Elliot's lemonade stand.

Elliot has been desperate to have a lemonade stand, ever since we stopped at one earlier this summer.

We obliged and facilitated. With 2 looming and dark caveats.

#1) she had to make and sell her own products with as little adult help as we could get away with. NO store package of cookies or carton of Newman's limeade.

#2) she had to work and hustle her booth. Solo. Mama would not be an employee of the stand.

Hard work. And reward. She was also told that she could decide how to spend the money. If she works to earn, she can decide how to spend. (easy to say because we thought she only make a few dollars to blow on candy and a juice box)

Game on, sister.



She made an easy sugar cookie recipe that I found for her. Mama directed and did oven duty. But little lulu has moves in the kitchen. Colored sugar was the best part.

She spent a week posing with her table and chair to get the feel of free enterprise.

"do I look like a real lemonade stand girl, mom?". A thousand times a day.

She also used cloth napkins to practise picking up cookies with touching with her fingers. Because that is a gross violation of safe food handling.




Oh. And sister hustled. She sang charming ditties. She flagged over cars and blocked in oncoming bikers and runners. She upsold and made package deals for bulk buyers.

She also gave her mean face to cars that raced by without pausing.

She worked in the sun for hours until a gallon of pink lemonade and 2 dozen cookies found new homes.

And the financial rewards? What pittance did she scrounge together for a trip to the candy store? Oh you wonder.

She made more than I made at my first job. Nearly $10 an hour. Candy store plans got scrubbed because there were some Star Wars action figures just calling to her. Luke now has all his buddies...and a Darth Vader to boot.

PreChristmas 2010: the run down

Gingerbread Houses, 1st Annual event.

Izaak makes Elliot's house.  She takes over to start the decorating.  Izaak starts on the next house. 

 And JJ is diligently working on her own masterpiece.  And what is up with the random banana in these photos? 

Elliot dismantles house and takes a bite out of each candy and cookie. 

Big mess.  Lots of fun. 

Another PreChristmas event was when JJ and I went thrift storing...searching for bad Christmas sweaters. I know it's the new cliche.  But it is so terribly funny. I don't want to give too much away...but let me say this much.  Izaak has been growing a moustache.  There are some bad sweaters ready and waiting. 


Here is the pre show.

when suddenly it dawned on the mother, this would not be a good year to send Christmas cards.

Well, I am sorry to say that on the 20th of December I am giving up and acknowledging that this is not a good year for Christmas cards, photo cards, letters or anything of the sort. 

My reasons number as many as the stars...shall I count them? 

1. Law school applications/paperwork/form chaos is just cleaned up and both of our hands have prema-cramp. 
2. Henry themed birth announcements are still eeking thier way out of our mailbox at a snail's pace. (Elliot's were much easier to send because there was no 3 year old trying to help me:) 
3. We're a wee bit tired after this last semester
4. The Christmas spirit is trying hard to raly through the bah-humbug crappy stuff that keeps happening...a tenant skipped out mid-lease on Dec 1st, It was brought to my attention (Kristen) that the bit of discomfort I have been having may require surgery (test results pending).  If the rule of three's applies we don't want to know what else could happen. 
5. Has anyone tried to snap a picture of small children that was worthy of a photocard?  Sit still?  Henry can't at all, Elliot won't even bother.  The lurching, the falling, the sheer boredom after 1 minute. 

I thought about just sending out new year's cards, so that I could have a few more weeks.  But you know what?  I think we're just going to call it good for this year and scrub the whole thing.

Thoughts on housekeeping

Housekeeping is a funny thing to do.  Especially with a 3 year old whirling dervish that loves to help with chores.  Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t just hold off a couple of years and give it a go then.

popcorn is never a tidy snack.

I really like the articles by Leila that talk about a reasonably clean house. Hum.  That phrase reasonably clean has rung through my head since I first read it.  A perfectly clean house is not practical.  More so, I think, because our house is negative 600 square feet big. 

Thought I would randomly pepper this post with pictures of some projects that Izaak & Elliot have worked on - a castle

There is no space that is child-toy free.  I do not have a dedicated playroom to help manage her things.  I do not have a formal living room to keep perfectly clean as a refuge from all the living that we do.  In cleaning and tidying the house, Elliot follows behind me playing duplos and getting out markers and…before you know it I need to start all over again.  

A dog chasing its own tail. 

A perfectly clean house (with little ones, and small spaces) is not attainable.  So, I like the idea of a reasonably clean house.   I have a dear aunt who said to me once that clean doesn’t have a  smell.  Yah, that stuck with me too.  Clean doesn’t smell like expensive scented candles, plug-ins, or chemical pine.  Clean is just fresh air.

Elliot can do awesome things with glitter glue and wiggly eyes, right?

As an aside, I have for over three years now, made all my own cleaners.  I got this book from the library about the time that Elliot was born.  Changed my pine-sol-bleaching-409 housekeeping to a something else entirely.  (And thankfully, because this was before we were fully aware of her skin issues...she, as it turns out, is super chemical sensitive)  That all to say that sometimes there are whiffs of tea tree, clove, or mint in the air.  All from essential oils . (not just perfumes.  Eo's have antibacterial properties, ya'know.)

Why I am talking about all this now?  Well, I was pondering how much calmer I am when my house was clean and tidy...and how being reasonably clean might just mean different things to everyone else.   That to me, it feels nice and calm with a little tidying and vacuuming.  I am also and perhaps foremost a fan of a place for everything, and everything in its place.  That if I had one housekeeping rule that would be it.  No matter how messy life gets, there is always the possibility that everything can be put away somewhere.  (And, if company is expected, it can be put away very quickly.)

So. Ramble ramble ramble.  Happy pre-thanksgiving