Cookie Booth Basics

It's not only Girl Scout Cookie Sale time it is also Cookie Booth time!  Every where you turn you should see a Girl Scout Cookie Booth for the next month or so!  Corner of the drug store, Wal-mart, local school, everywhere you go you should see an adorable girl asking for your support of her cookie business.  

Here are 10 Cookie Booth Basics that a little experience has given us:

1) Have stock!  

      It's hard to sell cookies if you don't have any!  So make sure that you have at least a case of each variety as you never know what customers will love and you can't sell what you don't have.  I would recommend having two cases of the most popular varieties in your area - for us that is the Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties, and Caramel Delights.

2) Have change...

      This should seem pretty obvious, however it is very important to have change.  

3) But not too much change!  

      Our cookies are $3.50 in our area so it's important to have quarters but I would recommend the following to start your cookie change: $10 in quarters, $10-15 in $1's and approximately $20-$30 in $5's.  One of our local booths was given a counterfeit $50 the first weekend of cookie sales (I know stealing from a Girl Scout!) so I would not give change for anything over a $20.  You can also get those counterfeit pens, however we've heard of mixed results from them.

4) Make sure you have 2 adults to work the booth!

     This is extremely important so that some one can help watch girls and cookies while unloading vehicles as well as bathroom breaks!

5) Set out a donation jar

     Make sure you have a place that customers can donate to the cookie share program - the first day one booth received $30 in donations.  We simply attached this sign to the front of a mason jar and set it at the front of the table.

6) Ask for donations!

     Towards the beginning of our booth we were not getting much jingle in our donation jar, however after about 30 minutes the girls started asking customers if they would like to round up their change before giving their change to them.  Once they started asking to round up, almost every customer would drop $0.50 to all of their change into the donation jars.  Tell customers what you are donating to as well!

7) Practice, Practice, Practice with your Troop

     Before the booth we practiced with the girls how much 2 boxes of cookies cost, 3 boxes, etc. so that they could quickly do the math in their heads.  The booths get frenzied and customers want to get their cookies quickly!  We also practiced how to stand at a booth and how to greet customers.  Not to yell at them but to smile and say hello, ask how they are doing, etc.  The girls got a kick at the meeting because I acted out some things not to do.....like we don't pick our noses at the booth, we don't shout at customers, we don't scratch our butts, etc.  They thought it was hilarious!

8) Have a cheat sheet just in case!

     We had a clipboard with this sign attached to it to remind the girls of salesgirl tips as well as cookie multiples.  My daughter takes this clipboard around when selling by herself too!

9) Hold the change but let the girls do the math!

     This is their business!  Help them and keep the money safe, but let them make change for the customers.  Teach them to count it back to customers and let them do them math!

10) Have fun!

     Bring a snack and something to drink, sing a song.  We tried to break our booths into no longer than 1.5 hours for each girl but sometimes it was a little longer.  They will keep trucking as long as they are having fun!

A year in review

It's been a while.......

And I have missed this terribly.  I have pictures and stacks and notes of ideas, that I just keep piling up for when I have time to write.  However, like everything finding the time and making it a priority is hard.

The past year, specifically the past 6 months have been a life-changing whirlwind.

We welcomed #3 to the family!  We didn't know what our bundle of joy would be until he made his arrival but he has brought so much to our lives already.  You would think he is the biggest and shiniest toy in the world the way that his sis and bub make over him - we are lucky that they care so much!

Shortly after Bray made his arrival, my husband, Bodie, decided we had not spent enough time in the hospital and headed there himself with a mild heart attack.  For those that know us personally, you know that my strapping, handsome, beast of a husband has a huge scar down his chest as a forever reminder of his previous heart complications.  This one, three weeks after our son was born, hit a little close to home.

So needless to say, we've been really looking at what matters in life, to God, and to us - and hopefully all of those things align.  

In our search to discern where we are called and where we are supposed to be we have been spending most of our time with our family, friends, and church.  Those are the things that matter to us most in life.

Recently, as in this past Friday, we have made other big changes in our lives as I have left my nice-paying, cushy, miserable, full-time job to pursue a lifetime of teaching others.  Crazy right?!  I have a whole nother post, Following the Voice, that is coming that will detail this a little more for you nosy folks but suffice it to say - a BIG change in our lives.  We will take prayers and good tidings and positive karma along the way!  Needless to say we are trying to follow the below philosophy... I think we are doing ok!

~Tangent~ (yes, I write like I think and speak - good luck keeping up!) So Rose has just wandered up wanting to work on our Ancestry (that's been a new venture that we've loved as well!) and asked what I was doing.  I explained I was writing to my blog that I hadn't written to in over a year.  She said - do you think anyone will read it?  I told her that there had been over 900 views last year without me even writing anything!  "Wow Mom!  You could write about your gardening, and cooking, and put recipes and everything!"  She is definitely my daughter.  

Attitudes and my own mutiny!

My daughter is six, let me start of by saying that first.  She has seen Miley's Wrecking Ball, although not that I wasn't happy about it, and has definitely started showing her developing attitude a lot more lately.   My grandmother has noticed it.  Rose and I have talked about it.  My neighbor and I were consoling ourselves this morning because we are seeing the same thing in both of our little girls - snarkiness, extreme sassiness (I'll be honest I'm okay with a little sassy and feel like it is my motherly duty to develop it correctly.  I'm always in awe of other women who are able to reply at the right time with just the right amount of sass and not come off snarky or naggy - I'm sooooooo not that woman!), whininess, moodiness and just plain attitude.

I asked Rose where she is learning to act like this (I'm not delusional, she's in public schools and I know that I can't protect her all of the time - but I do think that it is my job as a mother to continually open the lines of communication and redirect behaviors that are not appropriate) - her response was the older kids at school.  Not terribly surprised, about the answer I expected - monkey see, monkey do - right? 

And I completely understand that she is learning to develop her own personality, I just don't want it to be one that is so snarky. 

So I know that I can't control what she sees at school (okay, I guess I could spend all my time with her at school and monitor everything and everyone she interacts with.......but that might be a little crazy and I would never get any work done!), and we really try to monitor what she watches at home - so I'm left with what do I do?

Quite honestly, I don't think this is just a problem that we are experiencing in our house, or just across the street.  I think this is reflective of a bigger societal problem in how we still see women as a society and the impact it is having on our young girls. 

I came across this video that really hit home, Media views on Women in 2013.  I'm not that old (in comparing myself to a generation that had to walk to school for miles in the sleet and snow with only one pair of shoes for the whole year - you've heard that story right?) but I do remember when you didn't see ads for Viagra or tampons on TV and the Huxtables were the family that you wanted to go home to (I was watching the episode where Claire took Theo to Family Court in their living room for lying the other day, I hope I can be half the mother I think she was!).  The role models that young people looked up to generally remained true role models - not like Miley, Brittney, Lindsay, and Amanda have become.  I mean when Madonna first started singing and making videos those were risqué right (I only got to watch them by sneaking at friends house.....hmmmm probably how Rose saw Wrecking Ball, I guess)?  However she continued to push the envelope about bigger issues in society, not just focusing on herself.

I have to admit, I definitely wasn't as sensitive to all of this until I started watching my daughter reflect some of the behaviors she was witnessing - being worried about her body image (she thinks she needs to go on a diet to be beautiful and SHE'S SIX!!! For those that know me well, dieting is not a common word in our house - being healthy, yes, but not dieting!), wanting to wear make-up to be pretty (I've tried to tell her since she was born how pretty she is, inside and out, every single day of her life), all in addition to the attitude.

Soooo what the heck does a mother do?  Well, this one is waging my own personal mutiny against the way society is telling my daughter the way she should look, act, think and behave.  I'm committing to talking to her daily, letting her know that I'm here for her no matter what, monitoring what she is exposed, and reminding her of how blessed she is to be made in God's image.

Will you join me in my mutiny for our children??