When Life Hands You Lemons...

As the saying goes, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."  Everyone has their "lemons" that life has handed them.  Of course some lemons are much worse than others.  One of my "lemons" in life is probably the military life.  Deployments, moving every 2-3 years, and being so far away from friends and family.  But the question I ask is, are lemons really so bad?  I like lemons!  I almost like them just as much as I like lemonade.  The lemons in our life are what make us strong.  They teach us lessons.  And without the lemons, we could never make lemonade.  At first taste of military life is may seem sour, but there are so many sweet things that have come with it.

So my lemon of a military life makes it quite impossible to have any sort of career.  I've been so blessed to be a stay at home mom but for some reason for me I've always felt a need to have a career of some sort just to supplement our income.  I've taught math here and there, but there is this creative side of me I've always wished I could do something with.  So this year when life handed me lemons I made Mom's Lemonade Stand, my little Etsy shop!  I make children's clothes and quilts.  It's my way to make use of my creativity and supplement my family's income while still being at home and moving so often to who knows where!  Check it out at www.etsy.com/shop/MomsLemonadeStand

Lately I've been using my Mom's Lemonade Stand facebook page for most of my sales so take a look and click the "like" button!

www.facebook.com/MomsLemonadeStand

What's in a name?  That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet" -Juliet (Rome and Juliet by Shakespeare)

I keep saying I will explain the name of my blog!  Well it came from my latest venture this year!  My Etsy store.  I was trying to think of a more catchy name, but then my son gave me all the inspiration I needed.  I had finished making a quilt and as usual I held it up for my husband to see.  My 7 year old son walked in and said, "mom, we should set up a lemonade stand for you so you can sell your quilts." Right then and there I had my name, Mom's Lemonade Stand.  It may not be the most catchy of names, but to me it has so much meaning behind it and came from my son's sweet little imagination...nothing could be better!  When it came to the name of this blog my friend helped me out with brainstorming and we came up with Sweet Homemade Lemonade.  I think the name lends itself to all the sweet things that may be products from our home.  Be it, sweet things that my kids do and make, crafts I want to share, or lessons from God.

By the way, these great photos were taken by my friend Sarah at www.saradipityphotos.com

Just one more thing...

The saying "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade" always reminds me of Paul when he said, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Phil 4:13.  Most people know that verse, but what about the verse before it.  Paul says in Phil 4:12, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in an and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."   Let us be aware to that Paul is writing this from prison.  Prison!  It's easy to see he had some huge lemons handed to him!  But he definitely took his lemons and made lemonade and how?  He says he figured it out.  He figured out the secret of how to take lemons and make lemonade.  He figured out the secret of how to be content in every situation and that is "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."  The key is to trust fully in Christ.  To focus on the blessings He has given you in life.  Focus on the lemonade and not the lemons.  Paul shows us this in verse 8 as he states, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."

Thanks for reading!  Now go make some lemonade!!

...Make Lemonade!

After my very close friend and I came up with the name of my blog, which I will explain soon, I realized that people just googling how to make lemonade at home may accidentally stumble upon my blog.  They would probably feel frustrated after finding posts about a pencil and a cardigan?!

Fortunately I just got a juicer!  So off to the grocery store we went for some lemons and sugar!  In order to welcome and/or hook those searching for a lemonade recipe...here it is....

Sweet Homemade Lemonade Juicer Recipe

Shopping List

* 1 cup of sugar (or more to taste)

* 4-6 Lemons

* 3-4 cups of cold water

* Ice

Directions:   

First get yourself a good juicer, some ripe
 lemons and a cute assistant!

DO peel off all the stickers...

Do NOT eat the lemons...

DO be silly :-)

It's a good idea to roll the lemon around first with pressure on the peel in order to get the most juice out of them.  

                                                Start peeling the lemons!       (There are some nifty things you can do with lemon peels like cleaning your tea kettle or coffee pot, deodorizing your garbage disposal, keep brown sugar soft, and even repel insects!) 

Place each lemon in the juicer and get all the juice you can!

In a pitcher, combine the water, sugar, lemon juice and ice.  Stir. 
Add more sugar if it tastes too bitter!  We did!


Lastly, share a glass of sweet, homemade lemonade with someone special!  Cheers!!

If anyone ever wants some suggestions in using juicing to get kids to eat veggies like spinach I've got other juicing recipes!  My picky kids drink it!

More about lemons next week!

The #2 Pencil

Like I said in my last post, the next few would, funny enough, involve the color yellow.  A happy color that I love.  Let me just say that I have always been fond of a good sharpened, pink eraser and all, no.2 pencil!

Remember in math class when you were told you MUST use a no. 2 pencil?  Many kids rolled their eyes at that, but not I.  Seeing as how my very favorite subject was math I was very happy when it was time to get out my no. 2 pencil.  Later on as a math teacher, I was very appreciative when my students followed my directions to use their no. 2 pencil.  Why must we use a pencil?  Because a pencil has this lovely little pink thing called an eraser!  It can hide all the mistakes.  Don't you wish we could have an eraser in life?  Yes, I may be a math nerd, but in many ways I think life is like a math problem and hopefully you are using your no. 2 pencil!  You are not meant to get through most long math problems quickly and without mistakes.  But the point is to learn along the way, erase and re do it correctly.  Same with life.  As long as you have your no. 2 pencil out in life, when you make a mistake, you learn where you went wrong and next time that same situation comes up, you erase the way you handled it last time and you re do it.  It may take several chances, but (as I tell my son when he does his homework) you have to erase well!  Mistakes are wonderful.  Mistakes are how we learn.  No one is perfect, but we all try to make it look that way.  It's okay if you see those little shreds of the eraser left behind or a tiny smudge of graphite that just would erase away!  

These days a no. 2 pencil has new meaning in my life.  My little family is a military family.  My husband is a helicopter pilot in the United States Navy.  A phrase that I say DAILY to my husband (who at this time is not deployed, thank the Lord) is "what do you have tomorrow?"  What I mean by that is do you have a flight?  How many flights?  What time do you brief?  What other tasks and meetings do you have?  When it comes down to it though all I want to know is....what time are you leaving in the morning and what time will you be home?  My husbands schedule day to day is not know until around 5 or 6 pm the night before.  Sometimes he has to fly at 5:45 am and sometimes he has a night flight and will leave for work at noon and not be home until 10pm.  Sometimes he even has to work all day on a saturday fixing a helicopter OR has watch all day sunday...that's the most difficult to accept.  Our lives have to be lived day by day.  It's nearly impossible to have any type of routine.  I have to constantly break appointments with people and offices and whenever I make an appointment I know there is a chance it will not work out.  As much as my husband wouldn't want to hear this, we cannot rely on him being there.  (Let me insert that we do however rely on his love and care which is more important).  So, awhile back I had to learn to write everything in my planner in pencil.  Things are always changing and being rearranged.  Even deployments change.  I've been getting to know the Navy since 1998.  When my husband, then boyfriend was on a 6 month deployment he was supposed to be home in the end of June.  I set up a surprise for him and bought him tickets to his favorite band, Dave Matthews in mid July.  I was in college and the tickets were expensive for me!  His return day kept getting moved by a few days until finally he came home July 30th, completely missing the concert.  That final month being told over and over again that it would be another week and another week, etc, it almost broke us up.  It was hard.  I'd love to say to you that I've gotten used to it, but it never gets easier.  With my second baby, on my due date I still didn't know where I would deliver her because we were supposed to move across the state within days.  In the end, we moved with my week old baby and lived in a hotel with a newborn, 3 year old and dog for weeks.  Can you imagine the city you live in when your baby is being born being PENCILED in your planner?

I have learned over and over again to use my no.2 pencil for everything in our lives.  But that is a lesson in itself.  I've accepted and learned to love my penciled in life.  If anything it has taught me to live life day by day.  Each morning God instructed the Israelites to wake up, go out of their tents and collect their manna.  Exodus 16:2 says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold , I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day.'"  There is a big lesson here, but to keep it simple God will give us everything we need to get through the day.  He is not limited by time or a schedule.  I have to live day to day.  I cannot be sure of what I am doing tomorrow.  I don't know if my husband will be home for me to make it to my hair appointment.  I don't know if he'll make it home to Brandon's baseball game so that I can take Allie to her soccer practice.  And even though God has me in this life where I have to move every couple of years and don't know a soul in a new city, He has a reason.  He's teaching me that I may not be able to rely on my husband and I may not have family or even a friend to depend on, YET I have God, and He is all I need each and everyday.  I can, without a doubt, write GOD in my planner in permanent marker.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 

Another BIG lesson I learned early on in this military journey is that age old saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  I'm very excited to dive into this one....see you soon!

The Yellow Cardigan

Growing up my favorite color was yellow.  My favorite car was a yellow mustang.  Everyone knew my favorite flowers were yellow sunflowers.  I had my bridesmaids wear yellow in my wedding and I held yellow roses in my bouquet.  The first color I painted our room after getting married was yellow.  To me, yellow meant happy.  Once I even met a woman who claimed that when she met a person she saw a color around them.  What do you think she said my color was?  Yellow.  A golden yellow to be exact.  Odd yes, but it made me smile.  

Then one day about 8 years ago, I got so sick of yellow.  I think I just started to see it everywhere and grew weary of it.  My favorite color now is blue.  Mainly because there are so many different types of blues.  I adore turquoise and navy blue and all the blues in between.  

This year however...Yellow and I made up.  I love it again.  Mainly a strong, bright, happy yellow.  Not sure exactly why.  Distance does make the heart grow fonder. 

Now, I don't know about you, but another love of mine is a good cardigan!  I live in Florida and to me a cardigan is something you can use all year round.  Even when it's 99 degrees out and super humid, you walk into a restaurant or store and they BLAST the AC, but my handy little cardigan is usually draped over my purse and I am once again comfortable.  In the winter, a cardigan is the perfect coat!  My husband thinks I have enough cardigans...but I don't...trust me I don't.  So, I've been on the lookout for the perfect yellow cardigan.  You wouldn't think it was that difficult would you?  Well, a good 10 months later, this past weekend, I finally found my perfect yellow cardigan!  I have found several in between, but it was either too cheap of a material, too mustardy or green of a tone, or too high of a sticker price!  I found this one at the Ann Taylor outlet for $34.00.  Worth the wait I think!  I plan on waiting to wear it on the weekend.  The options are endless for this sweet thing.  With cut off jean shorts, turquoise flip flops and a white tank top.  Or with my nice wide leg grey pin stripe pants and a floral blouse for church.  With my dark skinny jeans, brown rider boots, navy blue tee.  How about white skinny capris, heather grey tee, and my long bird cage necklace with the turquoise bird.  We'll see what I decide.  I was once told I couldn't pull off yellow, it wasn't my color.  Well, this cardigan makes me happy, and it's just gonna have to be my color now!

My next post will be about my Etsy store, what I hope to do with this blog, and some serious things I've learned as a military wife.  Funny thing is, they all involve the color yellow!!