Miss Helpful

My first week of summer "break" was a busy one. Instead of my school persona, "Miss H", I became my summer-self, "Miss Helpful". Miss Helpful does things like rescuing rabid kittens from trees and volunteering for the Friends of the Library Board. Then she whines about it on her blog. Charming, no?

Miss Helpful kicked off her her vacation by spending a couple of days rewriting the curriculum maps for 7th and 8th grade reading and language arts. It was a blast.

But I was also blessed to spend a few evening surrounded by a few angels (a.k.a. wonderful Relief Society women from my stake) who were kind enough to let us film them for the video we are compiling for our first Stake Relief Society Meeting. We laughed, we cried, we hugged, and I added to the list of women I want to be just like when I grow up.

Then there was the quick, two-day trip I made to IF to help my mother make cupcakes for her girls camp fundraising dinner. Yummy, eh?

I also volunteered to help in the kitchen during the actual dinner and then proceeded to do all sorts of helpful things, like arranging the sauce bottles, jars of cheese, and loaves of bread into beautiful monuments to Italian ingenuity.

While I was in town, I took my nieces on a gummy-run, and bought them some cute dragon pajamas. Both girls agreed that am a very helpful aunt... ...well, Kylie not so much. She couldn't get the jammies off fast enough. But Kenna thought I was very helpful indeed.

But the biggest commitment of the week (or at least the event I should be committed for agreeing to help with) was the Webelos Day Camp. I had helped with the showmanship station summer before last and survived, so I figured teaching the scoutletts some music and helping them make paper bag puppets wouldn't be too big of a deal.

But when I reviewed the requirements (know stage directions, distinguish between four kinds of puppets, make puppets, make a stage for puppets, write a puppet show, perform a puppet show, know three American composers, learn to conduct music to three time signatures, play four songs on an instrument, etc.) , I started to panic.

With 190 Webelos divided into groups of 20+, Little Miss Helpful was going to need some help herself.

Enter Spencer, former honors kidlett/yearbook jedi and current high school drum major/son of my dear friend Valerie.

Kind-hearted, drum-major Spencer volunteered to come and help run the music side of the showmanship station.

Well, he didn't really volunteer. In fact he wasn't even present in the building, let alone in the conversation, when he became my lovely assistant. But, because kindness and wonderfulness run in his family, he agreed to come and help me wrangle Webelos.

Thanks to his superb Webelo-wrangling skills, we were able break the huge groups of 28 scouts into smaller, more manageable groups, so I didn't have to use my superb Webelo-strangling skills.
I was fairly well thrashed by the close of the camp, seriously considering changing my phone number and swapping the "Miss Helpful" to "Ms. Hermit". In the end, I found I was most grateful for my Relief Society calling, and not just because it is going to keep me out of cub scout blue and gold for the next few years.

Oh, and I am also stinkin' grateful for Spencer, because his help kept me sane and out of another unflattering ensemble.

This week's schedule includes a lot less helping and a lot more lazy-ing. And not a Webelo in sight. Summer is here, and Miss H is happy.