Today my kids taught me how to make Lemonade. Here is the recipe:
Take an evening (about 25 degrees) in town with five hungry and crabby children. Make sure the baby is really fussy and ready to go home. Stop at the local power company (has to be in the remote outskirts of town, on a highway). Turn your fifteen passenger van off to pay the bill, so it won't overheat. I forgot to tell you to make sure the building is closed; no-one is there and you'll have to use the drop box. Now, after you pay the bill, jump back into the van with the children who, at this point, are quite vocal in their pleas to go home. Now comes the fun part. Attempt to start the van, but make sure it doesn't start. Make sure it is completely dead. Then hail down a kind passerby. Maybe he will jump start your car for you. After finding this good Samaritan, make sure your attempts to start the car are fruitless.
As one last favor, ask him if you can borrow his cell phone to call roadside assistance. The road side assistance crew will assure you that help will be on the way. And they will- in an hour and a half. The sun will go down and with that, a drastic drop intemperature.
Have on hand an eight year old who is not bothered by the delay. Hopefully, he will do as mine did and ask to play in the snow. Say Yes: "Yes!!!" He will say, "I thought for sure it would be a 'no,' but thought I would try!!"
Be thankful as you remember all the snow clothes, including boots/hats/gloves are in the trunk of the car. Invest the time to dress an excited two, three, and five year old for the snow. Here is where the lemons will become lemonade.....The children will sled happily right next to the parking lot for an hour and a half. You will have a chance to read a nice book tucked in your car, and there is even a loaf of bread to snack on in the trunk.
Yes, this is what happened to us this evening. I am so appreciative of all the people who helped us and thankful for the kids' positive attitudes. They really did have a great time sledding, and though we didn't end up getting home until eight o'clock (we were stranded at 4:30) , the car is now in the shop, and everyone is fed and tucked in for the night.
I will conclude this post with the delightful excerpt from the book I was reading(which I had just found at a thrift store). The book is called, Through The Kitchen Window, and here is the excerpt:
In Winter, the kitchen is the heart of the house. It is a living place. Kettles sing, pots simmer, pans bubble. Visitors come to sit in the kitchen, children use the kitchen table, to draw at, to paint at, model plasticine upon. And to help with the cooking. They hang about, waiting for bowls to lick out.
There is a chair for quiet reading, and waiting for this or that to be put in or taken out of the oven, to be ready, to be kneaded or turned or basted or stirred.
Beside the stove, cats purr with half-closed eyes. In winter, the kitchen is always warm, and, always, there are smells: of roasting meat and stewing soups, frying onions and baking bread,. There is the chop-chop-chop of the knife, through carrots and turnips and mounds of fresh leeks, and the rhytmic pulse of the electric beater. And, in the sudden silence after it has stopped, the ticking of the clock.
In winter, the kitchen windows are steamed over, and pin-men and names and smiling sunny faces are drawn across the panes with chubby fingers.
Outside, early dark, rain like a whip lash, gale and hail, rattling the latch, or ice, sealing it tight.
But inside, all is bright,warm, savoury, companionable. ~
Incidentally, that is just the kind of kitchen I grew up in and am trying to create for my own family. Hope you enjoy the Lemonade you make today!!!
