Author Archives: mbajane

Greatest Generation

Posted on November 27, 2012 by mbajane

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 4,649 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—5,730 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …

Earning this badge was one I was looking forward to, and one I could have earned dozens of times over when I was just a little sprout: spending time with the senior citizens in my life. See, as a youngster, whenever I went through a phase (cheerleading, clarinet, ballet, choir, underwater basket weaving), I would take my new skills to the local retirement home for polishing. I found there to be a good mix of love and support, and tell-it-like-it-is truthfulness, disguised in blue-haired ladies and no-haired gentlemen. It was nice for them, and valuable for me. I made lots of friends of the grandparent variety, and they got a little something to look forward to after school on Fridays. At least I think they looked forward to it …

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Outstepping Merit Badge

Posted on November 17, 2012 by mbajane

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …

This last weekend was the last weekend I felt good about hiking. After all, winter is coming, and though I have First Aid Kits ready in my car, I have no desire to be eaten by bears (or are they hibernating?) or get stuck in a snow drift, or miss my favorite holiday movie on the Hallmark Channel. So, I dusted off my best flannel shirt, laced up my boots, and set off on an adventure of the hiking and exploring and Merit Badge-ing type!

I was on the lookout for three things for this badge: my state tree, my state flower, and my state bird …

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First Aid, Part II

Posted on November 13, 2012 by mbajane

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …

Now that my first aid kits are put together by yours truly, and installed, I am moving on to Part II of this particular badge. I hadn’t expected the first part to have been so time consuming, but I confess, I may have spent an inordinate amount of time picking out the prettiest boxes and arranging all my things inside. You can always be less fussy; after all, it’s about safety, not color-coordinating your Band-Aids and Q-tips.

Part II seemed easy enough: Check your smoke detectors.

At first, I kinda wanted to skip this part. I mean, trust me: they work. I know this because they like to …

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Make It Pretty

Posted on November 10, 2012 by mbajane

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …

Art is not something I’ve always excelled at. Let’s just say I’m artfully challenged. Sketching impaired. Watercolorphobic. When art classes came around in school, I was too busy nibbling the erasers and licking the paste to really pay a lot of attention to focal points, shading, and blending. I thought I was art challenged, that is, until I realized Art Class came at 2:30, and I was just hungry.

So, for my Make it Pretty badge, I made sure I had a tummy full of …

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Madge In the Garden Badge

Posted on October 29, 2012 by mbajane

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …

I used to be the kind of girl that spent her afternoons at fancy boutiques, her weekends at the mall, and her evenings at Macy’s online store. But the older (um, I mean, the more mature) I get, the more I do my shopping in unconventional places. You know, like thrift shops, vintage stores, tag sales, flea markets, and well, the occasional curb.

I mean, I’m not exactly dumpster diving (yet) but you’d be amazed at some of the perfectly great things people will throw away. Well, some of them need a little TLC, it’s true … but TLC happens to be my middle name. Actually, it’s Katherine, but let’s not split hairs.

Anyway, I was driving by a residential street the other day, when my eagle eye happened upon

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Let’s Get Physical

Posted on October 10, 2012 by mbajane

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …

Now that the dulcet strains of Olivia Newton John are stuck your head for the rest of the day, let’s talk fitness! (It’s actually a merit badge.) Since I’ve made over my diet pretty darn well in the past year (goodbye, Mr. Chips, hello, Mr. Fruit Smoothie), I have finally decided to tackle the other part of my health plan.

Exercise.

Is it just moi, or did that word send shivers down your spine? I’m breaking a sweat just thinking about breaking a sweat. I feel like I need a good cooling down, and I haven’t done the aerobic activity yet. This is bad.

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Public Service

Posted on October 6, 2012 by mbajane

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …

Mr. Wonderful has a wonderful way of being involved in the community that I’ve really sat up and taken notice of. I decided to take a page from his book, so to speak, and really up my connection to my hometown … and what do you know? There’s a merit badge for just such community spirit!

I have to admit to being a little intimidated by going to a town council meeting, but on the other side of that nervous pancake, I have always kind of wondered what they talk about in there. I mean, were they discussing the length of my grass, the state of my favorite downtown restaurants, voting in a new Bed, Bath and Beyond? What was all the chatter about every third Wednesday?

I resolved to find out by giving myself a new do and picking out an I-mean-business outfit.

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Cross-stitch

Posted on September 30, 2012 by mbajane

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …

For this week’s Merit Badge, I decided to tackle cross-stitching! Why, you ask? Well, that’s easy. I started a book club.

Huh?

Let me explain.

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MBA Jane: Entrepreneurial Spirit

Posted on September 11, 2012 by mbajane

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …

Well, the first thing I had to do to earn my Entrepreneurial Spirit Badge was figure out how to spell the dang thing. I like to write down my adventures in badges, you know, and I’ve been trying to better myself by not abusing spell check. (I like to think of spell check as an over-worked, under-paid serf, residing in my laptop). So, anyway, about 10 years later, I got the spelling of entrepreneurial right. And I’ll never forget it.

On to the actual badge. (Would a badge about starting a gardening business be a entremanure badge?)

mba_jane-0337

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Rocking Out

Posted on August 25, 2012 by mbajane

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …

My first thought: now this is an unusual badge.

My second thought: this is a badge I can rock!

My third thought: I got rhythm … I got music … who could ask for anything more? Well, a girl could ask for Gene Kelly, but I’m realistic.

A whole merit badge on music; I am sooo ready for this.

I was sooo over confident.

gladsome_sisters-out_there_women-intermediate

Turns out I’m not as melodiously gifted as I once thought. I mean, yeah, I can peg the winner of American Idol three weeks in, sure, and I can nail a few childhood campfire songs. And you can bet I’m a good go-to karaoke partner, but REALLY knowing the ins and outs of crooning? Well, surprisingly enough, there’s more to it than I originally thought.

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