Some sort of convergence

I'm not an astrology buff. But I remember from high school, when my best friend was (and her mother was a tarot card reader--very exciting when you're 15), talk about things like convergences. When things come together and "blocks" that might have been in your way suddenly melt away.

Yesterday that sort of happened with girl scouts. It also sort of happened with the trivia night this weekend and a couple other things--suddenly everything fell into line. We have prizes for trivia. We have a full house. I think it's going to be good.

My coleader wrote me a check for what she owed me from even back to last year. She suggested that maybe, if the meetings were later, she would be interested in taking over as leader and I would move to coleader. Maybe one of two or three coleaders, because a few other moms expressed interest in helping to sustain the troop. Which would be so wonderful.

Also at girl scouts, I had an ambitious plan to complete the junior cooking badge. We started it in January but needed to really do some real cooking to get it done. We had an hour, maybe an hour and a half, because I warned parents it might run long.

The girls had chosen an international menu of a Tanzanian curry and a Jamaican avocado salad and Indian lime water, along with basmati rice, cucumbers, and a southern European phyllo dough apple strudel (not quite the baklava I made earlier this month--more of a true strudel.

I divided the girls into 4 patrols. All the girls showed up (which is impressive). I had a chicken curry team, a tofu curry team (we have a vegan in our troop, AND we were supposed to rewrite a recipe to make it healthier for the badge work). A salad team, and the apple strudel and lime water team (the apple strudel had to bake a long time so they moved quickly).

Cookie mom was there with my coleader and myself, which of course was stressful because she tries to do everything for the girls. She fusses around and wants everything to be just right. But I showed both curry teams the order to saute (I had everything mise en place, which is a wonderful way to cook if you have the help). Then I walked away and left Cookie Mom to fret there while I taught the apple strudel girls how to use phyllo dough, which is an alien idea to most everyone after all. My coleader's daughter had used a zester before and I told her she needed about a teaspoon. When I came back after having two girls from the curry teams start setting tables, she had already dumped probably a full tablespoon into the apple mixture. But lemon isn't bad so, eh, there you go.

The curries came together and we dumped chicken and tofu into them (I had been boiling the premarinated chicken before the girls arrived). My coleader was working with the girls making the salad--the right way, I might add, showing them how to cut, peel, and slice an avocado one time and then watching them to see if they got it. Each girl had a chance. The lettuce and onion were done similarly. There was no "here, I'll put the chicken in for you" fussiness like over by the curries--I eventually had to tell Cookie Mom it was their job, their badge. Flustered.

The strudel was perhaps the ugliest I'd ever seen but into the over it went. When I stepped out into the hall with the timer in hand (we'd take the strudel out while we ate the other dishes), the tables were set with table cloths, the food was lined up on a table, and the girls were sitting in place. One of the girls who is obviously ADHD and raises her hand before considering what she's going to say accidentally offered to say grace. After a blank stare moment, she pulled it off. Each table went through the line and the girls ate together.

It was the best curry I've had. The chicken was better than the tofu, but they were both excellent. The lime water tasted like nonalcoholic margaritas. The avocado salad wasn't surprising but for many girls was the first try for that vegetable. Only one or two had ever seen a cardamom pod before. About half had never consciously eaten tofu. So we worked on all that.

Dishes...it's always dishes. We washed up and got things done in time for the strudel. I will always overdo the lemon zest from now on. Wow. Cookie Mom fussed over the dishes more than she should have, but the girls still learned how to put a kitchen back in order. It's good practice for camping.

I drove home and saw Mike's car in front of the house. "Sophia," I said, "Go ask your dad to come out here." She did, he did, and by then the girls and the neighbor girl had already gone inside our house to play a bit more. I sat staring at the winter sunset behind Tower Grove Park. Enjoying the silence.

Mike and I had leftover tofu curry for dinner. I was absolutely exhausted from the day but it had gone so well.

I have, potentially, 4 more girls who want to join the troop. More thoughts on troop later. I no longer feel like it won't work out, though.

So something came together--the stars, fate, energy directed the right way. Whatever. It's been a couple of weeks of banging my head against the wall and finally I've gotten through.