Hey everyone! I'm back after over a month of inactivity. In the last blog, I had just received my merit badges and rank advancements that I had achieved over the summer at Camp Resica Falls in East Stroudsburg, PA. This time, I have pretty much completed my December deliverables for Dr. Swinehart. My deliverable was completing the merit badge workbook for Personal Management. The only reason I did not finish was because of two requirements. The first is Requirement 1c2: "Comparison shop for the item. Find out where you can buy the item for the best price." The second is Requirement 2a and 2b: "Prepare a budget reflecting your expected income (allowance, gifts, wages), expenses, and savings. Track and record your actual income, expenses, and savings for 13 consecutive weeks. (You may use the forms provided in this pamphlet, devise your own, or use a computer-generated version.) When complete, present the records showing the results to your merit badge counselor." I did not finish Requirement 1c2 because there was pretty much one website that had all of the information needed, and conveniently had one of the lowest prices for the item (a new car for my family). Requirement 2 was not completed because I need to track my income, expenses, etc. for thirteen consecutive weeks. I will be starting this coming week so it will take me to April 8, 2018. 

My next project is to start work on my Emergency Preparedness workbook. This merit badge is all about being ready to evacuate your house and keep everyone safe in case of an emergency. I think that the Wilderness First Aid course I took over the weekend of January 5-6, 2018 will help a lot in case anything happens to our house or my family and friends. In the course, the first thing they asked us was "What does wilderness mean to you?" All of the regular answers came out; forest and jungle, but then the instructors surprised us with the ECIS (Emergency Care and Safety Institute) definition: "Being in a place that is more than one hour away from definitive medical care." This can mean that your own house can technically be wilderness if you are snowed, flooded, or blocked off in any way that it would take an hour or more for EMTs to reach you.

I hope to be finished with this workbook by the end of January so that I can turn in a copy of it as my January deliverable. After that, I have February to do my Family Life workbook and the rest of the school year to work on my Eagle project and finish up the remaining requirements.

Thanks for reading!

Andrew