As I’m sure you are all aware, it is Girl Guide Cookie season!

As part of my unit’s work towards earning our Chief Commissioners Gold award we hosted a Cookie Blitz on Saturday. We invited a few other units from the surrounding area. We met at the local community hall, handed out route maps so the girls could go door to door, and counted the money at the end of the day.  There was a lot of work and planning involved.

One of my tasks for the Blitz was to provide refreshments for the 40 girls, their parents, and the volunteers. Fortunately, I was able to dig up the original Girl Guide cookie recipe from the national website. This is the recipe that started it all, and helped build cookie sales into Girl Guides biggest fundraiser.

This recipe from 1927 belongs to Christina Riespman. It makes a lot of cookies (one batch fed everyone at our event), and they are super delicious and insanely addictive.

Why don’t you make some for your cookie sales, or just a unit meeting?

What a delicious way to celebrate guiding!

Christina Riespman’s 1927 Cookie
Recipie

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 tablespoons cream

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking powder

3 or more cups flour to make soft
dough

1)      Cream butter and sugar

2)      Beat in eggs and cream

3)      Combine salt, baking soda, baking
powder, cardamom and flour.

4)      Sift dry into wet ingredients and
mix into dough

5)      Roll and cut, using a small floured
glass or cookie cutter.

6)      Sprinkle with sugar and then bake at
moderate heat, until done.

Enjoy!

This is going to be a short post. I went winter camping this weekend and my hands are still a bit frozen. :)

Last weekend my Ranger unit went to William A. Switzer Provincial Park (just outside of Jasper National Park where the Rocky Mountains begin) to do some winter camping, hiking, and snowshoeing. We certainly got the full winter experience!

When we first arrived on Thursday night we were completely alone in the campground. There was not a soul in sight, and it didn’t look like anyone had used the park in weeks!

There was a bit of snow on the ground, and it was packed down hard. The park looked wonderful; the snow-covered lake with mountains of pine-covered trees for a backdrop was a peaceful postcard scene. It wasn’t too cold -- just around freezing, and it looked like it was going to be a relaxing weekend. Winter had other ideas!

When we woke up Friday morning there was almost a foot of fresh snow on the ground. And since it was only two degrees, the snow was melting and wet. It soaked into your boots and snow pants, mitts and hats. Still, we soldiered on. We set up the fire to cook our meals and used tarps over the tables to provide shelter from the snow.

Then we followed a park trail for a long hike where we saw three pheasants in the heavy woods, and plenty of animal tracks. We crawled into our tents once it was dark – and fell right to sleep despite our plan to play cards and talk about the day.

On Saturday, we hiked through knee-high -- and then thigh-high -- snow!  It was tough work taking turns breaking the trail, and I felt exhausted afterwards. But I felt very proud that we were able to travel so far as a team.

Snow was piled high up our tent walls when we got up on Sunday to break camp. We loaded up our stuff and then poured our wet and cold selves into the van for the drive back home.

Sure, the weather was a challenge. But there were times you could lie in the clean fresh snow and hear only absolute complete silence. Or the clouds would suddenly clear to a brilliant blue sky and the sun would flood the endless forest of evergreens. I felt awed by the vastness of the nature around me and the hush of winter in a way I never have during summer camps.

However, I was still grateful to come home after camp and warm up under a pile of blankets after a hot shower and a home-cooked meal. :)

I loved this camp. It is so different than my usual camp experiences. And tough. But it was also one of the most memorable weekends ever in one of the most beautiful places ever.  I absolutely have to go back in summer and see the same scenes and the beautiful lakes when they are not frozen solid. And be a lot warmer!

What do you guys think? What is your best camp experience?  Or the toughest thing you had to deal with when camping –rain, wind, snow, bugs or even scary sounds outside the tent?  Please share your great camping story.

This week Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Tumblr have all been blowing up about Kony 2012. Joseph Kony is a leader of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). The group Invisible Children has made a 30-minute video to make Joseph Kony famous, in an attempt to raise awareness about his crimes, and gain support for his arrest.

If you haven’t seen the original video you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

This video has shed light on some of the horrible things that have occurred in Uganda. According to the video, over the past 26 years Kony has kidnapped almost 30,000 young girls and boys. He trains the boys as soldiers, and the women as slaves. They are forced to kill their own parents and mutilate people’s faces beyond recognition. Invisible Children wants Joseph Kony captured and brought to justice, as he is on the International Criminal Court’s list. On April 20they want to plaster cities around the
world with KONY 2012 posters to raise awareness.

However, this video has also been getting a lot of hate. There are comments asking why people are suddenly so willing to help out abroad, when there are so many other issues around the world that we have ignored for so long.

There are concerns about Invisible Children. Its reputation has been called into question. The action plan provided in this video is very vague. What exactly are we doing with our new found awareness of this issue, other than raising more awareness on April 20? What does Invisible Children think the government should do to resolve this problem? What do their donations do to help people?

I watched an interesting response video by a Ugandan Woman (you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDyfTnydhMU), who doesn’t think other countries should be interfering with this problem.According to her, the only way to fix many of the problems in Africa is to stop giving hand outs and constant assistance, and instead give Africans the tools to solve their own problems. Interference by well meaning groups often causes more problems than it solves. 

Does the United States have the right to interfere in other nations’ affairs? Is military action the way to bring peace to a nation?

There is also the issue that Joseph Kony has been laying low since 2003. It is estimated he has few followers, and he is no longer in Uganda. Has this issue passed us by already? Is Invisible Children the right way to support the cause of bringing peace to Uganda?

Obviously this video has merit. Before March, I had never even heard of Joseph Kony. He may have been at the top of the International Criminal Court's list of most
wanted criminals, but he had never been on the cover of People or Us. What he did to those 30,000 children in unforgivable, and they should not be forgotten. There is no question that raising awareness about this man’s crimes is important. But, there are still a lot of other things to consider. I have still yet to fully form my own opinion about this topic.

I encourage everyone to watch the video, read other points of view, and then form your own opinion on this topic, and then comment and let me know what you think.

Helen

It's hard to believe that I've been at university now for over a month. I miss high school a lot, both the people there and my classes, but I'm enjoying university life. While there are definitely a few big differences between high school and university, the list isn't nearly as extensive as I had been expecting. When you leave grade 8 to go to high school in Ontario, everybody makes a big deal about the "transition", and the same can be said about leaving high school for post secondary too. I don't find that I've really had to transition at all - things just changed a bit. Whether you're nervous about leaving for school next year, in two years, or maybe even in six years, I hope that I can debunk some university myths and give you a bit of insight into what to expect!

Myth 1) Classes are SO different!

This is only partially true. Your classes are bigger, they might be spread out over campus, and you don't know everybody in them. Other than that, there is hardly any difference between first year university lectures and grade 12 classes. You listen to the prof, take notes, and ask questions. In most classes you don't even need to take notes, because you're given PowerPoint slides that you can just annotate yourself! Plus you hardly have any class time. Instead of five 75 minute physics classes a week, I now have three 50 minute classes. You cover a lot more material in these 50 minutes, but other than a quicker pace the learning style does not change very much at all.

Myth 2) Living away from home is a HUGE change!

This definitely depends on the person, but I have not found living in residence to be that much of a change at all. I get up, have a shower, get breakfast, and go to class, same as I did in high school. I get back, attempt doing homework, hang out, eat supper, attempt doing homework again, hang out some more, and go to bed. The only difference is that instead of your parents, brother, dog and cat being around, you're surrounded by a bunch of people your own age. It's not as weird as you may think. I love my residence, which is probably why I haven't found adjusting to living away from too terribly difficult. I definitely think that you should visit all the residences at your school (especially the small ones!!!) before you decide where you want to live, so that you can figure out where you're going to be happiest. It's different, but your entire way of life is not uprooted.

I've got four midterms this week to study for and some Skyping to do, so I'll leave you with those two. If you have any questions about university I would absolutely love it if you'd leave me a comment (: I will be posting more as I think of them!

“Harry Potter”…I believe that just about sums up life at the moment for many of us! With the midnight screening coming up just three nights from now, there’s much to do in order to be prepared.  I myself will be hosting a Harry Potter marathon during the day; we will be running films four through seven (part one).  After that we will all head to the theatre, in full costume of course!
I thought I could present to all of you some ideas if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the few days left.

Recipes:

Butterbeer:

-Whipping cream

-Root beer

Pour a small amount of whipping cream into the bottom of a glass and pour the root beer over it.  Try to make the whipping cream foam on top.

Licorice wands:

-Black licorice

-White chocolate

Cut small pieced of licorice and dip the ends in melted white chocolate.  You may also decorate the ends with sprinkles if you like.

Cauldron cakes (1):

-Two bite brownies

-Think black licorice

Cut small sticks of black licorice and push them into the brownies to form handles

Cauldron cakes (2):

-Brownies

-Green icing

Cut brownies into circles, and ice with a green icing.  You may add other decorations into the icing (potion) if you so chose.

Costumes:

Bellatrix:

Wear a low cut black tank top, preferably slightly patterned.  On the bottom wear a long black skirt, with a wide leather belt over top, other fabrics will serve as well.  Black lace glovettes and teased hair will complete her dark maniac look.

Tonks:

Wear a long black leather jacket undone over a gray shirt with some lace at the top. Wear either ripped tights or striped black pants, and black combat boots.  Tonks’ signature pieces are a thin black leather necklace with five small bells, and black leather studded gloves.

Hogwarts student:

To keep it simple wear a dress shirt, a grey (black will suffice) sweater, skirt, and knee socks, and a tie in your preferred house’s colours. Simple and easy to throw together at the last minute!

Well, there are some ideas for all you Potter fanatics in need of some advice…I hope you find it helpful.

3 DAYS LEFT!