One Day at a Time — Day 9 — Monday, Monday

 Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. ... Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

—Psalm 2:11-12

It is Monday again — I think I might finally have my days back in order.  This holiday season has left me a bit confused on what day it is — it usually doesn’t do that when Christmas is on a Sunday (which I really enjoy BTW) but this year has been different.  However, I think I am back on the right track.

I have been doing some decluttering as of late.  My last trip to the charity bin yielded three garbage bags full of previously loved clothing for somebody else to love.  I hope whoever buys these things from the charity shop enjoys them and are blessed by them.

Today I have to work on the Girl Scout patch blanket.  Bean earns so many patches that they won’t fit on her vest so they have moved on to applying them to a blanket.  It is my job to sew them on.  It is a hot mess.  Some are done on machine, some by hand, they all look like they were attached by some sort of wild chicken.  I try to get them straight and even but clearly I don’t see straight and even and there is always one or two that are wonky.  But I had quite the batch to put on and have done about half.  Today I will try to whittle that down a bit more.

Speaking of Girl Scouts — Cookie season is upon us so if you see some little adorable girl child at your door or at a booth at your grocery store or mall I implore you to buy a box or a dozen, it doesn’t matter, it all helps.  You might ask where the money goes and I will tell you even though I don’t know the exact percentages — part goes to the council to pay for administrative things and  fun, educational activities.  The rest goes to the individual troops and this is their operating money for the year — any field trips, parties, trips, patches, etc, comes from this money.  When the girls do service projects that require supplies, it comes from this money.  So, the money is used by and for the girls and isn’t funneled into other places.  With that said, the individual troops can choose to donate some of their proceeds to charities or causes of their choice but that is a decision made by the troop, the leaders and the parents.  For instance, our girls have always had an interest in supporting the Humane Society — all of them pet lovers — so if they chose to donate a portion of their cookie proceeds to that organization they could with the proper permissions.  Our girls tend to like to buy the supplies and make dog toys or collect towels and blankets for our furry friends but you get the point.  So, be aware the girls are going to be out and about and amongst you.  Some of them can be persistent, even though we instruct them in being polite and good salesgirls, but just keep in mind that it is a good thing to buy cookies, they taste pretty good, they freeze very well and you are helping to form a little girl into, hopefully, a responsible adult.

My daughter has had troop 3390 since they were like 5 years old, we have a few of the original members but some have gone and been replaced with others. We have three levels in our one troop, the youngest being in the 5-6 age range and the oldest being about 12 1/2 years old.   The older girls help the younger girls and act as role models, they do things separately and together but they work very hard to attain their goals.  

One of their goals was to go on an actual trip.  A real trip.  So many of the troops plan and save for a long time to be able to go on a trip. Well, last year was our girls year — they went to Savannah, Georgia — the home of the American Girl Scouts.  They visited Juliet Gordon Lowe’s home (a gorgeous mansion I might add),  they saw the sights of Savannah and learned a lot of southern history, they went on a ghost tour and had a lovely dinner at the Pirate House, the oldest building in the area and I am sure that memories were made that would last a lifetime.   And the memories of standing outside at Anthropologie in freezing cold weather to sell those cookies to finance the trip were just a fading hardship.  

Also, something that I don’t think is common knowledge is that donations are accepted.  Many times we have people stop by who don’t want to buy the cookies but would like to donate cash — we accept cash and it goes to our veterans.  How you might ask?  Whatever money goes into the donation jar is then used to pay for leftover cookies which are then distributed to appropriate facilities.  Oneyear we took the cookies to the Joint Reserve Base DFW — formerly Carswell AFB.  The personnel were standing waiting to accept our offerings and our girls were able to shake hands, thank them for their service and even get a hug or two.  It was a win-win situation for all involved and those soldiers really like the lemon cookies!

Another service project that our girls do every year is participate in Wreaths Across America where wreaths are placed on veteran graves all around the country.   One year we took them to the Dallas/Fort Worth National Cemetery which is beautiful and huge.  The last two years they have gone to a historical cemetery close to downtown Fort Worth.  They love doing this — maybe the weather, maybe lunch afterward or maybe just showing respect for people who have done service for you.  Lunch is paid for by the troop — again, cookie money.

Oakwood Cemetery, 2022.

So, that will be all I say about cookies and Girl Scouts.  It is a truly admirable organization, it does good work and it helps these girls see a wider world than the one in which they live.  Thank you for your help if you so choose.  I will be standing, in the cold, at the shopping center for the next six weeks or so — I think I will take a chair.