Fun Friday - Lemonade out of Lemons

[Amanda Barber]

Happy Fun Friday everyone!

As a former teacher of little kiddos, Fridays have always included a bit of fun for me. I'm glad to continue the tradition here!

I had different plans for my first post, but this week took a bit of a turn so I thought I'd change things up. Also, note: I'm attempting to write and edit this on my phone so pardon the formatting!

I'm traveling this week with my family. We went out to Washington DC to do some exploring. We were all packed up and set to leave on Wednesday when our flight was canceled due to bad ice back home. Everyone else was feeling pretty glum, but I truly felt excited to have one more day here! The best part? We'd now get to be here for record high temps for this time of year. 

With our extra 36 hours, we dodged rain drops by checking out the new Ant-Man movie and checked out what unique items the local Costco has (so any more seafood and Asian options than ours!), found a few more blooming cherry blossom trees, and even revisited a favorite restaurant from our first day here. 

Today's beautiful weather allowed us to check out Arlington Cemetery and enjoy a meal al fresco before heading to the airport. I'm thankful for the extra time we had here and grateful I was able to enjoy the lemonade from the lemons we were given this week. 

Have you made lemonade from lemons recently?

[Jimmy Seddon]

@Amanda Barber your formatting looks perfectly fine!  I wish I had the patience and skills to do that from my phone.

This post comes at a very fitting time for me as well.  Yesterday, was my wife's birthday.  We had plans to take the day off (just the two of us) while the kids are at school/daycare and we would head out for lunch among other things.

However, with the weather that rolled in, schools and daycare were closed so we ended up spending the day as a family hunkering down inside away from the cold.

We still had a great time even if it wasn't the original plan.

I hope you have a safe flight back!

[Amanda Barber]

Happy birthday to your wife, @Jimmy Seddon - that sounds like one of those initially disappointing days to me, but in the end sounds kind of lovely to hunker down. I think that all depends on how old my kiddos were at the time though, ha! We recently celebrated my husband's birthday in a similar way and it was kind of lovely to watch movies all day and stay snuggled in at home. Winter birthdays can be a bummer!

[Brant Schroeder]

@Amanda Barber I think we have the opportunity to do this every single day.  Often times it is just small adjustments or changes in our actions that make it better for us and others.   I think being a littler more forgiving, patient, helpful or changing our attitude is what really shapes less than ideal situations.   

[Dave Mathijs]

Great first Friday Fun article @Amanda Barber , well done, looking forward to the next ones.

Would you believe I've never done this in my entire life?

[Amanda Barber]

You've never had to flip a bad experience to good, @Dave Mathijs

That's amazing! As @Brant Schroeder mentioned above - I almost wonder if some of us are doing this every day without even realizing it. Forever optimists! :)

[Andy Gladstone]

@Amanda Barber great post. I had a situation this morning that made me think of this post. It has not snowed all winter in NYC and there was a storm 'predicted' to drop 5-8 inches of snow overnight. The kids went to sleep excited about the prospect of a snow day, no school, and staying home alternating between playing in the snow and warming up inside with books and hot cocoa. There were flurries in the evening and the house went to sleep with dreams of snow banks in the morning...

As usual, the false prophets we call weathermen predicted wrong and there was about 1/2 inch of snow. The kids were up at 6:30AM hoping for fun and looked out the windows and got dressed for school instead. 

Here is where the resiliency of children and their ability to make lemonade from lemons shines. No complaining, no begging to stay home anyway. Instead they put on their coats and took brushes to go clean all of the cars on the block. The small mounds of snow they pulled off the cars became snowballs and mini snowmen. They played for an hour, came in with pink cheeks for some breakfast (and hot cocoa) and were on their way to school. They had fun, and drank up every last drop of the lemonade they mixed!

[Amanda Barber]

Oooh, I love that story @Andy Gladstone - wish I could send them some of the snow we've gotten in Wisconsin! ;) 

Stories like that make me miss teaching Kindergarten -- their resilience turned every lemon into lemonade! It was the best part of teaching little kiddos - you could practically see the gears working in their little minds - processing, learning, and growing. 

Thank you for sharing! 🍋