March: Flower Arrangements

Hello Club Greenthread,

Hope you all are enjoying the great spring weather!

This month our talk focused on Cheerfulness. Here are the talking points:

All of the good that you do, is only good if done with a smile (examples: helping a family member, making your bed, putting away the dishes etc). If we complain while doing it, then it really doesn't have the same value as if it had been done cheerfully.

We must strive to be happy when things go wrong (it's easy to be happy when they go right!). Life will have ups and downs, and we have to remember that we decide whether or not we will be happy (not other people or other things).

Some of the main culprits that rob us of our cheerfulness are: worrying -which gains us nothing, instead, offer a prayer to God, which always gains us something. Being self-centered also robs us of our cheerfulness, because we can only truly be happy if we come out of ourselves and think of others.

Comparing ourselves to others (what they have or what they are) also can rob us of our cheerfulness. Instead of comparing, be happy when good things happen to those around us! Remember that others want to be around a cheerful person and some of the most cheerful people out there are the ones that suffer the most (physical pain, economic hardship, personal loss, etc), which means that true cheerfulness has little to do with "everything going our way" and a lot do to with choosing to be cheerful.

Then, we had a very special guest, Miss Olivia, come to show us how to make beautiful, professional flower arrangements.

First, she showed us how to properly soak the sponge that will go inside of the vase or container. 

Next she began by adding the greenery as filler.

It was amazing to see that even with just the green filler, it started to look so beautiful and full! The girls all watched with great attention as Miss Olivia showed them how to trim the stems and properly place them in the green sponge.

She brought a beautiful assortment of flowers -taking into account a small budget and the hardiness of the flowers (to last at least a week). In a matter of moments, she had created this amazing floral centerpiece that had the girls' eyes popping!

Then it was time to let the girls have a go. They each got a colored plastic Easter egg as a base, with a pre-soaked foam piece. The greenery had already been previously cut which aided in moving the process along.

Before we knew it, everyone had made the most lovely flower arrangements.

Here is Alejandra with her Easter Egg flower arrangement. We will certainly be making these again when Easter comes!

The girls also make mini-flower arrangements in glass vases to take home. All of them were just thrilled and inspired with this special activity. Thank you Mrs. Jenn and Miss Olivia for making this possible!

Finally, this month of April we will have our final meeting of the semester, which will be an Ice Cream Social! Stay tuned for details, as it will probably take place towards the end of this month (possibly the beginning of next).

Wishing you all well,

Club Greenthread Leaders

February: Yarn Flower Vases

Greetings Club Greenthread Girls!

As you all know, we had a wonderful time in February's club meeting. Mrs. Melanie came as our guest speaker to talk to the girls on the Importance of Little Things: "It's the little things that make life big!"  

First, the girls were asked if they ever do something that seems small for their mom and it makes her really happy. For example, picking a little flower in the yard, making her a little card or coloring a little picture.  They might see it as a very small thing but it gives their mom lots of joy because it shows her that you love her.  It is the same with our siblings.  When we share a little toy or do something we think of as very small, we can really make their day

It is the same way with God.  When we do little things well, it is a way we show God that we love Him.  When we make our bed (even the sheet underneath the blanket!), clean up our toys, share with our brother and sister, obey our parents without arguing.  All these things are little things we can do to show God we love Him.  

Then the girls were asked to think of ideas of little things they can do for the family, friends and all ultimately,for God.   

So all the little things we do in the day are like little flowers we can offer to God.  At the end of the day we have a big, beautiful bouquet of flowers made up of all the little things we did throughout the day to show God how much we love Him.

Next, Mrs. Annamarie prepared an incredible craft as this month's activity: Yarn Flower Vases.

We began with a lovely assortment of bottles (wine bottles, vinegar bottles, etc) and a bright collection of different types of yarn. Each girl chose a bottle and a yarn (or a couple of different yarns) and then the fun began.

Starting at the top of the bottle, you put a piece of double-sided tape and begin wrapping the yarn tightly and carefully around the neck of the bottle. As the bottle curves, you'll want to put a bit more tape to help keep uniformity. The girls had to work carefully and slowly to ensure that the yarn was tightly strung around the bottle to give it a solid appearance.

This required focus and concentration, just ask Emma!

Patience was also at work, because rushing through this would only produce a sloppy finish (none of the girls did this of course!)

Once the yarn work was complete, it was time to add some finishing touches with hot glue: buttons, gems, flowers, insects all adorned the exquisite bottles.

Finally, each girl placed a bouquet of flowers in their bottles and they were ready to go!

January: T-shirt Headbands

Hello Club Greenthread!

Wow, how the first two months of 2014 have whizzed by! Our apologies for the delayed post on January's meeting, which was wonderful. In the next week, we will have a double edition, as we tell you about February's Club activity too.

The topic of January's meeting was: ORDER "Good order is the Foundation of all good things"-what an important virtue to practice~ Mrs. Jenn gave a wonderful talk on this and here are some of the points:

We give ourselves to God first each day, by starting and ending each day with prayer.
He orders our days and knows what is best for us, and so it is important to keep Him present and to offer our work to Him.

Each day decide what is the most important task first and it helps to have a chore list or routine to follow. Better to do homework first, for example, so we are not late finishing up and rushing through it. Then, if time permits, we play and help out. Finish things well.


Put things away as soon as you're done using them so that you don't accumulate a lot to do at the end of the day. Have a designated place for each item and always put it back in the same place (shoes, backpacks, toys, books) because this saves time and energy.

Keeping order gives us more peace and happiness, because we are not frustrated. Our families have more time together if everyone helps to keep the home in order.

Next it was time to move on to our activity: making headbands from old t-shirts!!! It was such a fun and creative activity and the girls were delighted to see their finished products.

First we had to cut the t-shirts into long strips. Then we pulled and stretched out the fabric. Next we stapled three strips together in order to braid the fabric.

The girls added ribbon intertwined with the fabric, which looked great.

Once that was done, it was time to measure the braided headband around the head in order to know where to cut and glue it together.

Many embellishments and cute add-ons were handy once the braided headband was ready to go. The girls added flowers, butterflies, buttons and all sorts of gems and beads.

They each had their own style and flare, which made them beautiful.

This is certainly an activity that the girls can all do from home, so we encourage the moms to help them out.

Thank you to all the girls and moms who participated and made this meeting possible. We hope that you all have successfully practiced order this last month and we look forward to seeing your new headband creations.

-Club Greenthread Team

December: No Bake Cookies

Hello Greenthread!

Happy New Year to everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have started the year off with new resolutions and new-found energy!

We began the meeting by making the no-bake cookies, which Ms. Cristabel so brilliantly led.

So, the recipe is as follows:

2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup sun butter (sunflower seed butter)
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
3 cups puffed rice cereal (Rice Krispies) *you may need to add more of this to get the right consistency.

















First you melt the chocolate chips at 15 second intervals in the microwave until smooth. Mix between intervals.

Second you stir the sun butter into the melted chocolate.

Third you stir the marshmallows and cereal in. The consistency should not be runny but it should start to take on form and hold together.

Fourth, drop by small spoonfuls onto wax or parchment paper.

Fifth, let the cookies harden in the fridge (1 hr in fridge or 15 minutes in the freezer).

The girls had to work in pairs and they did a great job of taking turns and helping the other one out. It looked so yummy that it was tempting to lick our fingers!!

Once the cookies were in the baking cups, the girls then topped them with peppermint pieces or sparkle sugar -so beautiful :)

This past club meeting the talk was on patience- what an important virtue!! The girls did a great job in giving examples of ways that we practice patience, such as:
-Not interrupting
-Putting yourself last in importance (last in line, last to choose, etc)
-Waiting while others arrive or get things done















Ms. Martha showed them a visual example of the importance of patience with her "Patience Tree". In it, patience is illustrated as the trunk of a big strong tree from which other good qualities and virtues will come if you practice patience.

The eight branches that the girls attached to the tree are:

1. Good Manners: waiting to be served, or to be seen and allowing others who are slower to finish things.
2. Humility: placing yourself last and giving yourself least importance in this way
3. Kindness: Giving of your time for others, not pressuring or hurrying others along, but understanding that they do things in a different way and at a different pace.
4. Friendship: giving your friends the first pick, taking the time to hear them when they have problems.

5. Self-Control: whether you are in traffic, grocery check-out, doctor's office, post office or library, we have to wait in a manner that is pleasant. It often helps to take something to do (read a book, color, pray) so that you are not just watching the clock tick! Also, having the self-control not to get frustrated with yourself -as you tie your shoes, fix your hair, do your homework, etc.
6. Orderliness: taking the time necessary to fold your clothes correctly (not sloppily!), to clean and put things away as best as you can. Doing your homework and handwriting carefully.
7. Responsibility: Setting aside the correct amount of time to get things done the right way. For example, you can't think that it takes 5 minutes to get ready for school when in reality you need 20 minutes. Thinking ahead and preparing ahead for the long wait you may face and being productive during this time.
8. Cheerfulness: In spite of all of the setbacks, time delays and obstacles, we learn through patience that this is when we most need to smile, stay calm and to grow as persons.

When we choose to be patient in these situations instead of losing our cool, we are truly choosing to enrich ourselves in what is most important (remember: this is choosing the bag of gold over the cheap plastic diamond ring). However, when we choose to lose our temper and to become impatient, then we are choosing the plastic diamond ring -worth nothing- over the true treasure of growing in patience.

Finally, remember that if we ask God to help us grow in patience, more than likely, we will find ourselves in difficult situations that will provide a chance to stay calm and understanding!

Then it was time to pack up the cookies in the most gorgeous Chinese Take-Out boxes ever. They were such a sight to behold! Of course, the treats were intended as a gift to give to someone special...

Thanks to the Club Leaders and the Club Helpers who made this past month's activity so great. Also, thanks to Kathy McGarry who came to visit us as a special guest. We hope you will join us soon! Remember that this club's meeting will be on January 25, 2014. We look forward to seeing you then!

-Club Greenthread

Friendship Letter

Hello Club Greenthread!

We hope that everyone had a joyous Thanksgiving and are excited to return to school! This past month of November we focused Friendship and what it means to be a good friend.

Mrs. Jenn gave the talk to the girls and she pointed out some very good tips on friendship, such as:

God is in everyone and He is the best kind of friend

Treat everyone the way God loves everyone

Let a friend have first preference, show kindness, share, listen, be respectful,

Be a friend to the person with no or few friends, the person who is hard to get along with, the new person

Be friendly to everyone, but don't be friends with the person who makes bad choices

Be first to apologize and forgive

Tell a friend quietly what they are doing working, not embarrass them publicly

Love your family as well as you love your friends

Afterwards, our monthly activity was to decorate a Friendship Letter, that is, a wooden letter to give to a friend.

It was great to see the girls patiently waiting and sharing all of the material as they decorated their letters. And to see the artistic variety that came forth from every girl was incredible! Some letters simple and elegant, others were crazy and colorful, all were beautiful!! Way to go girls!! 

Our quote for the monthly note card is: "A true friend thinks of you when everyone else thinks only of themselves"

Remember that the next meeting will be December 21st. We will be making no-bake cookies and the talk will be on patience!

Wishing you all a happy month,

Club Greenthread Team Leaders

Thank you Letters

Hello Club Greenthread!

We hope that everyone has enjoyed the first week of November, with the nice, crisp weather we're having. Our October meeting, already two weeks ago, was great fun and we hope that this post will help remind you about what we talked about and did.

We began with a wonderful talk by Mrs. Vilalta on the Meaning of Good Manners. That is, when we think of others we are trying to do things that will make them happy or help them. This is what it means to have good manners. The girls came up with so many great examples of how you can practice good manners at home, at school and anywhere!

It is easy to remember to always think of others and have good manners if we remember that we are all children of God. Some of the ways we can think about others include: Using kind words, not talking with your mouth full, always knowing when to say "please," "thank you" and "I'm sorry", and writing thank you notes when someone gives you a present or does something nice for you.

This lead to the next activity, which was to write and decorate a thank you card for someone. The girls were thoughtful in choosing someone and carefully drafting what to say, then they had a ball decorating the cards with a grand assortment of cute stickers!

The finished products looked beautiful and we are sure that they made the recipients very happy!

Finally, we want to thank all of the moms who were able to stay to help out, and of course our two lovely high school helpers: Mary and Gabby. This meeting in particular was very special, as it was Gabby's birthday!! 

Our next meeting will take place on November 23rd and you all will certainly not want to miss it, as we will be painting and decorating custom wooden letters to give to a friend. We hope to see you all there!

-The Club Greenthread Team

September: Fish in a Bag

Hello Club Greenthread!

Welcome to our new blog! Here we will be sharing all of the fun activities and special talks that we will be having throughout the semester. We hope that you will regularly check here for pictures and information.

We want to thank our two helpers, Mary and Gaby, in a very special way for doing such a fantastic job decorating our Club Bulletin Board, which will have the monthly motto and activity posted.

As you all can see from the title of the post, this month we made "Fish in a Bag" -which were little bags of soap with plastic fish, a huge hit with the girls! We started off by melting 3 blocks of clear glycerin soap in the microwave, and then carefully pouring the hot soap into the plastic bag. Finally, the girls would drop the fish in and with the help of Ms. Jenn, they would pin the back closed with a clothes hanger and with another clothes hanger place it in the freezer to set.

You can see them below setting in the freezer:

While the soap cooled in the bag, Ms. Annamarie gave a talk on "The Me I want to Be." Every girl was handed a flower and asked to compare herself to her flower.

Just like the flowers, the girls are beautiful, delicate, cheerful and need to be nurtured. They discussed the ways in which a girl is nurtured to grow into a more beautiful flower: reading good books, watching positive movies, taking care of oneself and finally focusing on others and not just inwards.

In order to be a better "Me," the girls were encouraged to respect themselves and others, and to be the best person they can be in order to inspire others!

Finally, Ms. Annamarie ended her talk asking the girls to give their flower to someone who makes them feel loved.

From there it was back to the kitchen to retrieve the bags and finish the project by tying them with ribbon.

And here are the girls with their finished project:

Thank you to all the girls, moms and helpers that made this first meeting a great success! Remember that next month we will be meeting on October 26th, last Saturday of the month, at 10am. The project will be to learn to write a Thank You Note (as well as decorating it); the talk will be on Gratitude, given by Ms. Cristabel. We look forward to seeing everyone next month!

Fondly,

Club Greenthread Coordinators