Guess I'll Make Lemonade

My life is crazy busy right now. The kids are finishing up their last day of school, today actually. Summer program schedules are getting filled out and I have a deadline for a revision on Monday. Plus, this weekend also has a few events, my daughter’s birthday and it’s her year for a party (We let them have a b-day party on years they turn an even number), and a family reunion at my parents house that coincides with Memorial weekend.

After that I have a week break, kind of, because the following Saturday is going to be crazy. My son wanted to earn some money to buy his brother a bike that he could ride that costs around $400. See, his older brother has Autism and Fragile X Syndrome. He has sensory issues making it hard for him to balance a normal bike. He used to use training wheels but now that he is almost 12 years old, he is too big. Anyway back to what my other son is doing. I told him he didn’t need to buy the bike that his father and I were still saving to buy one. But he insisted the he wanted to work and earn the rest of the money so he could get it for him.

How could I tell him no? He’s almost 9 and wants to work, earn the money and not for his personal gain. I had to support him. He wanted to sell all his toys but his sister came up with a better idea, a lemonade stand. Here is the link to the post.

I posted the event on Facebook and sent a few invites out to my friends thinking it might get them ten or so customers. I never expected what would happen. It spread like wild fire. Those friends sent invites to other friends and then they passed it on. A newspaper contacted me and asked if they could run a story about the two’s lemonade stand for their brother. A valley magazine and local news station all called as well. As of today there has been over 1000 people invited to this juice stand and it still has a week until the event. That is a ton of lemonade.

This got me thinking about what kind of lemonade to make. I have an amazing recipe for one that looks like water. I love taking this to gatherings because everyone thinks its water until they take their first sip and it turns out to be sweet and lemony. Most of all addicting.

It reminded me of the old saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” I love those kinds of books that surprise you at the first chapter and you can’t put it down. That is how this drink is. You can’t just have one sip. You have to keep going even when your mind is telling you “Stop! Think of the calories.” Just like when you’re deep into the good read and it’s three in the morning but you just have to find out what happens next. That is when I know something is excellent and needs to be shared.

You will need:

• 5 gallon water cooler
• 8 cups sugar
• 4 tbls. lemon extract
• citric acid
• cold water
• ice

In 5 gallon water cooler add sugar and lemon extract. Add water ¾ the way to the top of cooler. Mix well with long spoon. Next add citric acid. This I do to taste starting at 4 tbls. If you like it stranger add a little more. Usually I use half the bottle. Stir. Finish by adding ice to the top off at 5 gallon mark to make it colder. Pour in a glass and enjoy.

This is another link to my blog, Writing My Chaos, that has a little video clip my son made to help explain how he feels about being the only child that doesn't have Fragile X Syndrome in his family.