Young Cultivators Merit Badge: Thank You! Intermediate Level

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,861 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,721 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Young Cultivator Each Other/Thank You! Intermediate Level Merit Badge, I decided to let Piper and Andy put down their pencils (the Gratitude Journal keeping was getting easier and better, but I was afraid another Merit Badge with writing involved might give them the Crazy Eyes). You see, to earn Level Two, they could either send Thank You cards to people in their community, OR they could do something nice for said people in their community.

Since they’d been journaling at my kitchen table each day for two weeks (or as they liked to call it, being tortured by Auntie), we decided to get out of the house and really be actively grateful.

Physically.

Mentally.

Emotionally.

Also, we needed a break from the cookies. Their mother was telling me I’d be paying their dentist bill if I didn’t break the chocolate-chip habit, and I must say … my lounge pants were getting a bit snug.

photo by Knoell8504 via Wikimedia Commons

So, off to the community we went. There were a few things we thought we could do to earn our badges, and to the kiddos’ chagrin (and synchronized whining), we made a list:

• Hand out lemonade (or cookies) to the mail carrier on a hot (or cold) day.
• Wash someone’s car.
• Organize a doggy bath day for the hot and stinky neighborhood doggies.
• Rake some yards or mow them.
• Weed an elderly person’s flowerbed.
• Offer to do the grocery shopping for someone who is housebound.
• Earn some money doing chores and use the payment to pay off someone’s library card fees.
• Clean out Auntie’s garage. (Rats! They saw right through that one.)
• Offer to babysit for free.
• Clean out Mom’s fridge or Dad’s toolbox.

But the best one we decided on was the last one:

• Spend an afternoon at a nursing home or assisted-living home, and paint toenails.

I was surprised Andy was on board for this one, being a boy and all. But when I mentioned toenail fungus, corns, calluses, and stinky feet, he was totally excited.

Boys. They’re so … weird.

Piper was super-thrilled to get out her nail-polish collection (which could rival any local salon’s) and we packed it all up in a cute basket, along with some yummy scented organic lotions, clippers, files, and those strange toe separators (that I typically forget to use when giving myself a pedi since I never remember what they’re for anyway).

photo by Crishna Simmons via Flickr.com

We spent the whole afternoon getting to know some neat ladies. (And learning which ones were ticklish. Note to self: keep a list for next time. Less chance of getting kicked in the head.) We even ran out of Neon Pink (who knew the over-80 crowd were such trendsetters?) and we had to send Andy out for more Sparkle Glitter topcoat (he was getting loopy from the fumes anyway).

The ladies had a blast, but I think the kids had an even better time.

They already are planning to go back for the gentlemen (who passed on the pedis, but seemed interested in manis as long as only clear polish was used), and when I told them they didn’t have to because they already completed their badge earning, they rolled their eyes.

“No badge necessary, Auntie,” they said. “It’s just for fun.”

Hmm. From ill mannered, entitled Twerpensteins to elder-serving, gratitude-filled sweeties, in just two badges?

That’s the magic of being farmkids, y’all.