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It’s Girl Scout Cookie Time!

girl scout cookie box artA few weeks ago I waxed poetic over at Persephone on how much I love that MaM is a Daisy Girl Scout. I mean, I am really enjoying her whole Daisy Girl Scout experience. The field trips, the friendship, the unique experiences….I just love it all so much.

Then we went to the Girl Scout Cookie Rally last night, and my joy was brought to a whole new level. We got her cookie order form (it looks just the ones I used in 1985) and the manila money envelope — I think the National Office must have ordered 5.5 million of them back in the day, because they are exactly the same. Exactly.

The price, of course, has gone up. Cookie counts, of course, have gone down. Boxes are now $3.50 each, and some cookie counts are as low as 14. But they taste exactly the same, and man are they good!

Something I found interesting when looking at the cookie order form is that a) all ingredients and nutritional info is listed for each type of cookie and b)the ingredients, for the most part are pretty basic.

Only one cookie has HFCS, the Dulche De Leche (listed in the containts less than 2% of the following section), and only the chocolate varieties (Thin Mints, Samoas & Tagalongs) contain Partially Hydrogenated Soy Oil. I think that’s a testament to the fact that the recipes really haven’t changed all that much since I was selling these yummies myself.

New (to me, anyway) is the program “Operation Cookie Drop”, where patrons can donate the equivalent to the price of a box of cookies and a box of cookies will be sent to military troops. Here in Indiana, the cookies are sent to the troops being processed in and out of Camp Atterbury.

We can officially start taking orders today — leave a comment if you’re interested and I will email you to confirm!

(MaM does need to be involved in the process, so she’ll be making some phone calls & writing thank you notes)

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Ideas for 2011

I’m not calling them resolutions, and I’m getting a little intimidated by calling them goals, to be honest. But I do have some ideas about what I’d like to see happen in 2011.

1) First and FOREMOST I’d like to see this here house SELL. We decided one year ago this week that we were bound for a more roomy abode. 12 months later, we are living a slightly less cluttered life, but we’ve also paid for almost a year of storage.

2) I’d like to have a better handle on our grocery/household supplies bill. I’ve started tracking what we spend and when, and hope to see some patterns I can amend. Because wow, do I really need to spend $10 a week on granola bars? Seriously.

3) It’s time to get back to exercising. We’ve belonged to the gym now for about 8 months. We seem to go through spurts of either feast or famine, turbo charged exercise or nothing at all. It’s time to either use it or drop it. And since I’d like to drop some pounds, I don’t think dropping the gym membership is the way to go.

So I’ve been trolling the Internet, really searching for houses I could see us living in, and figuring out what our real price range will be. This, in turn, will help determine what our bottom line price will be on this house. I’m willing to do what it takes to be in a new house by the time school starts in the fall for MaM.

I’m tackling the groceries week by week, keeping track of what I buy and what we use and where the best price may be at the stores I frequent. I am hoping to make some real progress, which will only help our bottom line.

I’m also adding the gym to our regular routine. I started doing this in November – the days I go to work*,  I pick of MaM and then head straight to the gym. This month, I’m adding a day, and committing to hitting a few group fitness classes. That, on top of planning for a half-marathon in June should keep moving.

Those are my ideas for 2011. What are yours?

P.S. If meal-planning is one of your “ideas” for 2011, check this week’s Savvy deal…$16 for 6 months of meal planning from Relish! Could be a good thing to have!

*Yes, I have a part-time job! More to come on that in a bit…

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Raising Mobile Device Kids

I would say our kids are plugged-in, but that’s not entirely true. Their favorite devices are not anchored to the way through some archaic power cord, no, their favorite devices are mobile (how 21st century, I know).

I’ve had an iPhone for just over a year, and I can honestly say it’s changed how I do a lot of things. I manage and organized shopping lists, check news and weather, and do crazy things like scour the IMDB all from my phone. I also now have a mobile gaming device on me at all times.

MaM and Jr have now discovered this. For about the past six months, they’ve had their own page on my phone, with games, stories and the Starbucks app (“Mommy, I like to make coffee drinks for you. That belongs on my page, not yours”).

When Ruckus Media Group offered to send me codes to redeem a bevy of apps from the iTunes store, I said yes. Ruckus has developed a collection of classic stories read by some of the world’s most famous voices. They are beautifully illustrated and they’ve kept MaM’s attention for many a grocery store checkout lane. My favorite, I think, is “Pecos Bill”, as told by Robin Williams. Anyone who likes Robin Williams vocal comedy will love this story. They are all available for sale in the iTunes store.

When I am actually using my phone (imagine that!), MaM and Jr have started to enjoy using the family’s new iPad. It was really BgK’s  birthday/Christmas gift, but he’s sharing. They were excited to see some of their iPhone favorites on the iPad, like Angry Birds. MaM was also excited when I told her that BOB Books had a game to play on the iPad.

I admit, I was a little geeked when Lynn, the author of the BOB Books, emailed me and offered to arrange a redemption code for me. I mean, I’ve listened to probably 100 children over the years learn to read as they work their way through the BOB Books. My own daughter carried her set of BOB books around for days, and read them aloud to anyone who would stop to listen.

The BOB Books app features the illustrations and the text from the set one books. It’s an interactive experience – beginning readers can manipulate the letters to make the words in the story and watch the characters jiggle. Making the three-letter phonetic words is a great way to reinforce phonics and the skills needed to sound out words. It’s a little easy for MaM now, but I bet that in about 18 months, Junior will be all over it.

Lest you think all they do is stare at screens all day, we mostly use these mobile distractions when we are waiting somewhere or in the car for a long trip.

All right, I’ve told you some of our new finds….what your favorite apps for kids?

Disclosure: Ruckus Media Group sent me redemption codes for several of their mobile iPhone apps. BOB Books sent me a redemption code for the mobile iPad app. The opinions on the apps are completely mine (and MaM’s).