Be a Scout !

This week is Be a Scout Social Media week here in NYC so here's me doing my part!

The Scouter's Wife is proud to support Scouting and the Greater New York Councils, BSA!

Like them at facebook.com/BoyScoutsGNYC. Follow them @BoyScoutsGNYC.

Learn more about Boy Scouts of America by visiting BeAScout.org.

I am Catholic.

I know in the future I'll be blogging a lot more about my faith but for now, here's an awesome video that makes me so proud to be Roman Catholic.

"Do not be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to Christ!" - Blessed Pope John Paul II

20 Questions

Last week, Bryan on Scouting asked the Scouting magazine Facebook page, "Have you sat in on an Eagle Board of Review? If so, what are some of your favorite questions? Kathy, a Scouter who e-mailed us, is about to sit in on her first BOR and is looking for advice!"

So Bryan and the folks over there took all of the responses and picked what he thought were the best 20 questions and re-posted them on his blog. You can see that list here:

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2012/09/14/20-questions-to-ask-at-your-next-eagle-board-of-review/

I am posting this because I think this information is valuable to all you Scouters and Scouter's Wives out there.

I am also posting this because one of the 20 questions is mine :)

Happy Board-of-Reviewing!

Back to Troop

Happy New Scouting Year! Thursday was the first day of scouting of the year for our unit. The most recent former Weblos from the pack of our charter sponsor became Boy Scouts last night, almost all of them coming in at the rank of Scout (because of the Arrow of Light award). The PLC met a couple of weeks ago to put the finishing touch on these first few meetings. Belt buckles were shined, shirts irons, knots knotted and loops loopy. We were ready.

I continue to stand in amazement of the fact that ten years ago, I didn't know what any of that meant.

Last weekend was the council kickoff of the new year. Because the men of the troop went down to this event, this left to me the task of signing up new and prospective scouts at the parish's activities sign up fair. So there I was, in a troop shirt with the words SERVICE CORPS in 200 point font on my back, telling kids and parents about scouting and answering their questions and recruiting. (I wore the shirt with the garish letters, by the way, because a Class A uniform, for me, is out of the question.That thing on me raises frumpiness to new heights). I am sometimes surprised by the ease by which I'm able to talk about scouting. It wasn't me, after all, who grew up in the program. Sure I'm a lifelong Girl Scout, so I'm sold on the concept of scouting, but organizationally, the two groups are very different. I surprise myself at how much I've learned over the years....by asking questions or just listening attentively to hours and hours of conversation. When I say things like "I'll have to check with our D.E. about that" or that I've become the official scouting interpreter for our non-scouting friends (sometimes, when you've been inside the bubble for so long, you forget that not everyone is familiar with the concept of National Camping School. You also forget that not everyone has enough makings for a Scouting themed room scattered throughout their houses, but I digress.) it's like I can hardly remember when this wasn't a part of my everyday life.

Last summer, my sister mentioned that one of her colleague's sons was going to scout camp that summer and wondered if it was the same one that our troop attends. Without blinking an eye, I responded, "Well they live in Nassau, right? That means they're in the Theodore Roosevelt Council, so their summer camp would be Onteora, actually."

Did that just come out of my mouth?

I realized some things  in that moment. I could no longer claim to be an outsider. I could no longer just be Scouter's fiancée, at the time. You know, the sweet girl that helps hang signs or takes tickets at a fundraiser but whose involvement stops there. I was a part of this program, a scouter in my own right. The role of "scouter's spouse" is generally thought to be someone who gives outside support to their husband or wife's scouting career, without being an active registered member themselves. I've always thought of myself as a Scouter's girlfriend/fiancée/wife, but it was undeniable. I was on the troop charter, literally a card-carrying member of the BSA. I've helped lead the troop on hikes. I've gone camping with the boys. I've assisted in running fundraisers. Super (like my husband) Scouter I am certainly not. But I'm in this. So far over my head I'm practicing Safe Swim Defense over here.

At the end of the day though, I still consider my primary role in scouting to be that of Scouter's Wife rather than Committee Member. (By the way, does it irk anyone else that on the registration form, the code is "MC" instead of "CM"? Never mind.) I support scouting - with my time, effort, and money - but at the heart of that, it's my husband and his love of scouting that I support. It's because of my love for him that I've learned about the program, that I've tried to give back to it, that I volunteer my own time. I've always considered myself lucky that the man I married spends his spare time giving back to the program that gave him so much; that if  he's out "with the boys" late on any given night, it's usually because of a troop or lodge meeting; that the Scout Law isn't just something that looked good on a college application, it's how he lives his life. For that reason I do what I do for Scouting. It's why I even own my own Class A uniform, why I willingly slept in an A-Frame tent for two months one summer, and why I even consulted various BSA calendars when choosing our wedding date.

But they don't have a registration code for that.

Stuff I Love : Ritter Sport

I swear, half the reason I started this blog is so I can talk about my favorite things.

But what would that first product be? Oh, I have a list. Nail products, grocery items, chapstick. Whatever I choose for my first product could set the tone of this blog forever. That product would make a statement about who I am and what I value most. There was only one answer.

Chocolate.

Not just any chocolate. I heard about this stuff long ago from blogger C. Jane Kendrick. She mentioned it at some point and I'd wanted to try it, being a lifelong lover of the substance, but I couldn't find it anywhere. And then, one day, out of the blue, months and months later, it was staring up at me, in Walgreens of all places. One bar comes to $4.27 with tax. Pricey, yes. But this is "adult chocolate." Don't get me wrong, a Hershey's does the trick in a Real Chocolate Emergency, but sometimes, you just need an upgrade. And does this hit the spot.

So far, I've tried the Alpine Milk Chocolate and the Milk Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts. The 3.5 oz bar is 3.5 x 3.5 inches of creamy deliciousness. Seriously, this is the creamiest milk chocolate I've ever had, and I've had it all - Godiva, Dove, Lindt, Ghiradelli, Perugina, Sees, Russell Stovers, 75% off hollow chocolate bunnies named Peter B. Goode. (This is the part where you insist that I've haven't lived until I've tried Such-and-Such Brand of chocolate and you want to send me a bar. You may proceed.) This stuff is fantastic. If you happen to see it, buy it. You'll thank me.

A less expensive runner up to the Ritter Sport: Hershey's Symphony bar. (It's gotta be the red wrapper though, not blue. Ritter Sport may be my latest fling but Symphony was my first love. And you just don't forget your first love.)

I wish you peace, blessings, and copious amounts of chocolate.

Blogger Inspiration

I'm a big reader. I've always been, and I love to write - stories, letters, citations, anything. I collect books, much to my husband's chagrin who has had to move them no less than three times now as I've moved from apartment to apartment. (Did I mention that most of these are hardcover? tee-hee. Sorry honey.) I'm also a very fast reader. Now with the Kindle iPad app, I devour entire works faster than Amazon can charge them to my credit card. (And the hubs is in full support of any future books I acquire in electronic format. Really, its better for his back.)

I've read a few fantastic books recently, which I'm sure I'll get around to sharing sooner or later. I've just finished renowned blogger Ree Drummond's book From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. I've started reading her blog occasionally, and I say occasionally because when I do, it sucks me in and 4 hours later, my husband is asking me why I haven't spoken to him for an entire afternoon. Its not really fair to call "The Pioneer Woman" a blog...its kind of an empire. (It also makes me feel ashamed and inspired at the same time. This mother of 4 runs a ranch and still manages to put gourmet beef dishes on the table every night and author one of the most extensive blogs going. I can manage about two posts a week and I have no kids and a 2 bedroom apartment in the wilds of Brooklyn. I hang my head but type on!) I absolutely loved her book. As someone who had come upon her blog only in the last year, I'd never known how she met the Marlboro Man and traded Anne Klein jeans for a John Deere lawn mower. I couldn't put it down and would have finished it in two days instead of three if it wasn't for that whole "need to make a living" thing that regularly gets in the way of my blogging, reading, cooking and cleaning.

The other famous blogger's book that I've read in the last few months is Stephanie Nielson's Heaven is Here. Another fixture on my Kindle, I've probably read it three times now. Stephanie, of the NieNie Dialogues, tells the story of the plane crash that she survived with burns on 80% of her body, but also of her fairy tale courtship with her husband and the birth of her first 4 children before the accident. I loved reading her whole story but really liked hearing how she got her start in blogging. She has great style, she's an awesome mom, she's a woman of deep faith and has maintained her upbeat outlook on everything about her life After Crash. What's not to like about that?

There are a couple of other blogs I read and oh how they feed my wannabe blogger soul. As I said in my first post, the goal of this blog is to put out there my life as a Scouter's Wife, and maybe there's someone who stumbles upon my story who can either relate to my experience or just wants to be entertained by it.

I love to read and I love to write. And with women like Ree and Nie around to inspire me, I hope that just maybe I can write something that you love to read, too.