{"id":62910,"date":"2017-12-05T00:09:47","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T08:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=62910"},"modified":"2017-12-05T00:09:47","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T08:09:47","slug":"young-cultivator-merit-badge-lets-go-to-town-expert-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/62910","title":{"rendered":"Young Cultivator Merit Badge: Let\u2019s Go to Town, Expert Level"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<span style=\"color: #800080;\">The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.farmgirlsisterhood.org\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/span><\/span><\/a>,<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> now with\u00a07,428 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u201410,886 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #339966;\">Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/10477\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">former life<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>For this week\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.farmgirlsisterhood.org\/badges-yceo-go_to_town.asp\"><u>Each Other\/Let&#8217;s Go to Town Expert Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge<\/u><\/a>, Andy and I\u2014you guessed it\u2014went to town.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_62914\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-62914\" class=\"wp-image-62914\" src=\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/782px-Main_Street_Commercial_Historic_District.jpg\" width=\"360\" height=\"276\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-62914\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">photo by James Steakley via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n<p>If only earning Merit Badges were so simple \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Once we got there (several yard sales and snack breaks later), we headed over to our local library. Not for books this time, no siree, but to see what was thumbtacked up on the ol\u2019 community bulletin board.<\/p>\n<p>We saw:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Services from a pet psychic (Yeah. That\u2019s all my chickens need. They already think they\u2019re Marie Antoinette if their diva behavior is any indication.)<\/li>\n<li>Tuba lessons (BYOT)<\/li>\n<li>Something called Pickleball<\/li>\n<li>Massage therapy for the ticklish<\/li>\n<li>A seminar on DIY world domination<\/li>\n<li>Matchmaking services for the romantically challenged<\/li>\n<li>How to cook with inedible ingredients (say what now?)<\/li>\n<li>Lost: guinea pig<\/li>\n<li>Found: weird-looking rodent<\/li>\n<li>Soccer for seniors<\/li>\n<li>Conquer your fears through total immersion therapy (please sign waivers, provided)<\/li>\n<li>Community theatre actors wanted<\/li>\n<li>Underwater basket-weaving classes<\/li>\n<li>Sign Language, Shakespeare, and You<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There were probably lots more, but they were all stapled and scotch-taped and thumbtacked right over one another, all willy-nilly. I thought someone needed to offer a community class on the Proper Etiquette of bulletin-boarding, but Andy was all about \u2026 drum roll, puhleeze \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Pickleball!<\/p>\n<p>To earn his Expert Level badge, Andy and I were going to choose three different after-school-type activities. He had already joined Band last week, and I wrangle him in to my Book Club meetings every third Thursday (I lure him with the scent of chocolate-chip cookies. Works every time. Little guy is cute, but he isn\u2019t the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to noticing things. Ah well. He gets cookies and some literary education, to boot. Although, he wasn\u2019t real fond of <em>The Bridges of Madison County,<\/em> and when it was his turn to pick the novel, he chose <em>Sir Farts-A-Lot Eats the Booger<\/em> as revenge. How childish. Although, I have to say, I secretly enjoyed the book).<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, where was I? Ah yes. Pickleball was to be our third activity! We were both really excited. Andy because he likes balls, me because I love a good pickle.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly (and you may be one step ahead of me on this), there were no vinegary cucumbers to be found when we got to the arranged meeting place. Instead, there were paddles, nets, plastic balls with holes in them, and a tennis court.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_62915\" style=\"width: 371px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-62915\" class=\"wp-image-62915\" src=\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Pickleballs_on_Court.jpg\" width=\"361\" height=\"203\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-62915\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">photo by Stephen James Hall via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I was instantly suspicious. This looked like some sort of *gasp* SPORT.<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly, I knew how Andy felt every third Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Putting my fear of all things sports-related aside for the greater good, I attempted learning the oddity that is pickleball. Turns out, I wasn\u2019t really so bad. It\u2019s kind of like ping-pong on a larger scale. And I\u2019m happy to report one of the sports moms brought juice boxes and crackers, so I made it through a happy camper. And Andy earned his badge. He put it right next to his dog-eared copy of <em>Captain Underpants<\/em> (I think I know what we\u2019re reading next month).<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with\u00a07,428 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u201410,886 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane\u00a0 Wondering who &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/62910\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/62910\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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-62910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62910","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=62910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}