ABCDessert

Isaac had to work hard to get all the lemons squeezed, but it was totally worth it.  It was good lemonade. We are so ready for summer!  Maybe if we make enough Lemonade we can pretend it's not cold and rainy.  -H ---------------- I have a citrus juicer, but it's the kind that you have to squeeze, and neither Julie nor Spencer have big enough hands to really use it. Luckily a friend let us borrow her electric juicer. With the assistance of electricity, making lemonade was a lot of fun. Since simple syrup doesn't require very precise measurements, we let Julie do that part by herself. -L Printable recipe here

I don't always like English. It seems to be an adequate lingua franca , and Shakespeare did some pretty impressive things with it, but some days I don't enjoy English.  In true American style, it is the only language I speak, so I don't know if there is another language that I would prefer. What I do know is that the rules aren't really rules. For example "I before E except after C and when sounded like A as in neighbor or weigh" is a silly little rhyme that is completely useless when I'm trying to spell feisty - a word that is frequently relevant in my house. I've had more than one argument with a preschool aged feisty redhead about the fact that phone does not start with F and great begins with the same letter as giraffe (and that letter is not J.) Trying to explain what sound a vowel makes is an exercise in futility. Once, when Christopher was in preschool, I found him sitting at the table in tears. He wasn't quietly sniffling. He was loudl...

Strawberries are in season in Texas. We bought a bunch. The kids have been loving them. The best strawberries are fresh from our garden, but we only get a handful of those at a time. They are a perfect before bed snack. For recipes that involve lots sugar and plenty of cooking time we use store bought strawberries. Julie has been hopping around the house saying "strawberries" for days. She also has utterly refused to wear clothes. She screams and shouts and kicks and thrashes while I get her dressed and then immediately removes all of her clothing as soon as she can. I've decided this is not a battle I'm willing to fight, so she spends most of the day in just a diaper. (I am willing to fight with her to keep a diaper on. I hate cleaning the carpet.) But when I said it was time to get out the strawberries and make jam she ran into the kitchen, grabbed her apron, and said "Put it on Mom." I did not make her ask twice. In addition to convincing Julie to ge...