Girl scout cookies

Yes, it is that time of year again: Girl Scout cookies. It is the time when I begin to question my sanity and really wish I could learn to say "NO"! I also begin to question why I bother to make deadlines or why I bother to meet my obligations since apparently half of the "real world" doesn't bother.

On Tuesday the girls and I loaded over 1000 cookies into my van and brought them into our living room to sort into piles for each family in the girl scout troop. My girls were a great help as I was able to sit on the couch and yell out cookies and numbers: "Nathalie, 6 tref; Abby, 38 Sam; Hannah, 14 Dosies...". It only took 2 1/2 hours from start to finish.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was cookie pick up day. Rachel's troop leader was kind enough to drop of Rachel's cookies at my house. As was Hannah and Samantha's troop leader. She picked up her daughter's cookies from my house at the same time. Cookie pick up at my house ran from 5-7PM. Of course, we, in that time period, were feeding animals, making syrup, and cooking dinner. Sam also ran out with Nathalie to go and pick up her cookies from her troop leader's house.

By 7PM I still had 7 families that had not picked up cookies, out of a troop of 15. Not one of these people called. I now will have to call them. Last year I drove cookies around to people's houses. Not gonna happen this year; I have kidding, I have a van that gets 12 miles to the gallon on a good day, and I live completely on the other side of town from everyone else (and it is a big town! 13 miles just for me to get to the center of town).

This is on top of people who didn't turn in their forms on time, said they would email me their orders the very next day and didn't. And if this year is like last year, they won't turn in their money at the deadline either. I will be calling them and trying to arrange a pick up for that too.

I enjoy being cookie mom. It gives me the chance to help out the troop in a way that only involves the month of March. It just seems that each year more and more people are failing to meet the deadlines. To me it just boils down to being inconsiderate. My time is just as important as their time, so please don't waste it.

Girl Scout cookies

It is Girl scout cookie time here in Connecticut! With 5 girls in scouts it gets very interesting around here. At least this year they reduced the number of boxes the girls have to sell in order to get a patch from 45! to 25.

Twenty-five is still a lot of cookies when you have to multiply it by 5! So we have developed a system where the youngest child gets their 25 box quota first and then the next aged child and so on. The older girls all have their own friends and contacts from babysitting and such, so they can usually get pretty close on their own. If the older ones are 2-3 boxes from hitting the 25 box mark, I will make up the difference.

One of my husband's nieces called me last night about buying cookies. I should probably preface this with the fact that this niece is 25 years old. Her first question: "What color is the box the shortbread cookies come in?" Now the normal mom wouldn't know the answer to that question, but, I happen to not be a "normal"mom. I happen to be cookie mom for 2 troops, 3 years running. Yes, I have been called "insane"; I actually knew the color was blue. This niece then proceded to order cookies based on the color of the box.

When I relayed this little conversation to my husband who was lying on the couch barely alive from this super nasty cold we have been cursed with, he nearly died. No, I am serious. He started laughing and then he started coughing and he nearly stopped breathing. It took him 20 minutes to be okay again.

We had our 4-H Club's Christmas Party yesterday. First we all gathered and combined into just a couple of cars and went carolling about our town. One of our 4-H'ers had made gift bags of fruit and candy for the people we visited. We all had a great time and wish more people in town wanted a visit from a group of kids who wanted to sing to them. I was amazed at the people who simply said "No" when we asked. One person said they weren't old enough to need carollers!

The few people we did visit were very happy to see all the kids in their elf and Santa hats. We sang several songs at each home and very quickly found that Christmas carols are long if you sing all the verses! We also learned that we are not sopranos and some of us couldn't carry a tune even in a bucket! We discovered that nobody in our group knows all the words to Frosty the Snowman and songs like "Silent Night" are better left to the professionals!

After singing we came back to our house for a cookie exchange and food. Everyone got to check out our new puppies. We were very proud of Delight who actually barked as we walked into the barn! At 2 months old she already knows her job! Turkish on the other hand tucked tail and hid. Some mighty warrior he is!

We ate lots of cookies and exchanged lots of cookies. We shared goat stories and compared how many we each had bred this year. The Reynold's win that one, but they are a "real" goat dairy. Among us hobbyists, I think the Skis are tops, with the Teffts in distant second with 7 does bred.

It was a great event and I hope next year more 4-H'ers participate and we can get more people to sing to.