National Girl Scout Day

 National Girl Scout Day is celebrates the anniversary of the very first Girl Scout Meeting held on March 12, 1912 by Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Lowe.  This first meeting was held in Savannah, Georgia.  The meetings were enrichment programs, service projects and outdoor activities and adventures.  From this moment on, Girl Scouts became an international movement. 

Girl Scouts provides engaging, fun and challenging activities like earning badges, going on trips, selling cookies, exploring science, getting outdoors and doing community service projects.  She will also learn important skills in four different areas:  

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)

Outdoors 

Life Skills

Entrepreneurship 

Some fun facts:

Originally called Girl Guides of America

In 1912 18 girls attended that very first meeting

In 1920, there were 70, 000 members

In 1930 there were over 200,000 members

Today there are over 2.5 million members - -1.7 million girls and 750,000 adults

The Girl Scout Mission:

Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.

The Girl Scout Promise

On my honor I will try 

to serve God and my country

to help people at all times

and to live by the Girl Scout Law.

Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be 

honest and fair,

friendly and helpful,

considerate and caring,

courageous and strong, and

responsible for what I say and do,

and to

respect myself and others,

respect authority,

use resources wisely,

make the world a better place, and

be a sister to every Girl Scout.

How to observe #NationalGirlScoutDay

Celebrate what the organization has done to empower girls in communities across the country.

Support your local troops

Learn more about the Girl Scout organization and its impact on girls and young women

Share your experience with girl scouting

Volunteer to be a leader. 

And, most importantly, buy a box (or three) of Girl Scout Cookies!

Purse

 I have some exciting news.   I found two more purses!  

If you are new, just search purse on my blog and you will find millions  many posts on my purse problems. 

You would think that with all of the new purses that I have found I should have a closet full of purses.  Unfortunately, I had to say good bye to a very well-loved purse over the weekend.  It was one of my favorite purses, maybe we can all have a moment of silence to honor my purse?

My search for the perfect purse is an everyday occurrence.  I always check out the purses in a store.  I never know what I might find.  And, well, if I do find one, I can't just purchase it.  I have to go home and obsess  think about it for days  weeks  months  awhile.  Sometimes I go back to the store and visit the purse.  You know,  date the purse before marrying making a purchase.

Keep the prayers coming.  I'm always on the lookout for a new purse and can use all the positive vibes.

International Women's Day 2021

 Today is International Women's Day! 

This day was first celebrated in 1911.  I'm glad women persisted.  We have the right to vote, we can hold any job that we want, we can get an education and work in any field we choose and we have property rights, reproductive rights and the right to work for equal pay.

Unfortunately, there are some countries where women do not have all of these rights.  They are not able to get an education,  they are married before they turn 18 and some women are killed because they are perceived to bring shame to their family.  The list goes on and on.

We have come so far as women.  It's hard to believe what we have done.  It's also hard to believe how much more work has to be done.

The theme this year is Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.

"Women's full and effective participation and decision making in public life as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls."  This calls for women's right to make decisions in all areas of life, equal pay, equal share of unpaid care and domestic work an end to all forms of violence against women and girls and health care services that respond to their needs.*

"Gloria Steinem, world-renowned feminist, journalist and activist once explained "The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights."


So, put your hands out and strike a pose.  The #InternationalWomensDay pose (or #IWD2021).  Post it on social media using the hashtag.   And, do what you can to make a positive difference for women everywhere.

taken from Internationalwomensday.com *

 Let's see what we can do this year to improve women's rights throughout the world.

*need some more info?  check out this link

My Ice Scraper

 You are probably wondering why I mentioned purchasing an ice scraper for your loved one for Valentine's Day.

My car was parked on the driveway for a long time.  Yes, we have a two car garage, but, due to some family situations only one side of our garage is clear.  RT was doing some remodeling on our bathroom and needed to utilize the garage as a workspace and storage.

I was working early morning shifts and had my morning routine set.  Getting dressed, eating breakfast, gathering the days supplies, hopping into the car and heading to work.  Throw in some frost on the windows and my entire morning is out of whack.

I have this red ice scraper that RT bought for me.  I've had it for many years.  The problem is that it scrapes a very fine line at a time.  So, if you need to scrape an entire window (or 6 windows) it's going to take awhile.  I was lucky if I could get just enough scraped so I can see out of it.

It's pretty quiet at 4:30am in our neighborhood.  I was afraid that my loud diesel car and my 30 minute window scraping was going to set off one of the neighbors.  

My car is back in the garage and I still have the same ice scraper.  Let's just hope I don't have to use it.

The Birthday Post

I try to make birthdays a special day for my kids.  Growing up, I felt special on my birthday and I wanted to pass along that feeling to my children.

I always wondered about people who aren't big on their birthday.  And, then I heard about those who don't know their exact birthday date.  I thought, how do you not know your birthday?

Then I met someone who didn't know their birth date.  

I got to know this person over time.  We enjoyed lots of random talks on various subjects.  One day, we got on the subject of birthdays.  That's when she told me that she didn't know her exact birth date.  I actually felt sad.  Your debut into the world and you don't know the exact date?   I asked her why she didn't have that information.   That's when she told me that she was adopted.  She was left at an orphanage as an infant.  Because she was abandoned, the orphanage did not have any paperwork for her and assigned her a birth date.  She told me that other babies were abandoned around the same time and they were all given the same birth date.  She is in touch with these women and feels close to them, calling them sisters.  In fact, they try to celebrate their special day together whenever possible.

Today is my birthday.  I don't remember my debut into the world or anything about that day.  I do know that an exact date (or time) isn't that important.  Your birthday is just a date for you to celebrate you.

Today I will be celebrating me.

Easy Vanilla Cake

 Made this cake for Valentine's Day and it was a huge hit in our house.   There's nothing like cake made from scratch.   

I made some changes and added them below the recipe.  I don't use milk, so Oat Milk was used as a substitute.  And, if you follow along you know that I don't use a lot of sugar in my baking.  The cake will have frosting on top so there's your extra sugar.  I did not try aquafaba or a flax egg with this recipe.  When I do, I will make sure to update this post.

Does anyone else make their own birthday cake?  This cake is pretty easy to make and won't take up all of your time.  Easy and delicious.  Perfect combination!

Here's the recipe:

Easy Vanilla Cake

ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup hot water

2 tsp vanilla 

for frosting:

1/2 cup softened butter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 TBSP milk (oat milk, almond milk)

directions:

Oven 350*F.   Grease and flour 8" square or round pan.

In large bowl whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

Add egg, buttermilk, vanilla and oil.  Add hot water and whisk well until batter is smooth.  It might be a little runny.

Pour batter into pan.  Tap pan gently against counter to release air bubbles

Bake cake for 28 minutes or until golden on top and tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Cook cake completely before frosting.

Frosting:

Place butter in bowl and beat for 5 minutes.  Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time and mix well.  Add heavy cream and beat for 1 minute.  Add vanilla and mix.  Frosting should be very fluffy.  Spread over cooled cake and decorate with sprinkles.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

*You can make this vegan quite easily.  I used oat milk to make my buttermilk.  Just add 2 tsp apple cider vinegar to 1/2 cup oat milk and let sit for 5 minutes.  

*Feel free to use less sugar in the recipe.  I used 1/3 cup sugar and it tasted delicious.

*I used vegan butter instead of the oil and it turned out ok.  

*I would think aquafaba or a flax egg could work as an egg substitute in this recipe.

Enjoy!

Cardio with Curly

 Curly's arrival has brought many scary  weird  interesting experiences to our home.  We were used to all of the weirdness that surrounded Pippen.  Add in another weird  dog and, well, life here can be quite chaotic  challenging interesting.

Curly lived with my in-laws.  She's pretty laid back and adapted to whatever life threw at her.  When she moved in with us, she was quite overwhelmed with all of the people in our house. Running from room to room, making sure she didn't miss anything.  

I'm usually the first person awake in the morning.  If it's too early, the dogs will ignore me.  At some point in the morning, I will hear the sounds of a dog about to be sick (I'm trying to put this in gentle terms for those with weak stomachs).  This always occurs in my dining room.  The carpet in my dining room is one of my favorite things in our home.  It's also the place where my dogs think they can be sick.  When I hear the awful sound, my heart starts pumping and I'm running around trying to figure out which dog and where this might be going down.  Of course, it's always in the dining room and the dog is on my carpet.

I really think there needs to be a video attached to this post for you to laugh at me running around like a crazy lady  understand the seriousness of the situation.  My main goal is to get the dog off that carpet.  It's a lot easier to clean up a hardwood floor.  It's even better if I can get them outside.

The sick one is always Curly.  And, she doesn't understand that I'm trying to move her off the carpet.  She will go around the table several times (with me chasing her).  I will finally move her into the kitchen, where she will settle by my throw rugs.  Again, oblivious to my, "only on the floor" pleas.  After chasing her around the kitchen, I finally get her outside, only to have to chase her down the deck.  The entire time I'm yelling, "Oh no!  Oh no!  Not there!  Oh no!  Oh no!  Not there!"  

My family is no help.  They know what's happening and just leave me on my own.

When Curly is finally outside, I come in and my heart is racing.

This happens in the morning several times a week.  I'm beginning to think my family is bribing Curly to make sure that I get in a good workout.