Girl Scout camp, that is.

Friday night we went camping with several other troops from our area.

I only had 3 out of the 4 girls from my troop go, but it was fun.

Friday night we made a real camp dinner. We made hamburgers and put them along with potato slices , carrots and onions (for those who wanted them) and wrapped them in aluminum foil. These "packages" were placed on top of coals and left to cook for maybe 20 minutes- 1/2 hr.

Yum!

Later, there was a bon fire. My girls helped one of the leaders do a little bridging ceremony for a girl moving up to Juniors. My troop was also supposed to lead the group in campfire songs.

We have been trying to practice a few songs for weeks! Two of the girls are new scouts and really needed some practice.

Figures there were several weeks when we would only have 2 girls at our Girl Scout meetings.

Figures also that after the little bridging ceremony, the woman in charge told the troops they were invited to stay at the fire and make smores or whatever, leave if they want, or whatever.

So my daughter asked her if they were still supposed to do the campfire songs. She said, "You can start singing if you want and see if anyone joins in..."

My girls decided they did not want....they wanted to go to bed!

Cool with me!

Yesterday, one of the girls cooked sausage and French toast for us while the other two did the preparation, cleaning up and such.

Then they decorated bandanas with Shapies and alcohol. See directions below.

Then we went to the beach for about an hour and collected pretty stones to make a Plaster of Paris coaster. We were going to make stepping stones, but my daughter and I saw the coaster molds and they were quite a bit cheaper. Always gotta watch that budget!

Here's a few pics:

One girl had to leave after that. The other two had hot dogs from the grill for lunch, then we filled up water balloons and they had fun throwing them around.

Of course they had to pick up all of those balloon pieces!

Before we left, we had to sweep the cabin, clean the bathroom and make sure all windows were locked.

Like good Girl Scouts, we left the place cleaner than we found it.

Cool tie-dye

Something to tie-dye such as a T-shirt
plastic cups
rubberbands
Sharpie (permanent)  markers
rubber alcohol
dropper

Take a plastic cup and with the top side up, place it under your cloth to be designed. Put a rubber band around the top of the cup the material.

In the area created by the top of the cup, draw a picture, write something, whatever with sharpie marker.

Taking the dropper, drip alcohol on the design and watch the colors spread throughout the fibers of the cloth, creating a "fuzzy" look.

Make as many of these designs as desired.

Let dry, then put in dryer for a few minutes or iron to set the color.

CAUTION: Be sure to do this outside and let material dry well...alcohol can be a breathing irritant.

I have been finding some great blogs lately. I am seriously addicted. Thus my new venture........don't want to bore you'all who don't care.....if you care, it involves blogging (surprise). That venture is going great. I put two testimonies on my website and I have a few more coming in.....

I also ran into this little Monkey around the net. Monkey was recently diagnosed with neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a malignant (cancerous) tumor  that develops from nerve tissue. It occurs in infants and children.

The family can really use your prayers and support. Please stop by their website and wish Monkey well....

News...and need your opinions....

In my last post, I asked, What makes a blog "good". If you are interested in giving your opinion, you can leave a comment or email me.

If you want you can check out the post for some of what I'm looking for. I've had a great response so far, but the more the better!

Friday Fragments

Worlds are colliding....


Have you ever felt like your worlds were colliding? Sometimes I feel like that, but not for THIS reason...



I know, another Seinfeld clip- but it's a good show for a laugh before retiring- better than murder and mayhem!

Don't really know what I did this week....

I just don't understand how another week has gone by. And why it went by so fast. Again!

The only thing I had going on at night this week was Girl Scout Bridging. I had one girl (out of a whole four!) bridge from cadettes to senior. She is going into 9th grade and has been in scouts since kindergarten.

The woman coordinating the bridging says she remembers bridging the girls MOTHER years ago! The mother is a lifetime Girl Scout.........

I can't believe how much I don't know....

I recently met (online :-) Cindy Haskins-Popp the author of The Health and Food Forum blog. She has had a couple of posts lately about food labels........I was shocked at how much I didn't know. There are even different organic labels! I just assumed they were all the same grade. You know what happens when we assume...........don't know what we consume!

So if you're into healthy eating and such, check it out.

Nothing ever goes as planned...

I wanted to get in a field trip today, but it's been pretty gloomy out so anything outside is out - does that even make sense?

I thought maybe a movie if the weather stunk.

But then.......last night at bridging, Princess Der had to go chasing and punching a boy she kind of "likes". He is homeschooled and in the same co-op and youth group, etc....

Anyway, he grabbed her hand and twisted. She just woke up and said it still hurts..........

Poo!

So we may take a field trip to the docs....that's what you get for punching boys!

Don't forget about Friday Follow and Virtual Girls night out and I'll see you all around the blogoshere sometime over the weekend!



Later!

Little Man's Mom and Dad went to mediation Friday. Little Man will be back in the house 4 days on, 3 days off; 3 days on, 4 days off. He has grown so much in a few weeks.

He has gone from being obsessed with cars and trucks (he calls them all truck) to cars, trucks and books! That makes me happy. I feel books are our best friend.

It's Friday!

That means it's time for Virtual Girls Night Out, Friday Fragments, and field Trip Friday.

I now have pages!

Wow, Blogger now has pages! I love it. Now I can have several of my blogs in one location. The only thing I don't like is that you can't just do a new post for each page. Only the main page has a new post. The others you have to edit and add the date and content to the one page.

The Weekly Wrap-up...

This week has been busy as all get-out! Monday night, we picked up our new puppy, iPod. We are training iPod as a service dog. It will be hard giving her up when the time comes, but it's for a great cause.



Tuesday night, I had my business meeting for The Central New York Networking Marketing Group. Talk about networking - 3 different members have jobs or businesses catering to Senior Citizens. Two of them are putting together some classes together, and one offered to put flyers out for another member when they were putting their own out.

Wednesday we went grocery shopping, and today was Cookie Depot day. This is where we have the baking company for the Girl Scout cookies send the cookies for our service unit. There were 1,000's of boxes! We had to break the pallets down and sort the cookies by troop orders. We had a few handcarts, but carried alot by hand. Not only did we sort by orders, we helped many people load cookies into their vehicles. Princess Der was a tremendous help, and had to use her math-alot! You could tell how many adults (not me) don't use their math very often. We were usually stacking the boxes 6 to a row. We needed 94 Thin Mints for one order and 3 of us adults had to think for a sec to figure out how many rows of 6 we needed. Duh!

We brought iPod to the Cookie Depot-she slept for a good hour or so. Everyone loved her. She is really pretty! And so sweet!

And just a couple of fragments from my fragmented mind...

Why is it I pay an astronomical amount for cable...supposedly for 100's of stations, and 1/2 the time there is not a darned thing to watch?

Contrary to popular belief, unloading palletts of Girl Scout Cookies for hours on end DOES NOT help you lose weight. Exercise or not...Just the SMELL of those Thin Mints was adding inches to my waistline! Ok, maybe it was the donuts and hot chocolate that they provided for the volunteers.

And last but not least........I felt I should share........a little warning:

DO NOT apply Deep Heat Rub or any similar product into your skin immediately following a shower.

I've done it before and I did it again last night!

Can we say OWWWWWWW! and B-U-R-N!

So I can imagine inquiring minds want to know why I did that a second time.

I don't know.

It was about 1/2 hour after my shower, so I thought I was safe. NOT!

Ok, now head on over to some of my other pages- Dog Tales, Homeschooling, My biz and more...........

And...leave a comment!

The link is hidden down under the post here near the recommended posts.

Later!

I can see the headlines now...Work At Home Mom Gives Herself A Raise!

I had my last class for Journal Writing last night. That was one night a week for 2 1/2 hours. That's a WHOLE NIGHT away from my computer! But I always have a ball teaching it. And it pays VERY well, so I get paid for having fun. I proposed a beginning blogging class, but I guess they have a secured server and can't get a lot of Social Networking sites.

On to other mildly exciting news....

Girl Scouts is in full swing! I have 2 new girls, so that will be nice. That gives us 7 girls, a nice small number. The other day I had them break into two groups and each group took (I think it was 5) sentences from the Girl Scout Law and made up quick skits for each- maybe a minute or so. They were so funny! These are 7th & 8th graders and they are so goofey! I couldn't help but laugh!

We are looking into going to a haunted house, doing a food drive with the boy scouts and going camping in November. That's to start!

Anyway, looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow for Virtual Girls Night Out!

Today was my daughters official last day of "Institutional-type" school- at least for now. We will see how she does with a summer full of schoolwork.

We have technically already started. The other day, we ran into ANOTHER person I have been wanting to see. A girl that volunteers at the library where I used to work. She is volunteering through Girl Scouts, and she is homeschooled. We stopped by the library and she happened to be there. She is 16 and has always been homeschooled.

She spoke quite extensivally about homeschooling styles, curriculum and the homeschool co-op where you can take classes with other homeschoolers. She talked to my daughter about homeschooling and the responsibilities associated with it.

Yesterday, we purchased some books to use until I figure out what we will really be doing. Ironically, my daughter wanted workbooks. We got two for math, one for English and one on Rocks & minerals since that is what she wants to study for science right now.

I also grabbed the Farmers Almanac. I figure it's packed with great tips and advice, and we can compare the "actual" weather compared to what they predicted. Then, my eyes hit " Wacky Facts and Fun Activities. The Old Farmers Almanac for kids." I HAD to get it! What a wealth of info and cool stuff!

I also got a game called, "Let's go shopping". It is basically a game where you have to do Math problems- you have to answer the question correctly to proceed and go to store and "buy" stuff. I was surprised to learn my daughter, who is entering 7th grade, did not know what concept to use for this:

Two boys purchase a snowboard and goggles for a friend. How much is it costing each of them? My daughter knew to add the cost of the items, but then she asked, " What do I do next? I forgot."

This just reaffirms my reason for maybe embarking on the Homeschool Express!

I have been reading homeschooling books. As far as history and geography, etc... they suggest either starting with your home town and branching out to learning about the world, or vice-versa. We are starting with our town as there was actually a book published about the area. In an hour or so, we are venturing down to the cemetary where the town founder and his family are buried.

I also have a great teen bible I purchased for my daughter for her birthday. Although I have been lax about going to church in recent years, she enjoys going to teen night at church.

So later today I am going to have her write a piece about what she hopes to get out of homeschooling & I will do the same. Then, we will come up with a Mission Statement and discuss how we want to conduct our days.

I'm excited to see what my daughter writes.

Gotta go!

Later!

Little Man stopped by on Friday as I was rushing around getting ready for camp.

MY girls did easy tie-dye t-shirts with the girls, as well as camp memory books, and necklaces made out of straws (for the younger girls) and beads made out of magazines for the older girls. Check out the cool design on this tee-shirt...

Easy tie-die T-shirt

I am sooooo proud to say that my girls did a fantastic job! We only have 5 girls in the troop. One was leaving early, and one was coming late- they kind of crossed paths. So that gave us 1 girl for each activity and one to float around. My assistant stayed with the memory books since they were the most difficult activity. I went up & down the hill 700 times :-) between the t-shirts outside in the back of the lodge (down the hill) and the girls inside the lodge (up the hill). Then , several trips around the lake, and boy, did I hurt Monday.



Monday morning Linda, the leader who coordinated the encampment called me to tell me that all the leaders were raving about how great my girls did. Cool, huh?





Anyway, the normal Girl Scout camps were unavailable, so we used another organizations camp. I must say it was a very nice place- a lake, lots of woods, etc...but the cabins were in somewhat ill repair. It was off season and winter REALLY dragged on this year...but I was a little disappointed. They were bigger inside than they look.

That Spring had Sprung!

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I have many "WHY's" associated with my decision to start a home business. I want to be here for my kids when they get home from school. I want to be financially free- pay off the house, pay off the car ( a car that I'm not especially fond of but still owe too much on to get rid of ), buy a new SUV, someday buy a houseboat.And a whole bunch of stuff in between.



I was standing in line at Wally-World this morning and heard the comment, " We just got back from Florida yesterday and we're headed to Canada today."

I turned and looked at the commentator, a spritely woman of maybe 65 or 67 yrs. old. And I thought, "Yeah... another WHY......just take off and go wherever, whenever." Which surprised me being that I'm a home-body.



As I was walking toward my car I thought about that woman's statement and my response to it. I guess I did have a bit of the traveler in me. Last February, my mom and I flew to Houston, TX to attend a Freedom at Home Team event. It was only my 2nd time flying (the first being a whole 45 minutes!) I loved it!
Check out the view!

Then, in July, Ron & I were off to Dallas! And I was even more excited! And the good news is, we are going again this July! And I'll get to meet even more AmeriPlan buddies and renew some old friendships. Can't wait.

I have many places in mind to visit and things I want to do when I am financially free. First, an Alaskan cruise. Then, we'll go from there!

Anyway, tomorrow I'm venturing out on a mini vacation- camping with the Girl Scouts. Yippee, skippee! 6th & 7th graders! They are running 3 stations with activities for about 80 other Girl Scouts. I have my doubts....

Please, my dear friend's-say a prayer for me!

And I'll be talking to you when I get back. I'm checking out info on famous woman who were Girl Scouts (Hilary Rodham Clinton for one!) Maybe I'll throw you all a post about that! Later, friends!

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Just because you work at home, does that mean you have to be stuffed into a home office 8 or more hours a day with the door closed? Doesn't being your own boss mean running your home business from anywhere?



Sometimes I love just holing up in my office, shutting the door and getting to work. Othertimes, the day to day walk down the hallway can feel like......like going to the office. Like a J-O-B office. Yuk! I gotta have a change. Maybe it's too much aloneness. And then there are times, just because I CAN it's nice to get a change of scenery. That is one thing I love about being my own boss. I don't have to be confined, I can march to my own drummer.



For instance, since moving the old bunkbed out of my office and changing things around, it hasn't been working for me. It doesn't flow the way I like it to. It feels cramped and stuffy, not right. Not to mention, I get bored easily. I JUST KNOW Spring is around the corner. The office is feeling a bit claustrophobic.A sunny spring day will cause me to lust for the great outdoors,to listen to the birds as they sing in the trees and relish in the new flowers popping their little heads out of the dirt.



So last Spring I created an" outdoor office ". It's a great place to hang and play on the Internet - placing ads, answering emails. It is a little noisy with traffic now & then. Although we are somewhat "countrified", we do have a small family owned store a few miles away. Delivery trucks need to take our road to get there. Of course, you have your school buses and garbage trucks as well. So, depending on the time of day, I may or not sit out there and make phone calls.



Last summer I worked at the beach a couple of times. Not only did I make calls to my team to let them know I was working at the beach (you REALLY can work anywhere!), but also did some prospecting calls. I also left a paper trail (cards, flyers in bathrooms, handed to people, etc...).

With a laptop , wireless Internet, cordless phones & cell phones you can conduct business almost anywhere. The last month or so, I find myself working more and more at the kitchen table in the morning. It's bright and sunny, the coffee pot is right behind me, and since I am usually posting ads at that time I can catch up on the news on TV.



I can leave the computer out here all day and do some business, do some housework. A lot of houswork can be done while you're on the phone. Later as nighttime falls and the kids go to bed I find myself more and more bringing the computer to bed with me. I can sit up with pillows behind me and make any necessary calls, tweet my friend's, socialize ,do my blog, or listen to a training call, whatever. When I'm done, I put the computer on the shelf by the bed. In the morning, I get up, grab my best friend (computer) and back to the kitchen it goes.



I know what everyone's thinking, why not change the office back the way it was? Time, my friends, time.

Between working a biz, Girl Scouts, kids, Dr. and dentist visits (me & kids), a grandkid, yadda-yadda. Ok, I'm making excuses I'm sure.

But, hopping around from "office to office" works until THAT DAY arrives - you know THAT DAY.


A day that has just a few more hours, no problems, no appointments......ya know, the 12th of never.


So until then, if you can't find me, check the living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom (not really) the park, the zoo, the doctors.........who know's where I might be found! If you really need to fnd me, call or tweet! Later!

I finally have a morning when I can catch up from the week. I can focus on my home business for what seems like the 1st time in I don't know how long. How in the world do people who work a J-O-B- function? I mean really, check it out:

This week in the life of.......me

Monday

6 a.m.-wake up, make coffee, plug laptop into plug in the kitchen... Wake 17 yr. old up for school ... Start checking emails, placing ads and networking online...Wake up the 11 yr. for school... continue emails, ads, feed goats, chickens, dog. Get ready to take Rocky to vets. Whew!

9:15- leave to take Rocky to the vet.... leave vets, start driving around putting flyers out about health benefits and some about my new website, went home.........

.........rest of day- catch up on housework...catch up on ads...social netwroking...return calls...make dinner...socialize with kids...kiss them night-night, training call..........place ads,socialize..........yadda, yadda!

Tuesday

6 a.m.-wake up, make coffee, plug laptop into plug in the kitchen... Wake 17 yr. old up for school ... Start checking emails, placing ads and networking online...Wake up the 11 yr. for school... continue emails, ads, feed goats, chickens, dog. Get ready to meet my mom for lunch. Whew!

Noonish- meet mom...eat steak...go to Barnes & Noble...go to Staples........go home-mom comes....hang out...get ready for a special Girl Scout meeting.

Go to meeting...come home...eat late...socialize with kids...kissy nite-nite, place ads, socialize,etc...

Wednesday

6 a.m.-wake up, make coffee, plug laptop into plug in the kitchen... Wake 17 yr. old up for doctors appointment ... Start checking emails, placing ads and networking online...Wake up the 11 yr. for doctors appointment... continue emails, ads, get oldest son to feed goats, chickens, and dog. Get ready to go to docs. Whew!

At docs until almost noon! take kids to school....go home, update ads, return calls,watch grandson for a couple of hours, clean house, make dinner, go to monthly Girl Scout Leaders Meeting.

Left meeting...stopped at grocery store...came home...spent time with kids, kissy-kissy nite -nite. Return a few calls, run ads, catch up with blogs, etc...

Thursday
Ron got stuff in his eye at work the night before...drive him to the eye doctor...go to the pharmacy...get home..nephew stops by...time to for to my Girl scout troop meeting

Get home from Girl Scouts, watch grandson...try to catch up on ads....return a phone call or two...training call, repost ads, socialize online, etc....

So now it's Friday...
And to the best of my knowledge, the only thing I have to do is run to the store for pepperoni and pizza sauce for Pizza Soup. Now, finally I can sit down and do something.

Ok, now that I've p&**ed off some mom's that work a J-O-B and do all that, I'm sorry!

I'm done whining, I swear!

I'm spoiled, I know!


Forgive me!

P.S. I did get alot accomplished while waiting around doctor's offices this week-cut out flyers, wrote out postcards, and read a book on blogging!

On to other news :)

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Duck, Duck......................that ain't a goose!

I went out to feed the animals this morning and 3 of the ducks were lined up in a window sill. I had to run back to the house and grab the camera. This is why I work at home

And...even though I was whining about being busy this week, if I did didn't work at home and had to work a J-O-B ,I may not be able to be a Girl Scout leader, or watch the grandbaby. So now I'm smiling and being thankful!

Until next time, thanks for listening!

---

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm on Twitter! Follow me:

www.twitter.com/home4ever

Santa giving treats to the dogs

Wow, between work, Girl Scouts & the holidays, I've been busy. On top of that, my Grandmother has been in and out of the hospital in a neighboring state, about 150 miles away. My business has been a blessing- I can just pack up my laptop, some postcards, my cell phone, etc...and go to Grandmas. The only glitch is my uncle (who live's there w/Gram) has dial up, and his computer is s-l-o-w. It's not only dial up slow, it's an old computer that has XP on it and doesn't have enough memory for that. My mom & I were trying to book our airline tickets to Houston for the event at the end of February. It took at least 10 minutes for it to warm up, then longer to get to the Internet, etc... My sister oftentimes works from home. She also visits my Grandmothers from another state. I was thinking of seeing if she wanted to go 1/2 on getting my uncle wireless Internet so we could go there whenever & not worry about tying up the phoneline & getting kicked off the internet and such. HMMMMM........

A couple of our goats also had babies. My pygmy had a little girl JUST after the new years, and a nubian had a girl last week. Last year we had 9 babies, but a few that I thought had been bred this year apparently weren't.

We have had pretty nice weather for this time of year. The dogs & I got out for a long walk a couple of times, and my daughter & I took a nice walk at Grandma's. She lives in Pennsylvania on a long, narrow, windy road. At one point, it was all open field and the mountains in the distance were barely visible through the mist. It was so beautiful.

Yesterday, there was light snow falling, and the dogs & I took a walk in the woods before I began work for the day. The snow was clinging to the branches, and covering the pond (which was barely frozen). It was so pretty & serene. The dogs had a blast rolling around, gnawing on each other!

Today I have to go get coal for the stove (great heat!) and do some other running around, so I guess my mornings work will be putting out flyers and such! Gotta go!