Author Archives: mbajane

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,130 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,150 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Make It Easy/Furniture Makeover Expert Level Merit Badge, I combined my love of daydreaming about furniture upcycling and my love for taking things apart and putting them back together again. And I had just the project in mind …

You see, at one end of my block, there was a yard sale happening.

And at the other end of my block, there was a preschool opening.

You see where I’m going with this?

No?

You obviously don’t waste spend as much time on Pinterest as I do, reimagining my life as a DIY Queen of Recycled and Homemade Furniture.

photo by Jimmyjazz via Wikimedia Commons

Don’t worry about it, chickadees, I’m here to clue you in. My plan was to …

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The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,050 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,044 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Know Your Food Beginner Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, I snagged Nora. No, literally. I snagged her as she wandered by on her way to the mini-mart, munching on a bag of High Fructose Corn Syrup Coco Frosted Sugar Bombs. She looked a little dazed and confused, but I attributed that to the sugar coma I just woke her up from.

“Hey, Nora!” said I, proudly showing off the biggest watermelon in my patch.

Her eyes lit up with something that resembled a sign of life. “Cool. I like watermelon. Watermelon fruit snacks, watermelon Jell-o, watermelon gum, watermelon Kool-Aid, watermelon Jolly Ranchers, watermel …“

“And, watermelon, right?”

Photo by Steve Evans via Wikimedia Commons

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The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,050 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,044 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Outpost/Rocks and Minerals Beginner Level Merit Badge, I needed to learn the difference between rocks and minerals.

Mineral collection, Nature History Museum, Vienna. Photo by Dr. Bernd Gross via Wikimedia Commons.

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The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,050 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,044 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Out There Kids/Lean On Me Beginner Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, the lovely Piper and Nora and the intrepid whippersnapper, Andy, all decided they need a place in the shade. A little piece of heaven they could call their own …

“Can I have a piece of Earth?”
– Mary, The Secret Garden.

I had just the thing:

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he adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,050 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,044 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Make It Easy/Rethink Your Space Intermediate Level Young Cultivator Badge, I steeled my frazzled nerves with a nice cuppa chai with extra whip and sprinkles, and marched on over to my neighbor’s house, otherwise known as The Den of Fear and Trembling. No one calls it that but me, but that’s because they’ve never been inside Andy’s bedroom.

After he and I earned our Beginner Level merit badge in cleaning his room (you bet your patootie I earned myself one, too!) I needed some time to recover from my trauma (I was getting PTSD flashbacks and tremors), but now I was ready. Ready to supervise Nora earning her own Beginner Level badge, and ready to move Andy onto Intermediate.

“Okay, comrades,” I said, swallowing down the last of my liquid courage and licking the whip off my fingers, “Here’s the deal.”

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The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,050 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,044 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Make It Easy/I Did It My Way Young Cultivator Beginner Level Merit Badge, I decided to take under my wing a new hatchling, so to speak. My neighbor takes care of her granddaughter after school some days, and little Alice is a hoot. She was the perfect victim – er, I mean, guinea pig … er, I mean, accomplice for this badge.

And let’s be honest …

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The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,962 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,905 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Out There Kids/I Am A Survivor Intermediate Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, I gathered my hiking supplies and my courage and volunteered to take Piper, Nora, and Andy, and all their respective siblings out on a hike in the wilderness.

photo by Steve Hillebrand, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Wikimedia Commons

Well, ‘wilderness’ sounds more life-threatening than our hiking trail actually is, but still. Ever take a bunch of kids hiking? It’s pretty life-threatening. And sanity-threatening. I wasn’t sure we’d all make it down alive, to tell the truth.

Since Nora was my Beginner Level Badge earner from her handy dandy, super cool, Survivor Packs she made with me earlier, I let her be the Guide Assistant.

Unfortunately, the power went to her head.

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The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,962 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,905 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Food Allergy Awareness Beginner Level Merit Badge, I researched a common malady (at least these days, it seems to be) amongst the population: food allergies.

Being blessed with the constitution of a horse with a cast-iron stomach lining myself (I hate to brag, but ya know it’s true), I was appalled at my findings, and at what these poor men, women, and children go through just to … to eat.

Photo by Jameson Fink via Flickr

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he adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,962 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,905 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Make It Easy/Collect It! Beginner Level Merit Badge, I had to stop and listen the next time I was out at a tag sale/estate sale/thrift shop/antique mall. Which is, you know, like, frequently.

Did you hear it?

That soft, soft cry?

Almost like the plaintive siren call of something just a little other-worldly? A bit ghostly? A haunting and beckoning song?

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The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,962 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,905 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Cleaning Up/It’s In The Bag Beginner Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, I cautioned my young’un that this was a more difficult badge than what first meets the eye of the beholder. So to speak.

Getting in the habit of collecting and using reusable shopping bags isn’t as easy as it looks. I should know; it’s taken me approximately forever to get good at it. And I still occasionally leave them in the car … or the pantry. The guilty feeling I get when that happens and I am forced to take home a ridiculous amount of plastic sacks is not something I wish on anyone.

Especially cute lil’ Nora …

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