{"id":57037,"date":"2015-10-03T00:09:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T07:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=57037"},"modified":"2015-10-03T00:09:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-03T07:09:00","slug":"young-cultivators-merit-badge-make-it-fruity-beginner-level-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/57037","title":{"rendered":"Young Cultivators Merit Badge: Make It Fruity, Beginner Level, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/span><\/span><\/a>, now with\u00a06,691 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,460 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u2026\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In my pursuit of all things farmgirl, I set about helping my neighbor, Nora, earn herself a Young Cultivator’s Make It Fruity Merit Badge<\/u><\/a>. Read about Part 1 here<\/a>. I was nearly killed in several interesting ways during the whole process, but I digress. This is about Nora, not about me.<\/p>\n

Me and my blackberry-thorn-scratched body.<\/em><\/p>\n

Me and my sunburned skin.<\/em><\/p>\n

Me and my twisted ankle and bruised knees.<\/em><\/p>\n

Me and my shadow.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wait. Not that last one. Sometimes I slip into Perry Como lyrics when I\u2019m stressed or anxious. Ignore me.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Women picking evergreen blackberries in western Oregon, 1910, OSU Special Collections & Archives via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway, all terrifying bug sightings aside, my time with Nora was well spent and I learned a lot about my wee, preteen neighbor: She has a ferocious appetite (made evident by the lack of blackberries in her basket after an hour of picking), she can\u2019t seem to put her phone away for longer than a moment (and the pinging was getting on my frazzled nerves), she enjoys flinging four-, six-, and eight-legged critters my way (Haha, Nora, very cute. I\u2019m telling your mother!), and she uses a peculiar form of slang this farmgirl needed an interpreter to \u2026 er, interpret.<\/p>\n

After an hour of broiling in the hot summer sun (my skin was getting crispy, and if you were to stick a fork in me and sprinkle me with garlic salt, I think I\u2019d be done), I began to realize why Nora\u2019s family hadn\u2019t made this an annual family excursion. They were wise beyond their years. Taking a preteen out in public, even if it\u2019s just to a local blackberry patch, is an exercise in patience, long-suffering perseverance, and a test of your sense of humor. Also, it\u2019s kinda frightening.<\/p>\n

Turns out preteens have teeny-tiny, itty-bitty, hardly noticeable mood swings. And of course, by teeny-tiny, itty-bitty, and hardly noticeable, I mean extreme, severe, and terrifying. <\/em>It was like picking berries with a tame Disney woodland creature one minute and a growling, Jane-eating-shark the next. Sharks don\u2019t growl? Yeah, so says you.<\/p>\n

Luckily, I have ninja skills with which to ward off said mood swings, so I was not completely unprepared. We ended our excursion with lots of fresh, purple berries, telltale mustaches from sampling, a few injuries, and a sense of bonding.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Midway through our journey back to the car, Nora\u2019s cell-phone battery died, and I had a premonition of my own demise when I saw the crazed look in her blue eyes, but we made it home intact, her first Young Cultivator\u2019s Badge earned.<\/p>\n

Her mother met us at the door. \u201cApple picking next weekend?\u201d she suggested, brightly.<\/p>\n

I mumbled something intelligible as Nora raced for her phone charger.<\/p>\n

\u201cCamping?\u201d Mother went on, her face cheerful (and well rested, I might add). \u201cRoad tripping?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI, uh, I think I hear my phone pinging!\u201d I stumbled back to my car in a panic.<\/p>\n

Earning my own Merit Badges had been challenging and enlightening enough. Helping my young whippersnapper neighbors and family members earn theirs?<\/p>\n

“It will be fun,” they said …<\/p>\n

“It will be an adventure,” they said \u2026<\/p>\n

Gulp.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with\u00a06,691 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,460 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ\u00a0 Wondering who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-growing_jane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}