still looks like it did on day one)

Week 4 - No real change to speak of

Week 6 - Holy moly!  One of the avocados took off!  The second avocado finally starts to take root.

Week 7 - My camera was lost, so I really wish I had pics of this week.  The first plant sprouted up a lot and had leaves!  The second one had little change.

Week 8 - We transplanted one of the plants.  It is a little over a foot tall, but leggy from the lack of sunlight here in Washington state.  I pinched off the top three leaves, as I read that it will encourage the plant to fill out and be healthier.  The second plant is only about two inches tall.  This is definitely not for the impatient!

I've learned 3 things from attempting to grow avocados:
1) The best time (in doing this in a cloudy and rainy place) to start them is in the summer when there is plenty of sunlight.
2) This project requires a lot of patience, as well.  I did this project with my kids and put them on top of the entertainment center so they would get more light and be relatively out of sight and out of mind.
3) Keep out of reach of kids.  We attempted to do this last year and placed them on the kitchen table by a sunny window.  As they were at the table, though, the kids asked when they'd be grown at every meal.  With it being within their reach, the kids also sneaked into them and tore them apart to see if they were growing, so that was the end of those plants...
4) Every avocado grows differently.

Thanks for reading!

 ~Vanessa

The Price of Karate

My son is pretty tiny for his age.  He is on the short side and skinny.  This is just how boys in my family start out.  Once they hit puberty, however, they grow a lot.  I don't have any male cousins or uncles under six feet tall.  I think the tallest once is 6'6".

My son has been having trouble with some boys at school lately, so I enrolled him in an introductory class at a local taekwondo academy that I am completely in love with.  The teachers are all highly qualified and it has a high quality curriculum.  However, the prices are very high.

I am a stay-at-home mom that is pursing my BA so that I can get a good job and my hubby works part time in a warehouse.  We have enough to get by, but we are far from rich.  The Black Belt program there runs $200 per month, plus a processing fee.  Tournaments and testing come with even more fees.  $200 is the price of a car payment!  It is just more than we can afford right now.  I can probably only afford 1/4 of that price.  That is the basic program, too.

My son took it well that it is just too expensive for right now, but I was near tears throughout his practice.  He has grown so much and has gained confidence while being there.  It just breaks my heart that I can't provide this for him.  I'm probably more attached to this program than he is, though.

He's also the type of kid that loves variety, though.  Even if we could afford it, that would be all that he would be able to do.  My kids play sports pretty much all year long and play a variety of sports.  He played basketball over the winter, both kids are in baseball right now, they will do soccer over the summer, and he says that he wants to try football this fall.

My parents put my sisters and I in a couple of classes through the city's Parks and Recreation program, but couldn't afford it as we got older.  I know that when my kids get older, we'll have to cut back to 1 or 2 sports per year, but I love that they have opportunities that I never had.

I am looking into small karate studios that would be more affordable.  I just hope that they will be just as knowledgeable and that my son will enjoy it as much.

Thanks for reading!

 ~Vanessa

First Award Ceremony

Troop 44554 did their first official Awards Ceremony last night!  The girls received the majority of their badges last night.  We will continue to have monthly award presentations to give out awards as they are earned.  We did the award ceremony for the last half hour of the meeting. 

With my son's Cub Scout Pack, they hold Pack Meetings once a month and the first part is used for the award ceremony.  The parents also attend the meetings, however.  The scouts give their parents the badges and belt loops right after they are given them. 

With our Girl Scout troop, the parents have chose not to attend the meetings, as it is my neighbor girls and they just walk to my house.  So, I decided to use a small amount of hot glue to glue the awards to a section of poster board.  I wanted to make sure that the badges make it home in one piece, as well.

The girls were all really proud of all of the work that they have put in this year.

Thanks for reading!

 ~Vanessa

Brownies WOW! Wonders of Water & Daisies Make the World a Better Place TAP

At last night's meeting, we wrapped up the Brownies' WOW! Wonders of Water Take Action Project and combined that activity with the Daisy petal Make the World a Better Place.  For this service project, they decided to clean up litter at the drainage field in our neighborhood that the kids call a pond.  It really is a cool wetland/drainage field.

I had the girls carry three bags:  one for recycling, one for garbage, and one to cover their hands to pick up icky stuff.  Some neighbor boys came down to the pond as we were almost done, as they were curious what we were doing.  The girls educated them about what we were doing and why.  We came back to reflect on what we did and who would benefit from beautifying our local "wetland."

In two years, when the Daisies are Brownies, I would like to do water quality testing on the pond, if we can afford it.  I think that taking care of this local example of a wetland brings home the ideas that they learned about this year while completing this journey.  I will also price Earth Day badges, as the whole troop participated and they discussed other things that they learned about taking care of the environment from learning about it at school.

Thanks for reading!

 ~Vanessa

Funeral Potatoes

I decided to try out Funeral Potatoes today to go along with our Easter lunch.  I usually just make mashed potatoes, but wanted to try something new.  I grew up with many Mormon friends and heard about this recipe from them.  It's common at potlucks as well as wakes/funerals, hence the name.

I tried this recipe for it: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/04/funeral-potatoes/, only I didn't use onions and added bacon.  I also shredded potatoes myself instead of buying frozen ones.  The only thing that I will do differently next time is to use diced potatoes, but that's just a personal preference.

I hope everyone has a great Easter!

 ~Vanessa

Relative's Ungrateful Birthday Girl

Yesterday was my mom's youngest child's 5th birthday.  (In case I haven't mentioned it before, my mom had a 2-part mid-life crisis about 10 years ago.  She divorced my dad, then re-married a year later and had kids that are the same age as my kids.)  They had the party today.  It was pouring down rain all day, so I didn't really want to go, but it's family and these kids are the only people in our family that are close to their age.

As soon as we walk in (dripping wet), I hand the birthday girl her present and she immediately sets it down and says, "ewww, it's wet," and drops it like it has cooties.  Our mother is standing right there and says nothing.

The older child had a birthday in January, but they decided that they couldn't afford to have a party for her.  I felt bad for her, even if her own parents didn't, so I got the two girls Disney Princess Ballerina Barbies.  The oldest got Cinderella and the youngest got Belle.

When they opened them, the oldest mumbled something.  Maybe a "thank you?"  And went off and played video games.  The birthday girl shoved it away and announced that she didn't like it.  I told our mom that I'd just return it and I am done buying her kids presents.  They never show any appreciation.  I especially don't understand it as they live in a single wide trailer from the '70s that is falling apart.  They don't have electricity in half of their house.  I wouldn't be surprised if it gets condemned someday.  These kids are lucky when my mom and step dad choose to celebrate their birthdays, so it blows my mind that they act like stuck up snobs!

The birthday girl said that she'd only like the present if she got both of them, so our mom gave away the oldest's present to pacify her.  She should have paddled her butt right then and there!  Or at least corrected the ungrateful brat!  She is doing them no favors in life.  I don't know if it's my mom's age or if she really thinks that this is acceptable behavior.  I just can't believe that this is how these kids are being raised.  I'm so embarrassed of them and embarrassed for them.

I just don't get it.  I wonder if it's because my family is also low income or even because of my weight.  Regardless of how much someone makes or what they look like, that is no way to treat someone.  These kids are going to be so screwed up.

Sorry for the rant.  I promise to have a more positive one tomorrow.

~Vanessa

Brownies Painting Badge - Step 4

The whole troop participated in an exploration of painting without the use of paintbrushes.  Each girl made two paintings.  They utilized:  tin cans, yard, Q-tips, and cotton balls in place of paintbrushes.

For the first painting, I had them them dot primary colors of paint on their paper and roll the tin can across to spread the paint along the paper.  I really wanted them to be able to see the ridges from the cans on the painting when it dried.  For the second painting, they could create anything they wanted using the other household objects.

Here are their masterpieces:

I think the paintings were supposed to be abstract for the most part.  One of the Daisies said that she was making an Easter egg (the third painting).  A Brownie said that her painting (the bottom one) was supposed to be the Truffula Tree forest from The Lorax.

I only had to spend $2.38 for the project!  I already had paint, most of the household objects, and construction paper.  I only had to buy the cotton balls and two pieces of poster board from Dollar Tree!

They liked the paint covered tin cans and intended to keep them as pencil holders.  However, the water color paint flaked off and made a mess all over the table where I was letting everything dry.  We will have to figure out another type of paint that would work better for sticking to tin cans another time.

Thanks for reading!

 ~Vanessa