Mistakes and Lemonade

Sometime last year I changed the name of my blog. I felt that “Making Lemonade” illustrated the daily attempt our family makes to turn challenges into something sweet. Some days the lemonade turns out sweet, others, more on the sour side.

Yesterday, on the last day of the decade, I made parenting mistake 55,498 of my parenting career. I’m not proud of my mistake, but I had to document it because I learned from it.

(Oh. And it had to do with lemons.)

We have a great little lemon tree in our backyard. I love it. I love to send the kids outside to pick a fresh lemon for a meal I’m preparing. It makes me feel so fresh and organic.

We used up the last of our lemons towards the end of summer, but I’ve been watching the new ones develop and looking forward to a tree full of bright yellow lemons.

Apparently Ashlynn has been eyeing those lemons, as well, because she walked in with a huge salad bowl full of half ripe lemons, proudly showing her harvest. She had picked the tree almost bare, and every lemon in the bowl was half green.

So what did I do? Instead of processing the pleased look on her face, I cringed at the thought of an entire crop of lemons wasted.

As soon as her little face fell, the Mommy guilt set in as mistake 55, 498 registered to me. Why did I care more about my lemons than my one and only daughter’s feelings?

I started back- pedaling as she started asking what she did wrong. I immediately apologized and tried to distract her with the prospect of making a big batch of freshly squeezed lemonade. This helped some, because who doesn’t like to use an electric juicer?

Because I had just done a number on her self esteem, there was some smoothing over that had to be done once we were in the kitchen and she realized that she hadn’t picked one solid yellow lemon. However, once her pile of lemons started growing, she seemed to forget all about the child abuse that had just occurred (please note the self deprecating sarcasm).

I learned a few lessons yesterday. I’m not sure that I can even put into words what those lessons were. But I know that next time my daughter presents me with something, I’m going to look at her face and try and think about what she thinks she is presenting to me.

I also had some really good lemonade. Maybe half green lemons make the best juice after all. Maybe it’s the three cups of sugar that was added.

Maybe as parents we are always going to be half green. But I have plenty of sugar in my pantry to make up for that greenness.

Here's to a whole new decade filled with parenting mistakes and Lemonade.

Christmas 2009

Twas the night before Christmas...

and the kids are wild as usual.



We did some Christmas crackers.



The morning pursuit of gifts. Looks who's first.



Building an airplane with Daddy.



Checking out the new LEGO set.



And modeling the new outfit Santa brought


New video games...



And new shirts from Nana and Papa.


And later that day we went to Uncle Marky's house for some Christmas dinner ... and Super Mario Bros. Wii...



Grandma and Grandpa were there and took the kids to their house for the rest of the weekend, while Brian and I got to return home for a weekend to ourselves.

A clean and quiet house. That's how I say Merry Christmas. We ran errands Saturday, getting accessories for our new iphones, went to see Sherlock Holmes and then went out to dinner. Church the next day was weird. I didn't quite know what to do with myself in the morning. Brian was gone for meetings as usual and I had only myself to get ready for church. Odd but refreshing.

By Monday, we missed the kids and were ready to meet Grandpa halfway to get them. They had all of their Christmas toys to discover and enjoy.

It's going to be a rainy day today. Hopefully those toys will keep them entertained most of the day.

Last Week's Cousin's Camp

Last week we got to host Cousin's Camp at our house.



We celebrated Gehrig's birthday.(A riddle: What do you get when you have five kids and a high concentration of boys and 8 year olds? Potty talk, and lots of it!)


Went to the beach in San Simeon where we ate a snack, watched surfers and hunted rocks.

After the beach we went to Hearst castle to watch the Imax movie and see the free exhibit. We did not go on a tour beacause 5 kids + 1 adult does not equal fun at Hearst Castle!
I also did not get any pictures while we were there because it took all the concentration I had just to keep the kids together, let alone pose them for a picture!



We also decorated gingerbread houses.

After that, Amanda and I wore the kids out by walking them all over CalPoly to see the horse unit, ice cream from the Campus Market and a little tour of Fisher Science building to see the science displays.

Thanks for a fun weekend, kids!

Merry Christmas

Wouldn't it be great to have Christmas at Hogwarts?

I admit that I'm a Potter Head, and I've turned my daughter into one, as well.

I just love the descriptions of Christmastime at the castle. I would love to spend Christmas where there is snow outside, lights floating in the Great Hall, feasts that magically appear before you and a hand knit sweater from Mrs. Weasly.

Here's to a magical Christmas wherever you are.

(Have you heard about the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando Florida they are working on? Did I mention I'm a Potter Head?)

Super Powers

I'm on the tail end of what I'm hoping is just a 24 hour flu bug. I will whole heartedly admit I don't make a good sick person. When I'm nauseous I'm miserable. And I'm sure that I whine a lot.

So last night as I was curled up in bed, trying to keep my clothes and the blankets from touching me because my skin hurt, Brian was folding laundry on the bed, trying to keep me company. He commented that the clothes were much more static-ee than normal. I should mention, before I get to this next part, that when I'm sick, I'm a little punchy.

The first thought that popped into my head was, "Maybe I'm getting super powers!"

That's right. A little bit of a leap. I jumped right over the obvious explanation of "weather patterns" and went straight to the realm of science fiction ("The influx of powers coursing into my body is causing the unusually high amount of static electricity in the air!!)

Why not. I felt like crap and this was helping.

Who wouldn't sacrifice 24 hours of nauseousness for some superpowers?

Then to further divert my attention from my fever, I launched into a brainstorming session of what super powers I would want to become a Super Mom. I know that most super heroes only have one main power, but moms are supposed to be able to multi-task, so I want a whole range of super powers.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1. I would require only a few short hours of sleep. (I tried for no sleep, but Brian interjected that I would want some down time with him.)

2. I would have a deep love for cleaning and organizing along with a great motivation to do so.

3. I would always be patient and never have the desire to lose my temper with my kids or slow people.

4. I would have an extremely fast metabolism that would make it almost necessary to indulge regularly in chocolate.
(side bar: as I'm brainstorming these outlandish and recognizably make-believe powers, Brian is of course giving his practical opinion on these matters. Things like, "Well you wouldn't need a high metabolism because you won't be requiring much sleep, so you can get up early and exercise..." Oh, Brian. You don't get it, do you?)

5. I would be able to point to any recipe and VOILA! it would be prepared faster than you can say, "Martha has a whole staff that does that for her!". No shopping. No prep time. No clean up.

6. I would be able to stop time any time I wanted to.

Now this brought the converstations to a grinding halt, because I have always fantasized about this super power. Who hasn't. (Remember that Saturday morning show "Out of this World" where Evie is half alien and can stop time?) And it really made me think. If I had this one superpower, would I really need all the rest? Of course Brian had some practical bankers advice about this, but I decided I needed to come to my own conclusions about this one.

Which was:

7. No doing laundry. Ever.

What super powers would you like?

the picture is two of my little super heroes with their Super Nana

Times Tables

Anybody have any good tips about how to teach kids their multiplication facts?

I've got an eight year old girl right now who refuses to even try and memorize them. She keeps thinking she can use her fingers, which means she either doesn't get it or she thinks she has all the time in the world.

I think classic flash cards are the best way to go, but she is being so stubborn and won't even try to cooperate with us. The second we say it's time to do flash cards, she starts crying and blocks out everything we say.

GRRRRRRRR!

So maybe I should rephrase my question...

Anybody have any good tips about how to deal with a stubborn eight year old?

What Came First? Santa or the Bird?

I'm finally getting around to posting about Thanksgiving, so my holiday's got a little flipped in the blogosphere.

My apologies.

We had a great Thanksgiving at my parents. We have done turkey dinner with my mom's family for as long as I can remember. Now it's fun to pass the tradition on to the next generation.



The cousins had a great time together. These two boys just went from one game to the next and one creative activity to the next. "We should all be so lucky as to have children who entertain themselves as well Briggs and Gehrig!" (please read in a very Eastern European Jewish accent).



There were gingerbread houses for the kids to make. Nana always likes to have a craft for the kids. Here's Natalee with her gingerbread Chalet!



Lots of family to love.



Yes. We did hoist our child up on the roof. But how else are you supposed to get the ball down?



There are always family group shots to be taken in front of the orange tree.



And a little goofing around.



We did eventually eat our gingerbread houses...

The next day we went to the Exploratorium in San Fransisco. It was the best place for Ty because he could touch everything and push every button he saw.



...and he did.



I love this one of Briggs. He is concentrating on following his stream of consciousness. Very Zen.



All of that button pushing made the kids a little tired by the time we made it to the Golden Gate Bridge.





The cold wind finally woke up the brothers, though.



I can't forget the special Luigi bed Nana made for Ty. He was very excited.