Sarah Earns her Silver Award!

Well, it's official. We received word last week that Sarah's Silver Award was approved. She'll receive it in a ceremony at our Girl Scout meeting in the next few weeks.

So, what is a Silver Award? It's the highest award at the Cadette tier of Girl Scouting. Only the Gold Award is higher (roughly the equivalent of the Boy Scout's Eagle). The Bronze Award (which she earned as a Junior Girl Scout) and the Silver are intended to be stepping stones toward the Gold, and are excellent experiences in their own right for building confidence, leadership, and for providing service.

Sarah has been working toward this award for two years. She had numerous preliminary steps to fulfill, including earning certain badges, attending leadership and career-building workshops, and performing leadership activities within our group. The final, culminating step is that of choosing, planning, and carrying out a 40-hour service project.

The choosing part was easier said than done. Sarah's initial desire was to do something to promote literacy. She came up with several ideas, but kept hitting stumbling blocks with groups she tried to work with, dates that weren't convenient, and ideas that just never seemed to take form. Finally, after months of frustration and nearly giving up, the opportunity arose to provide a workshop for some younger scouts. Looking through the Girl Scout badge books, she found a Prints and Graphics badge, and realized she could provide an art opportunity for girls that they're not apt to get in school. What better project for an art student than to share her expertise in art with girls who might not have that exposure?

Sarah chose a September date for her workshop, in coordination with an upcoming Fall Campout. Sarah would be the sole provider of an organized activity for troops to attend. No pressure! The September date gave her the leisure of having the summer to plan, organize, and prepare for her project. At first, that seemed like a tremendous amount of time. She soon learned, though, what a lot of work it is to put such an event together! Early on, I remember her comment that there were so many little details to have to take care of. I advised her to just take them one step at a time, and that, in the end, it would all come together.

Once she found her workshop topic, she had to choose the activities to teach the girls relating to prints and graphics. She decided to do nature rubbings and ink printing; to have the girls make their own sponge prints, and print with them onto bags that would then hold their projects; to teach them to design, cut, and use stencils; and to teach the process of making foam prints.

Next, she gathered potential materials and tried each project, looking for simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and feasibility of completion within a 20-minute time frame - necessary to hold this age group's attention and to keep them moving along from one station to another within the allotted time frame. She tweaked the activities and morphed them until they worked the way she needed them to. She also kept in mind the need to stay within budget, use as many materials as we already had, and recycle/reuse materials as much as possible.

Now that she had her activities chosen, she needed help to man the stations and teach the girls the skills . She tried recruiting from our Girl Scout troop, but it seemed that everyone was busy that day, so she turned to her classmates at ACMA. She was able to convince three friends, Christy, Naomi, and Nicole, to help her out, and, together with Emily, had just enough leaders for the four stations she planned to have the participants rotate through. She wrote out meticulous instructions and step-by-step procedures for each activity, then held a training session and taught her helpers the activities so they could teach the girls.



All the while, she was staying in touch with the chair of our Girl Scout Service Unit, who was organizing the Fall Campout where Sarah's event would be held. She constantly communicated her plans, got answers to her questions, and bounced ideas off of Mary. Sarah drew up a registration form and sent it to the troop leaders asking them to sign their troops up for the workshop. She crossed her fingers and hoped she'd have participants!

By now, school was back in session, and time was at a premium. She was quite glad so much of her plan time was in the summer, as it became obvious that the final preparations were taking up precious time needed for studying and doing homework. Those first two weeks of school were pretty busy, but she pulled it off. She shopped for supplies, prepped and organized them into "kits" for each station; accepted registrations (yeah!) and confirmed them with the troop leaders; ordered and picked up the badges and organized them into troop sets; typed up a check-in sheet for troops upon arrival; arranged transportation and lunch for her helpers at the workshop; and a million other small things that came up at the last minute.

Finally, the date arrived, and we set off for Camp Namanu, an hour's drive from home. The weather was dreary, rainy and cold, but our adrenaline was pretty high just to see all Sarah's efforts finally pay off. We had lunch, then set up the area for the workshop. Sarah was a very effective leader, overseeing each of her helper's efforts and making sure everything was ready at the appointed time.



At last, the troops arrived, and reality hit: this is it. Sarah talked to the participants, explaining what they'd be doing and how it would work, and the workshop began.



As the girls became absorbed in their art projects, Sarah turned to me and said, "This is pretty cool. They're doing all the work for me!" I reminded her of all the efforts she'd put forth to get to this point, and that the mark of a good leader is to be organized and to be able to delegate.



Ninety minutes later, we had a room full of happy girls and colorful artwork laying out to dry.



Sarah's hard work had paid off, and it was a win-win situation: the girls learned some new skills, the leaders were able to offer their troop members a badge without planning it themselves, Sarah's helpers earned some service hours, and Sarah gained confidence and a lot of leadership experience - as well as earning her award.

When it was all said and done, we looked back over the past year of planning and preparation. There were certainly moments when she'd wanted to quit, when I'd wanted to throttle her, when she doubted her ability to pull it off, and when things just weren't going as planned. I asked Sarah if it was worth it. She admitted that, despite the moments of frustration, she felt she'd grown as a result of the experience. She's always been ultra-organized, but she now feels like she is a better leader and came a long way in terms of communication skills, as well. I couldn't agree more.



Congratulations, Sarah! I'm proud of you!

Dishwasher Update...

The dishwasher is back in place and back in use. Hooray! We finally wised up and started eating at the dining room table (after clearing it of dishwasher parts and tools, of course!). However, the affected floor area remains an obstacle course, covered with items of various heavy weights in our ongoing efforts to flatten it out. Have we peeked at it to see how it's progressing? Are you kidding? We're still afraid of what we might find...

My front flowerbed

Every year I purchase annuals for my front flowerbed and wonder why. I used to really enjoy getting my hands in the dirt and planting things, and watching them grow. Life changes, though, as the years go by, and so do priorities. It just seems some years that planting that bed is more trouble than it's worth. Sometimes the results are pretty good, while more often than not, it's just OK.

This year is one of those years when my efforts have paid off. I was able to get a nice assortment of colors and varieties that really worked well together, and everything has flourished! I've been able to successfully fight off the slugs in their voracious pursuit of my marigolds, and they (the marigolds, not the slugs), for once, have thrived. I am posting this picture in hopes that I can refer to it next year when I doubt my reasons for kneeling down at the edge of that bed in the still chilly and damp month of May.



For future reference, I planted lobelia, dwarf marigolds, verbena, and cosmos.

Dishwasher Disaster!

Several weeks ago, about the time I got back from Mobile, and in the throes of preparing for a deluge of company, we noticed that the floorboards near the breakfast area seemed rough. It was hard to get a handle on at first - they just seemed to scuff the bottom of our feet as we walked over them. About the same time, the door to the deck ceased to shut and lock properly - all very strange. As the days went by, the floor problem became more obvious, and the floorboards actually appeared warped. Horrors! Dollar signs flitted past our heads.... That sounded like water damage! But, where was the water coming from?



Over the next few days, we tried to assess the source of the damage. There was no evidence of leaking on the ceiling in the basement just below the affected floor. Curiouser and curiouser. In the meantime, Jeff arrived, followed by Leannah and Adrienne. We had a house full of guests, and were using the dishwasher more than ever, and the floor seemed to be getting worse and worse. Uh, oh! the dishwasher!

By the time we finally figured out that the dishwasher must be leaking, the floorboards were more than noticeably "cupped". We stopped using it and started washing dishes by hand. Larry pulled it out and inspected it, and, sure enough, we had a worn and leaking pump seal. The part was easy enough to find, and replacing it seemed straightforward enough, but what about the floor?!

Larry went into research mode. He found out that leaking dishwashers are a leading cause of floorboard "cupping", and that it takes a long time to dry things out. He claims that "it took two weeks to get wet; it'll take at least that amount of time to dry it out." Nice! We are still doing dishes by hand, but that's not the worst of it. Supposedly, there is a chance, albeit slim, that we can reverse the damage, so we are attempting to dry the floorboards out. Larry has a small portable heated fan blowing warm air into the space under the cabinet where the dishwasher was, in an attempt to dry out the sub flooring.



Below, we have three torchieres and a heat lamp (mounted on a ladder) pointing up at the basement ceiling, and we are maintaining an "optimum temperature" for dehumidifying the air.



Up above, where the "cupped" floorboards are, his approach (based on his research) is to weigh down the cupped boards as they are drying. We currently have a very large piece of plywood (cut to size) covering the area, topped with anything heavy he can find: bricks, reams of printer paper, firewood, the loaded magazine rack, tool chests - you name it, it is in the middle of the floor leading to the breakfast nook. And the number of items are continually growing as Larry thinks of new weights to add. It's a real obstacle course just getting to the table to eat our meals!



We can't eat in the dining room because that table is covered in tools and the parts necessary for making the repairs. Help!



The dishwasher remains on the deck. Luckily, the rainy season hasn't started yet, but it will be here soon. Larry will have to replace the part and put the appliance back in place before the rains begin. We are afraid to pull up the plywood and inspect the floor. (Again, those pesky dollar signs...) Stay tuned for updates...

Blackberry Syrup

I am flattered. I received an email today from Jeff's mom, Jane. I sent her a jar of my homemade blackberry syrup after Jeff swore she'd love it, and he was right. She wrote to say how much she enjoyed it and requested the recipe. So, I thought I'd post it here. It's really quite easy, and a good way to use the abundance of blackberries we have here in the summer. We pick them and freeze them (blueberries, too), and have them to enjoy the rest of the year. After watching my grandmother make blackberry jelly my entire childhood, I knew I'd never be interested in going to that much time, trouble, and mess to do the jelly thing- squeezing the juice through the cheesecloth... No thank you! So I was glad to discover (actually adapt) this recipe, because, other than cobbler, I really haven't known what to do with all those blackberries that Emily loves to pick...

Blackberry Syrup
Combine 3/4 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp. cornstarch. Stir in 2 cups blackberries and 1/2 cup water. Cook and stir until mixture boils. Cook one minute longer or until syrup reaches desired consistency.

I just toss them in fresh or frozen, just cook a little longer from frozen. I love them on waffles, because the bits of blackberry pulp and the seeds get caught in all the little waffle crevices. Pretty yummy!

A Sub Job Awaits

Our summer was exciting with travel and company, but I was ready for a bit of down time. That was not to be had. On Monday of this week, I got a call from a teacher at Ridgewood saying I'd been approved for her leave, starting next week! Jeff left the next evening, and I took Wednesday to do nothing at all. Thursday I met Julie at school to get the classroom set up, and today we all met to plan the first two weeks of school and review classroom policies and procedures. We discussed the overview of the 12 weeks I'll be there; amazingly, my head didn't explode. I've learned to take things one day at a time as a sub... I start Monday for inservice week, and school starts with students the following Tuesday. No rest for the weary!

I'm actually subbing for two teachers who job-share. Julie will spend inservice week and the opening week of school sharing the day with me. After that, I'll have the classroom to myself for a month. Then, Julie and I will job-share the remaining 5-6 weeks until Damiana comes back. The beauty of the shared weeks is that I'll work 2 1/2 days, leaving 2 full days to pick up other jobs - or not - as I so choose.

Honestly, as tough as teaching jobs are to find these days, I'm happy for whatever is offered to me. Fifth grade is not my favorite (I think I like third the best), but these students are the ones I taught in third grade, so I'm excited to see them again. This is the team I worked with for six weeks last year, so I have a bit of a handle on their curriculum and management routines. It should be a flawless transition for me, the students, the teachers I'm subbing for and working with, and the parents, since we all know each other so well.

I must say that I'm very grateful to the staff at Ridgewood for taking such good care of me. I was an aide there for a year and a half, then, having jumped through the necessary hoops for licensure in Oregon, taught there as a temporary teacher for a year until the economy started to go sour. Since then, permanent jobs have been scarce, but they've kept me busy with sub jobs both long and short, and I worked more last year than most subs I've talked to. I do feel lucky to be working from day one this year, when so many subs are still wondering if they'll get any calls in the month of September. I'll take the rest of the year as it comes...

Goodbye, Jeff!

After 2 1/2 weeks, we'd gotten pretty used to having Jeff around here. In fact, even Xeda the antisocial, bi-polar cat didn't hiss at him very much any more. I'd gotten accustomed to having help in the kitchen with the cooking and the dish washing. We enjoyed his pasta dishes and pimiento cheese. And, it was kind of nice to be motivated to take trips to the wine country and the Gorge and to shop at Saturday Market. But, alas, all good things must come to an end; I took him to the MAX station tonight for his return trip to the airport. Let's hope he comes back again for another visit - believe it or not, there is still more to see and do here! At least we have a fridge stocked with pimiento cheese - and the recipe for recreating it!