Girl Scouts Of Greater South Texas Will Hold A Kick-Off And Open House For The New Girl Scout Year On Saturday, September 12, 2015.

THE AGENDA FOR THE DAY:

9am-noon: Leadership Essentials class for new & returning adult leaders. This class will give you the information on starting a troop, being an assistant or just helping you understand the Girl Scout Program. Please RSVP to Kelly or Terry at 573-6451.

9:00 am-Noon: Parents/Caregivers who are attending the class above are welcome to bring their daughters ages 5-17. The girls will be attending an event (same location) to learn about Girl Scouts, how they earn patches and complete badge activities. Staff will be on hand to monitor and oversee the girls. Due to lack of space, we will not have room for siblings during the morning class or girl event.

Noon-2:00 pm: This event is open to the public for all girls, adults and families who are interested in registering for Girl Scouts or finding out more about Girl Scouts. Troops will on hand deliver Girl Scout activities to everyone.

Registration fee is $15.00 per girl and/or adults joining Girl Scouts. This fee covers registration for the coming membership year. Oct. 1, 2014 – Sept. 30. 2015.

The Girl Scout Shop will be open for Uniform and Insignia purchases.

The Girl Scout Barbie doll will make her premier and be available for purchase. Newly registered Girl Scouts will also receive a free patch.

For more information, call the Girl Scout Office at 573-6451. The Girl Scout Office is located at 104 West River (between Main and Bridge Streets) in Victoria.

Dr. Van Bengstson of the University of California has committed much of his research to studying changes within families over generations, such as how morality is transmitted to children and grandchildren. From his studies he has learned that the key is consistent modeling of morality and meaningful parent-child relationships. “Warm, affirming parents, especially fathers, tend to be the most successful” in passing on their morals. He said that 6 in 10 children will adopt their parents’ morals as adults, and 4 in 10 grandchildren claim the same morals as their grandparents.
Consider these seven tips that can help turn the routine duties of parenting into a life that has moral and God-centered perspectives:

First: Abandon the idea of perfect parenting. We need to start with ourselves: When we fail, we can simply ask for forgiveness. This models how our children should respond when they make mistakes.

It is important to also set realistic goals and communicate these to our family members. When we live an honest and authentic life before our children – not the idea to “do as I say,” and not as I live – this will mature a compelling relationship with them in the future.

Second: Focus on the heart of the child – not just their behavior. We need to recognize that there is often something more below the surface of misbehavior. We can be open to finding that out with Godly wisdom. And when handing out discipline, we can maximize natural consequences (they have the greatest long-term impact), rather than using shame and guilt to motivate our children toward a certain behavior. Both shame and guilt ultimately destroy the inner spirit of the child and move them toward a downward pathway.

An older grandmother once told me as a young dad, “Remember, you are raising an adult; they will be children for a very short time!”

Third: Choose to worry less and talk with God more. Worry is an energy zapper and not part of God’s plan for our lives. It is critical to set aside time each day for a time of quiet reflection and meditation in God’s Word and prayer.

Fourth: Talk with (not at) your child every day. Looking our children in their eyes when speaking gives them great importance and value. When we listen with generosity to the things that are important to our children (which will be childish to us), we are building a trust relationship.

It is equally important to be aware of what is not being said and to ask questions that will allow our children to share their hearts. In order to do these things effectively, we will need to take time each day away from the interruptions and distractions of media or technology (television and phones steal family time and conversation).

Fifth: Be involved with like-minded parents. Getting involved with people with the same moral values (like being a part of the Chapel) gives our children a sense of belonging to a moral community with shared beliefs. We can also intentionally seek ways to meet neighbors with our same values to create play groups or outings. And do not be afraid to take time for ourselves to have conversations with other adults, guilt-free! We need some “grown-up” talk!

Sixth: Give your child a strong sense of identity. Bless children with positive words when identifying them. (Examples: “He is a good listener,” rather than, “He is just shy.” “She is creative and expressive,” rather than “She is just not really into sports.”) This will allow our children to see their individual qualities as gifts from God, not burdens to hide or bury.

Seventh: Create opportunities for your child to serve others. A heart of service begins with allowing our children to be exposed to the needs in the community around us. One of the greatest things we did with our children was to encourage them to go on missions trips to less developed nations. These were “eye-openers_ and helped us teach selflessness, and we helped our children determine their gifts as they put their talents into action for the sake of someone else.

I encourage each of you to start today to put these seven things into practice. At the end of the day, you will still feel exhausted as you drop into bed, but you will know that you have invested in what truly matters most: passing on your morals to your child. Ultimately, this is what makes your future brighter and easier as your children mature into adulthood and you see that they truly did learn some important life-lessons from you.

Greetings fellow culinary enthusiasts! I have skipped over a few sections of the Port O’Connor Community Service Club cookbook for now and went to the breads, rolls, pies, and pastries section. I received some key limes that were grown in Port O’Connor from my daughter and thought they would make a tasty, cool dessert. I found several recipes for lemon pie and just substituted with lime juice. This is a combination of recipes submitted by Melba Walker, June Green and Shirley Gordon. I am sure they are all delicious in their own right. Combining the best of all three made it a simple recipe with options to suit your taste.

LEMON PIE

Blend together one can sweetened condensed milk, four egg yolks and one half cup of lemon or lime juice. If using fresh citrus, microwave the fruit for about twenty seconds, then poke a hole in them and squeeze out the juice (you get more this way). Pour the mixture into a baked pie crust or graham cracker crust. Bake at three hundred and fifty degrees for about fifteen minutes. I doubled the recipe and baked in a spring pan you would use for cheesecake and increased the cooking time to about thirty minutes. If you decide to make a meringue topping use the four egg whites. Beat the egg whites, one fourth teaspoon of cream of tartar and one cup of sugar until it forms stiff peaks. Spread over the pie filling and return to the oven until the meringue is golden brown. If you decide to go with the whipped topping, cool the pie first. Beat one cup heavy cream and one fourth cup sugar until stiff like cool whip. Either way you decide to go with the topping, you should refrigerate. The pie is always best the second day. Enjoy!

Seadrift City Council held their regular monthly meeting on August 4, with all Council members present. On the agenda was renewing the Curfew Ordinance which was enacted in August of 2013. Chief of Police Leonard Bermea recommended keeping the ordinance in effect as the curfew for adolescents has been helpful and has the apparent support of parents. Council agreed to preserve the ordinance.

Council voted to engineer a deeper ditch and increase signage from 12th St. to 15th Street at A.D. Powers Park to discourage vehicular traffic, which is prohibited there.

Councilman Cross reported that community service workers have done weed-eating and garbage pick-up in the Harbor area, but trash was already accumulating by the next day. He also informed Council that Mish’s has plans to build a 3-story oyster house at the harbor.

Councilman Gaines reported that pier repairs at 12th Street have been completed and new playground equipment has been ordered for the Bayfront.

Police Chief Bermea reported that 442 calls for service were received by the Department during the month of July. Calls ranged from information, to calls resulting in arrests. There were 107 traffic stops made during that period, resulting in 47 citations and 65 warnings, and 8 resulted in arrests. Arrests were made: 4 on warrants; one assault; 2 possession of marijuana; 2 DWLI; one major drug bust; one disorderly conduct and one reckless driving.

Reporting on Animal Control, Councilman Bringham said there were three call outs for animals hit by cars; 14 wild animals trapped; 12 cats trapped and impounded; five dogs picked up and impounded to Port Lavaca; eight dogs picked up and returned to owners with warnings; one dog picked up and returned to owner with ticket; 17 verbal/writing warnings issues; and one dog found a new home.

City of Seadrift Court Clerk Marilyn Duffner reported that 31 cases were closed in July, resulting in $4,905.00 in fines collected. Of that amount, the City keeps $2,872.12; Municipal Court Sec. Fund keeps $78.54; Tech. Fund, $104.75; and $1,849.59 was sent to the State.

Mayor DeForest reported that three permits were granted for new construction; one for placement of manufactured housing; one for repair/remodel; one for placement of RV; and one for demolition/move out, resulting in a gross property valuation increase to the City of $504,786.00.

Residents are reminded to call Mr. Boyd, City Building Inspector, before planning to build/remodel or move or demolish a building. His number is 361-746-4742.

The next regular City Council meeting will be held Tuesday, September 1 at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall. All interested residents are welcome to attend.

August has always had the Perseid meteor showers. This year there was no moon so they were really good. And recently the Astro-guys say they have confirmed that the universe is dying. It seems that it has lost energy over the past decade. Well Astro-guys, so have most of the rest humanity; we are getting older you know.

We have had some first time things happen in Space this year.. First was the Pluto flyby. Maybe flyby isn’t right because it was a throw by. A while back we threw a rocket into space and aimed it towards Pluto. Then it sailed along for 9.5 years at some 31,000 miles per hour till it got there.

Just for grins that is further by about 17% more in millions of miles than Dallas is from here in just plain miles. It would take about 420 years if you could drive it and didn’t stop to sleep, eat, or relieve yourself.

Pluto was discovered as a planet in 1930. A few years back they decided to call it dwarf planet. That’s a little picky for me.

Then a week or so later these astro-guys found a new planet, a cousin to earth. They say it is pretty much like our planet and is circling a Star some 1400 light years distant. That is so many miles there isn’t room to print them. We would run out of space on the paper. As your recall a light year is the distance light travels in a year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. As my teacher would tell me; you do the math..

The real mystery to me is how they can see that far, if they do see that far? If it took 1400 years to get here what we are seeing now would have been what was happening in the 7th century. Earth was a mess then; Rome had fallen and Istanbul was Constantinople. That was 875 years before Columbus found us instead of China.

The big problem of how we can see stuff that far away relates to candle power. They tell me someone with good eyes can see a single candle at the end of a football field. I cannot confirm that is true, but I can see one across a room. I realize a star has many candles in it but I don’t really know how many that far-away star needs for us to see it. It would take a really big birthday cake to hold them all.

From the Moon the Earth looks pretty small. We are not really very far apart compared to light years. It is true that you can find some really beautiful pictures of nebula and stars taken with powerful telescopes. However, the fine print usually says something like computer enhanced.

This column is whimsical. However, it is August and these are the dog days of summer. When the Dog Star, Sirius, is up the Perseids start whizzing past.