So, I have such great intentions and then a year goes by without my blogging it seems (maybe it’s only a month, but who’s counting?). There’s always a reason, of course (and the latest is a pretty good one if I say so myself…). For the last two years, I’ve let a Cub Scout den for JuniorBean. It was one of those things I hadn’t intended to do, precisely, but ended up in. In fact, the way it happened was this… JuniorBean was a Cub Scout for a year. Initially, they asked for leaders and El 3atal and two ladies stepped forward and said they would be interested in helping. Well, one of the two ladies sent an e-mail saying, effectively, and this is what we’ll do at our first meeting and how. El 3atal suggested the 3 get together and discuss it and she vetoed the idea. So, he stepped back (thank goodness as he ended up traveling all the time). After the first crazy, wild, rowdy meeting of 12! boys, I suggested that perhaps we should split the den into two so the numbers would be more manageable. LeaderLady again vetoed the idea, so I stepped back. Fast forward 9 months and the boys have, at their bi-weekly meetings, managed to do less than a quarter of their Bear requirements and spent 3 meetings making scrapbook pages (JuniorBean finished at the first of the three meetings). JuniorBean and I spent Spring Break doing requirements as I strongly believe in not “giving” rank awards but rather earning them. After the year closed, I suggested to JuniorBean that perhaps we should drop Cub Scouts for the following year. And then he dropped the bombshell. His answer was, “But mom, I’m going to be an Eagle Scout.”
Now if that isn’t a laudable goal, I’m not sure what is. I totally and completely blame Kinzi for this desire. If her fine, upstanding sons hadn’t provided such an amazing example (and awesome Eagle Ceremony), he would never have know, so really it’s all her fault. At any rate, his desire told me I’d need to lead his den. After all, I couldn’t spend another year with him doing nothing at a time that was VERY inconvenient for us as a family. And so, I became a den leader. And it was the best thing I’ve ever fallen into, bar none. And now, two years later, my Cub Scouts will have their Arrow of Light Ceremony and advance to Boy Scouts. So, in recognition of the two years I’ve spent with my hardy little guys, I’ve been hard at work on something special for them. I saw on Pinterest (why oh why did I ever join?!) awesome toilet paper roll mini-albums. So, I said to myself, recycling… check, adorableness… check, easy… check, let’s do it. All of the above are true. There’s only one problem. I left out time consuming… check.
I don’t have the picture of the album on it’s ring, but you get the idea…
This picture is the collection of completed pages. It has five sleeves (toilet paper rolls) and five inserts. All are double sided.
This is a sample page highlighting the difficulty I face… I’m thousands of miles from the nearest craft supply store. So, instead of buying scrapbook embellishments, I have to make them. I copied one I had for Leave no Trace and am happy with how mine turned out.
Fortunately, I am hooked on scrapbooking stickers and had some to use for the pages.
The pages for each of the boys tend to highlight our major pack activities. While you could think that this is because those activities are most interesting, actually it’s because I never remember to take pictures of us earning badges. Sigh. So, there are pages for Camp out, Pinewood Derby, Leave No Trace, Raingutter Regatta, and so on.
On the whole, I’m thrilled with how they’ve turned out and looking forward to seeing the boys’ reactions to them. And after that, I close out and transition my position as the Girl Scouts Overseas Committee Chair and I’m done for the year. Whew! And I’m already saying no for next year. To lots of things. I’m ready to be a bit less busy and a lot less scattered. Maybe then I’ll remember to blog… nah, who am I kidding. I’ll still be flaky I think ;).
Happy Remembrances!
A Tale of Three Beans 