Remember my holiday baking disaster back in December? Well I’ve now topped that one.

Tonight is Keaton’s Arrow of Light Ceremony. He received his Arrow of Light badge last week at the Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet, but now the whole council gets together and acknowledges all of the new Boy Scouts. So since the whole council will be there I figured I better make sure Keaton is in full uniform. Prior to today Keaton had his shirt with his pack numbers on it and his patrol badge but nothing else.

So today I took my mom to Fin and Feather because she offered to buy Keaton’s new Boy Scout uniform (and the scouting office is closed on weekends). So she bought him the uniform plus his colors (so he can put all of his Webelo pins/badges on it), a belt and a few other things we had lost from his Cub Scout uniform.

For Boy Scouts you just buy the badges/numbers/emblems individually without wrapping or instructions. But while were at Fin and Feather I saw some Girl Scout numbers and there were in packaging that read “Iron-On Den Numbers.” I thought, “how come the Girl Scouts can iron on their numbers and the Boy Scouts have to sew them on?”

So we got home and I asked Keaton to find the thread and needles so I could start to sew on some of his badges that had fallen off in the wash a while back. It was such a pain in the butt to sew them on in the first place so I was really procrastinating on sewing them on again. We couldn’t find a needle and thread anywhere and I was getting a bit discouraged. Then I looked at the back of Keaton’s Bear badge and it was kind of clear. I thought, “that’s a weird kind of backing.” And then I thought, “I wonder what would happen if I tried to iron that on,” although I never really thought that would work. Surely if could iron these badges somebody would have mentioned that to be by now. Keaton’s been in Cub Scouts for three years afterall.

So just to humor myself I took the shirt and badges in to the laundry room and turned on the iron. I heated up the back of the bear badge, placed it on Keaton’s shirt and then ironed it down. Lo and behold the thing stuck. It stuck really well. A heck of a lot better then when I tried to sew the stupid thing on there.

And the realization of it all came to me. I AM A MORON. THESE THINGS ARE MEANT TO BE IRONED ON. Am I the only idiotic mother who did not know this? Has nobody told me this because it’s so painfully obvious that these things iron on, only a moronic mother like myself wouldn’t have realized that right from the beginning…let alone three years later?

I don’t know why I’m surprised that I’m no Martha Stewart (pre-jail time). After all I once had to call my aunt to find out how to make hard boiled eggs. And I just learned how to make kool-aid about four years ago. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t know how to make kool-aid. It’s only been in the last year that I’ve been really “learning” how to cook. And my family has been so wonderful…acting like they enjoy some of the crap I attempt to make. It truly is a miracle that my kids have survived this long with such a non-Suzy Homemaker mother like myself. And I don’t even think they’ve been ridiculed for it. Your mother can’t cook? Heck your mother can’t even iron on iron-on badges. But my kids take it all in stride. They’re the greatest.