Belt Loops and Pins

There are only eight weeks left for Cub Scouts to earn belt loops and pins before the Academic and Sports program ends. Trevor has made excellent progress since my last update.

As you can see, he has finished all 25 of the Academic belt loops, as well as 21 out of the 28 Sports belt loops. He's also made great progress with the Academic pins. With six days off school for spring break, he was able to finish up a handful of pins where he had only one requirement to go.

One of those was the Language and Culture pin. The requirement was to learn how to write the numbers 1-10 in Chinese. This was an activity I did with my 4th and 5th graders back in the day, so it was simply a matter of going through my Chinese New Year file to pull out the handout. Then I gathered a roll of paper, a brush, and black paint. I showed Trevor how the brush work is done, then he gave it a go. He really enjoyed it and proudly displayed his completed "scroll."

It's amazing how many times over the years I've been able to turn to my teaching files for something Trevor needed for Scouts. It makes it somewhat easier to justify having kept it all for almost 9 years (so far). It's so much fun pulling out an activity that I enjoyed teaching my students to share with Trevor.

43 New-to-Me... #3 Birthday Cake M&Ms

Part of the point of 43 New-to-Me is to have different experiences, to stretch myself, that sort of thing. There wasn't much risk involved in trying Pineapple Sunkist. I like pineapples, I like Sunkist, I like soda. It wasn't a stretch at all. Same with #3. 

At the same mini mart where I found the Sunkist, I noticed Birthday Cake M&Ms. I'd heard they were good but hadn't tried them yet. I debated whether or not to include them amongst the 43, but ultimately decided to. Heck, it was my birthday. What could be more appropriate than Birthday Cake M&Ms?

As it turned out, I didn't love them. They were fine, but I like every other flavor of M&Ms better. Trevor ended up finishing my share. I'm glad I tried them so that I know in the future that they aren't a temptation!

Thoughts on April Fool's Day

Yesterday was, of course, April Fool's Day. I used to hate April Fool's Day with a passion. I don't like practical jokes (either on the giving or receiving end) and I don't like the meanness that sometimes accompanies 'harmless' jokes. As a kid, I saw April Fool's Day as nothing more than a day when bullies could spend 24 hours doing mean or harmful things to others but actually get away with it by yelling, "April Fool's!" As a teacher, I saw it as a really annoying distraction to everything we needed to do, as well as a day to be hyper-vigilant about bullies taking advantage of the day.

But things have changed. I don't think it's so much that I have changed. I still don't like playing practical jokes, being the victim of practical jokes, or hearing of bullying no matter what the calendar says. But the nature of the jokes have changed. They've become so much more clever, infinitely funnier, and without the mean spirit that used to exist.

I really enjoyed CNN's article about some of the best April Fool's pranks of 2015. They are clever, hilarious, and so creative. Today I want to share some of the other awesome April Fool's pranks I saw yesterday. Hats off to the amazing creativity!

Noell Hyman of Paperclipping shares just how deeply she's jumped into the planner craze here.

Bryan on Scouting shares some upcoming changes to the Boy Scout merit badges here.

And geocaching goes to a whole new level here.

If this is what April Fool's Day means now, I'm totally on board.

Fortunately

Awhile back, I shared a book I'd written as a kid called "You're in the Doghouse Now!" Today, we're taking another stroll back to approximately 1982 with another book I authored, somewhere around age 10. I remember working on it and how proud I was of it. It's called "Fortunately" and it's a gem.

(Cynthia Jones. In cursive, even. Fancy!)

"Fortunately, it was summer and the ice cream truck was coming."

(That bird! Those tires! The menu!)

"Unfortunately, I didn't have any money." 

(But I did have my blue watch.)

"Fortunately, my mom gave me some money."

(Hey, I changed socks. And lost my watch!)

"Unfortunately, she only gave me 10 cents and ice cream costs 25 cents."

(Exactly what kind of footwear is the ice cream girl wearing?)

"Fortunately, my sister loaned me some money to buy ice cream."

(I changed clothes. And Kari has either her dress or her head on backwards.)

"Unfortunately, the loan was at 50% interest."

(Ah, there we go. Her arms are shorter, but her head is on correctly.)

"Fortunately, they had cake as well as ice cream."

(The ice cream girl wasn't comfy in those weird, red shoes.)

"Unfortunately, I still had to pay my sister."

(The suspense! What will happen?!)

"Fortunately, I have some money in the bank."

(What an amazing, length-changing dress!)

 "Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to get the money until I'm 18."

(Wait. The bank is changing sizes too...)

"Fortunately, my sister forgot about it."

(I'm looking trim!)

"Fortunately, she never remembered."

I love that my mom saved this all those years! It's absolutely hilarious to look at my childhood drawings, and I love the story too. The funniest part about it is that I was the hoarding sister who would consider charging 50% interest on a loan and had a Keep Out sign on my door, while Kari never held onto money more than 15 minutes and had essentially no concept of privacy or personal space. I love that I reversed our roles in this story. For the record, since I suspect she is reading this, the story is fiction and I do not owe my sister 15 cents with 32 years' worth of 50% interest.

43 New-to-Me... #2 Sunkist Pineapple

Part of the problem with trying 43 New-to-Me foods is identifying them and then finding them. I've been asking friends for suggestions, googling like crazy ("weird foods I should try" or "unusual fruit" or "vegetables you haven't heard of" etc.), writing down potential items while watching Food Network and visiting a variety of ethnic markets. 

I found what would become #2 on my list of 43 New-to-Me at a gas station mini mart. I'd been trying to track down a particular regional soda I wanted to try that wasn't common here. Their website said the mini mart sold it. As it turns out, they did not. But they did have something I've never seen before: Sunkist Pineapple soda. I didn't realize there was any Sunkist besides the delicious (and ubiquitous) orange soda. I bought the Sunkist Pineapple. 

Yum! It was excellent! I gave it a 9 out of 10. It had a good pineapple flavor that didn't taste too artificial and the sweetness was just right. 43 New-to-Me is off to a delicious start!