{"id":60311,"date":"2016-07-03T00:08:21","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T07:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=60311"},"modified":"2016-07-03T00:08:21","modified_gmt":"2016-07-03T07:08:21","slug":"young-cultivators-merit-badge-i-did-it-my-way-beginner-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/60311","title":{"rendered":"Young Cultivators Merit Badge: I Did It My Way, Beginner Level"},"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\u00a07,050 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u201410,044 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane\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<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For this week\u2019s Make It Easy\/I Did It My Way Young Cultivator Beginner Level Merit Badge<\/u><\/a>, 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 \u2013 er, I mean, guinea pig \u2026 er, I mean, accomplice<\/em> for this badge.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s be honest …<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

… kindergarteners are up for anything. Seriously. They\u2019re like ninjas in so many ways: able to function on little sleep, stealthy, flexible, quick, light on their feet, and they have those big doe eyes that can get them whatever their pea-pickin\u2019 hearts so desire.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What Alice and I desired was one of those tin-can telephones we could string up between the houses and have silly conversations through.<\/p>\n

After some thought, I realized dangling a 6-year-old out a window with nothing but a piece of string between her and the ground below might not win me any babysitting awards, so I nixed the two-house idea.<\/p>\n

First thing was first: finding and washing out tin cans.<\/p>\n

No problem. I had some tins of peaches that weren\u2019t gonna eat themselves. I erroneously believed the little sprite couldn\u2019t eat her half, but she nearly pinned me with a fork when I eyed her portion, so we split them fifty\/fifty.<\/p>\n

I got out my stool so Alice could help me wash the cans (after checking for sharp edges … I am SUCH a good babysitter). She insisted on an apron while she did the dishes; I was ever so proud. This whippersnapper was shaping up to be a fine farmgirl.<\/p>\n

Farmgirl In Training. F.I.T.<\/p>\n

Hey, that\u2019s not half bad!<\/p>\n

I drilled a small hole through each cleaned can and we used some string I had lying around. Next came the fun part: Alice went scampering to the next room, while I perched on the kitchen counter, pining away for more peaches.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Photo by Chris Potter via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

A helpful note from me to you: conversations with 6-year-olds are odd, to say the least.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alice: Roger, Roger, are you there, Roger?<\/p>\n

Me: Yes, but it\u2019s Jane.<\/p>\n

Alice: The goose has landed!<\/p>\n

Me: Um. Okay. So, what do you want to talk about?<\/p>\n

Alice: I like frogs.<\/p>\n

Me: Me, too!<\/p>\n

Alice: But not to lick.<\/p>\n

Me: Eh?<\/p>\n

Alice: Well, I gotta go. Call me back!<\/p>\n

Me: Okay, bye.<\/p>\n

Alice: RING! RING!<\/p>\n

Me: Um, hello?<\/p>\n

Alice: It\u2019s me! Princess Alice of the Bathroom!<\/p>\n

Me: Well, hello there, your royal highness.<\/p>\n

Alice: Why do you sound all funny? Are you eating my peaches?<\/p>\n

Me, gulping: No!<\/p>\n

Alice: Can you smell my breath through here? Like this? WHOOOSH!<\/p>\n

Me: Sorry, Charlie.<\/p>\n

Alice: I\u2019m not Charlie. I\u2019m Princess Alice, and you\u2019re Roger, remember?<\/p>\n

Me: Yes, sorry, um, Princess.<\/p>\n

Alice: It\u2019s okay, Rog. I swallowed a quarter.<\/p>\n

Me: What? Right now?<\/p>\n

Alice: No, like \u2026 um \u2026 tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Me: Huh? You mean yesterday?<\/p>\n

Alice: It was very days ago. Tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Me: Okay, that\u2019s alright then. I think \u2026<\/p>\n

Alice: Oops, I tooted. \u2018Cuse me. I gotta go potty while I\u2019m in here. I\u2019m gonna put you on hold, k?<\/p>\n

And from there the conversation just got weirder. For a ninja, she\u2019s kinda unorthodox.<\/p>\n

\"girl-at-desk\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 \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\u00a07,050 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u201410,044 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane\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":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60311","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=60311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}