I Love Scouting

Last week I was perusing blogs and stumbled across a tote bag that Jaybird Quilts made for a friend’s daughter out of GIRL SCOUT PATCHWORK FABRIC!  I freaked out for a minute because I’m on a self-imposed fabric-buying moratorium.  But then I decided that I had an obligation to buy myself some of this crazy awesome fabric.  I picked up a yard each of:



All images are from Robert Kaufman

 I have no idea what I’m going to do with them yet, but they are now safe in my fabric stash for whenever inspiration strikes.  I’m thinking that I might make a patch out of the patches fabric for my daypack for our Great Western Adventure (which is what we're calling our cross-country roadtrip that we're taking in August).  I’ll have to earn those patches first!

I love the idea behind Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.  An organization whose mission is to “build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place” is awesome in my book.  I was a Daisy and a Brownie, but never officially made it to be a Girl Scout.  I considered myself an honorary Girl Scout from tagging along at my sister’s Girl Scouting events since my mom was their troop leader.  We moved in between when I was a Daisy and Brownie, and my Brownie troop activities just didn’t cut it, so I eventually dropped out.  Still, my family still sings the Johnny Appleseed song before meals.  We even sung it at our wedding!  No one but my family and a few family friends knew it, but it was still a great way to kick off our reception.

Scouting is great because you get to learn a ton of awesome life skills that you might not learn anywhere else!  Plus they also incorporate the whole volunteering thing, which is great for kids to get into at a young age.  Generally, I love anything that involves making things and getting dirty.

We found old Boy Scout and Girl Scout handbooks at a book fair last year.  Admittedly, the Boy Scout book is way cooler than the Girl Scout book.  

The illustrations are  so classic and amazing.  The whole thing is full of a million subjects.

Here we have information about animal bites.

Historically significant things in US history!

The good old Skill Awards section.

Of course, camping skills.

And how to tie knots.

Even the cycles of the Earth!  Why this is included in this book, I'm not entirely sure.  But it sure is a great illustration!

Then they move on to the Special Scouting Opportunities, which takes scouting up a notch.  This section includes National High-Adventure Programs, pretty much mega adventures (which sound awesome, btw), Activities and Skills, such as a mile swim and foreign language interpreting, and Heroism Awards (self explanatory, but I'm not sure how often boy scouts will have the opportunity to carry a small child to safety, as is pictured).

Basically this book has information about everything you would ever need to know in life, which is probably why Eagle Scouts are so resourceful.  And is exactly why we'll be bringing this along for reference on our Great Western Adventure.