{"id":62788,"date":"2016-11-15T00:09:01","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T08:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=62788"},"modified":"2016-11-15T00:09:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T08:09:01","slug":"young-cultivators-merit-badge-big-kid-now-beginner-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/62788","title":{"rendered":"Young Cultivators Merit Badge: Big Kid Now, 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\u00a07,200 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u201410,226 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 Each Other\/Big Kid Now Beginner Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge<\/u><\/a>, I wrangled Piper, Andy, and Nora to earn their badges together. Birds of a feather flock together like peas in a pod. Or something to that effect.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this badge was all about daydreaming towards the future and answering the ever immortal and infamous question that the under-18 crowd gets asked twenty-eleven times in their short life spans:<\/p>\n

What do you want to be when you grow up?<\/em><\/p>\n

Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon, July 20, 1969, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, this seemingly innocuous query can cause panic, anxiety, and hives in young adults of the teenage variety (and some of the just-graduated college age group as well), but these particular whippersnappers found it intriguing.<\/p>\n

Especially when I assured them that the sky was the limit (after all, who doesn\u2019t <\/em>want to be an astronaut?).<\/p>\n

It really got their gray matter working overtime. Piper was coming up with career notions as fast as she could write them down with her trusty hot-pink quill pen, Nora firmly stuck to her #1 choice, but Andy was \u2026 well, surprisingly thoughtful.<\/p>\n

I mean, you could have knocked me over with Pipe\u2019s hot-pink quill pen. He was really stewing and brewing and weighing his options. It was like he was \u2026 was \u2026 thinking<\/em>. Anyone who knows and loves a preteen boy knows this is rare indeed: like seeing a unicorn on your way to the market or something.<\/p>\n

I say this in love.<\/p>\n

But \u2018tis true.<\/p>\n

Then he *gasp* wanted to go the library to research his Top Ten Career Paths. I couldn\u2019t say no to that request. (Though I was still filled with apprehension after our last trip there. Would there be a photo of me with a red line crossed through? Would I be banned for shouting, spilling my coffee, and losing half the children I had arrived with? It\u2019s not easy being Auntie, I tell you.)<\/p>\n

photo by Wpcpey via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

We set off like a herd of turtles and made our way to the Non-Fiction Kid\u2019s Section\u2014where none of us had actually been before. It was a whole new world there, chickadees! I always thought Non-Fiction was a bit on the borrrrrring side myself, but once again, I have changed my wicked ways.<\/p>\n

I settled down with a biography of Julia Child while the three ankle-biters perused. Each of us had brought our own reusable shopping bag, both for ease of transport and also to cut down on the squabbling. Well, actually Nora brought a suitcase on wheels, but the librarian didn\u2019t even bat an eye. Sometimes I think librarians have seen things that would make a lesser gal squirm in shock. They\u2019re like the unsung heroes and ninjas of the literature world. Also, if the zombie apocalypse happens, I\u2019m heading to the library, post haste.<\/p>\n

The book about Julia was making me super hungry. I was having a hard time focusing on our assignment, but luckily the kids were doing well. The Non-Fiction section was pretty picked over by the time we were done with it and I kinda hoped there weren\u2019t any other Young Cultivators eager to earn this specific badge today (or in the next two weeks, since that\u2019s how long we had our books for).<\/p>\n

On our way home, we had to drive-through for tacos because \u2026 well, Julia.<\/p>\n

Want to see what the trio of intrepid daydreamers checked out?<\/p>\n

Stay tuned!<\/p>\n

<\/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\u00a07,200 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u201410,226 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-62788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62788","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=62788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}