My Life Monday: A Piece of Me

I am a Brownie Leader's child. 

I think this explains a lot about me. 

I have an inane need to help. To be there for people and to troubleshoot. Often to my own detriment. 

Sometimes this is taken to be a weakness. My ability to process nonsense and get on with the job I put down to my mother. 

On my 7th birthday I joined Brownies, I was an Elf. That batch even now is still on my camp blanket. As an only child, of a single-parent mother I learnt that I could share and be part of something bigger. I learnt how to play large games, responsibility, one summer I made over 100 cups for tea and won a Tetley Tea competition (I still don't like tea, coincidence), I sewed on a button, learnt to keep several useful items in a very small compressed pouch for emergencies and my love of giant bobble hats was born. 

I moved on to Guides, I got to camp outside. But only after learning how to make a sink with draining board out of sticks, canes and string. I learnt that chemical waste is a job for someone else, and that eggs don't like to be hit by broken beams, nothing beats cooking on an open fire, sitting on the floor in a horseshoe and eating as a group, powered orange juice is the best thing ever! Campfire skits and swimming in rivers and streams. I only left Guides because I wanted to do Duke of Edinburgh, they were on the same night. 

Duke of Edinburgh was ace. Teenagers against the world, and the elements. Map reading wasn't a strong point, but working together to sort things out was. I learnt first aid, the important of balance in life, look after the mental, the physical and the adventure. This is the pinacle of why these groups exist.  

As a teenager, I helped at Brownies as a Young Leader. In fact I was a volunteer until I turned 21. 

Then I decided my life was too important. 

I was wrong. Since I had my two boys, I returned to volunteering. First at a pre-school, then I returned to the Baden-Powell family. This time with scouting. I spent a short time at Beavers (the little ones), due to my working hours I had to leave this section, I moved on to Cubs (the middle ones). I loved this section. Getting to see them move on from all the glitter and glue, to becoming rough and tumble kids growing in size, stature and as people in their own right weekly was a massive privilege. 

This term I start my journey with Scouts (bigger kids but not the biggest). Their hormones will be raging, their skills with be greater. I also step back into the world of GGA, helping with Brownies. After a long time away, it currently feels like a comfort. Almost as if I'm going home. 

Helping people is part of me. It always has been, it always will be. It makes me who I am. 

However, I don't do it solely for the people I help. I do it for me. It makes my heart bigger, keeps my soul happy, and I keep learning everyday. After 15 years of nursing those who are close to me through varying illnesses, I can honestly say I do this for me. 

Time is the most valuable gift I have to share. Giving these kids the chance to make memories that will shape them and they will think back to as they age, then have their own kids. Maybe seeing the fun that I have will inspire them in turn to pay it forward to the next generation. 

It takes a village to raise a child. I am a villager, the Scout Association and Girl Guide Association are the village I live in they have shaped me into being the person I am now. 

Love me, or hate me. I like me and I thank those leaders within Brownies, Guides and Duke of Edinburgh who gave up their precious time to teach me life skills I am now showing to a new generation. 

 

Put It in a Box

This is not my usual Tuesday blog fare. I felt like expressing something, and that's tricky when you're reviewing something.

Everyone copes with bad stuff in their life. But I feel that how we are able to express it, and handle our feelings and emotions is what makes us.

I'm no different to anyone else, I have my ups and downs. I've had lots of downs that I have had to pick myself up from. I take medication to keep my moods even. I have to employ methods to get me through both the beige and the grey days.

I have a tendency to over think, to dwell, to plan. This can help and hinder. I have routines that I employ that keep me occupied. I like order. I'm not keen on surprises, yet I am impulsive. I am my own enigma wrapped in a conundrum.

I stay busy and I channel my emotions good or bad into different projects. I find that by making a promise to be somewhere I overcome my desire to stay in the house behind closed doors and get out there. Helping others in that time makes it doubly worth it.

Paying it back reaps its own rewards.

In essence I still employ the technique I was given after my mother's death, put it in a box. Then shut the lid. Do or think 3 things and pile them on top of the box.

So if you have a problem, work it out. Break it down into manageable pieces. Then put those pieces together and fix it. If it is a thought, a bad memory, your inner voice telling you something bad... put it in the box and cover it with good thoughts, ideas and actions. The good will outweigh the bad, and as with every good smultzy film good will vanquish evil.



=

My Life Monday: Word Building

Today I've been spending a bit of quality time with my eldest boy JJ.

He's currently 8 going on 30, with a touch of toddler strop thrown in for good measure.

It would appear he has entered the word building phase, taking different sounds and putting them together to use in place of the expletives I must admit I try hard not to use.

Today we have had boosh, skidoosh and skidooshi. None of them have any particular meaning to him but they are littered within conversation.

Now I can just about recollect the heady days of being an 8 year old. One of my words was squaz. It mean a little bit, gizza squaz of that paint. A bit more than a squaz was a squazidick. I still love the feel of that word, although I can't really use it in day-to-day life with many people.

Then again, when I was 8 I was obsessed with being a witch trapped in a human dimension and I could only pass to the wiccan side via a tree or through a certain pair of goal posts at the local school.

Things seem different for boys, at least it does for my two. Games with no defined story or that aren't based around some sort of video game just don't seem to happen.

It's a shame, I'm trying hard to instil some imagination into these two but they're not going for it yet. However, they're constantly making up new gangs. Prank Gang, Secret Agent Spy Group and Weird gang, so you never know it might just be me sucking the imagination out of them.

Family Friday: Simple Car Game

My eldest boy has a favourite game, the one where you take it in turns to make up a story. Each person telling a different part of the far-fetched tale.

It's a great way to pass the time, but I find that it takes far too much concentration when you are trying to drive the car. So we've started ABC lists instead.

So far we have had animals, fruits, vegetables, names, places and word association, the only limit is your imagination and not knowing any 'X' words.

I've found this also rather good for distraction purposes too.

Glimpses of My Family Christmas

Getting Ready For Santa

What are your traditions at Christmas?

As a child, mum and I used to spend Christmas at my grandparents house. So when mum finished work we would dress our tree at home, wrap our gifts then go down to their house. Where we would decorate their tree and wrap some more gifts. Then we'd go to a Christingle service in town.

I would wake up Christmas morning, mum and gran would have already put the turkey in the oven. There would be a selection of cold meats and pickles on the table for breakfast. Pork pie and pate for breakfast how decadent can you get?

My uncle would arrive later and we would all have dinner. Not a lot changed over the years, first my uncle got married, so my aunt, cousin and later 3 cousins would also come for dinner. As we all grew the venue changed to my uncle's house in a nearby village. When I became a teenager I no longer slept at my gran's house and the traditional breakfast changed into bacon sandwiches at home with mum.

One year we even had Christmas in a pub, that one I approved of - even though I was driving.

Then things changed again, mum died. I lived with my mum, Christmas 2001 I got engaged and my now husband moved in. Gran and grandad began to spend Christmas day with my Aunt and Uncle and their great-grandchildren.

Then at Christmas 2005 I was poorly, and pregnant, and on a ward in a hospital in York. My first son was born December 28th. Pretty much against his will. As I recovered he got sicker. Surprisingly not my favourite Christmas in memory, that is still when I got my roller boots.

By 2007 we had 2 baby boys at home and the urge for tradition stuck back in, after years of having turkey curry and turkey and bacon sandwiches for Christmas dinner.

Christmas 2009 was the first one without Grandad. Gran continued to have her lunch with my Aunt and Uncle, I started to do a buffet on Boxing Day for my in laws and my gran.

This year is my first one without my grandparents. The first one where I won't step inside the house I visited every Christmas for 36 years where ever I lived in the country, the first one that the new family living there will spend in that house. I won't be doing a Boxing Day buffet.

However, this year I am taking the boys to see Santa, the boys are going to their first pantomime in York, I have dodged the is Santa real questions and watched some of my favourite Christmas films. I have had my Starbucks Red Cup, taken part in making another Christmas special magazine, and gone to Christingle... it's all about the orange, a candle and the sweets you can burn (okay not the definitive meaning of the Christingle, but it's a selling point for getting some into church). There have been works parties, parties with cubs and scouts, sneaky pub visits and familly get togethers.

All I have left to do (at the time of typing) is the Santa Spruce up. The big clean you do before the big guy in red arrives. If you don't have a tidy house/bedroom/clear floor Santa won't come. It's a health and safety issue don't you know! If he can't see the plate of mince pies on the table how can he eat them?

Happy Christmas Everyone.