Let me just start out by saying… if you have never had homemade lemonade (and we’re talking from fresh squeezed lemons) you are missing out my friend! If all you’ve ever known of lemonade is CountryTime, you have my sympathies. I grew up with a lemon tree in our backyard and have fond (or perhaps only partially fond) memories of picking and juicing bag after bag of lemons for a Saturday work project. And, okay, although the labor may not be anyone’s favorite part, the reward is so worth it. So for those who have never had the experience, it’s time to be edumacated (uh… that’s Texan for ‘educated’) in the deliciousness of homemade lemonade.
To make fresh-squeezed lemonade, clearly you’re going to need some fresh lemons. We currently have two lemon trees in our yard, but both are pretty young and still in the ‘not really producing much yet’ phase (although we were actually able to use two lemons from our trees that had actually turned yellow and were ready for the pickin’! I cannot wait until these trees produce in large quantities!). Fortunately, however, we have some good friends with a mature lemon tree that produces lemons like crazy and they were kind enough to share some with us. (Thanks Browns!) 
So the process starts with picking the lemons, but since that was already done for us, we moved right on to the juicing phase. Cut the lemons in half and then juice, juice, juice those babies until they have no more juice left in them. (Note: an electric juicer is TONS of help when doing any substantial amount of juicing, although not necessary as you can read about below.)
Add child labor whenever possible.
Pour the collected juice into a jar…
and ta-da! You’ve got freshly squeezed lemon juice that is just BEGGING to be made into lemonade. 
(P.S. Just refrigerate or freeze any lemon juice that will not be used right away.)
Fresh Homemade Lemonade
Download Printable Version
Ingredients:
- 1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 cup sugar
- approximately 2 quarts of water
Directions:
- In a 2-quart pitcher, add your lemon juice and sugar.
- Add enough water and ice to make 2 quarts. Stir. Enjoy.
{Note: These amounts are based on personal preference. If you like your lemonade a bit more tangy, use more lemon juice. If you like it more diluted, use less. More sweet, more sugar… you get the idea. This is just a starting point. Also note that different types of lemons (or different levels of maturity) will produce different flavors. So depending on the type/maturity of lemon you’re using, you may end up varying your amounts as well.}
So here’s my funny lemon juicing story… just to keep life real: We have an electric juicer (as you can see from the pictures above), and I put it together to go ahead and use to juice all these lemons. I tried to juice the first lemon and it wouldn’t work. No motor noise, nothing. I’d only used it a few times before and couldn’t believe it was already broken! ‘Piece of junk’ I’m thinking to myself. So my girls and I juice all our lemons by hand. I disassemble the juicer, and then I remember we’ve got two lemons on our tree, so I run out to grab those to add to our spoils. I come back in and put the juicer back together, and this time I notice a little notch in the top that looks like it’s maybe supposed to line up with the seed catcher part. Hmmm… so I line them up, and badda-boom badda-bing, it works! I couldn’t believe we juiced all those lemons by hand due to my user error. (I seem to be pretty good at making extra work for myself based on user error.) DOH! Well, it was a good arm workout anyway.
Lettuce has quickly become my favorite thing to grow in the garden. It’s easy, it’s practical, it’s beautiful, it’s delicious, and there’s something totally satisfying about going to the garden and just picking your own salad for dinner (especially when you remember the price tag at the store for that same amount of produce!). I’d say that, by far, we’ve gotten the most bang for our buck with our lettuce crops. We put it to use much more than any other crop we’ve planted so far, which saves us a lot on our produce bill at the store! (Gotta love that!) So I guess it’s easy to see why this is one of my favorite things to see popping up in the garden each year (and no… that is not my garden pictured below–I WISH!).
Lettuce is mainly a cool weather crop–which I find interesting since I usually crave it most during the hot summer months when I want something light and refreshing to eat. But regardless, you want to plant it when your temperatures will be mild (generally between 45 to 75 degrees F, and most lettuce can even survive a light freeze). During the hot weather, lettuce tends to turn bitter and bolt (which means it sends up a flower stalk at the top, and basically it’s done growing). This happened to us this past summer, and the lettuce isn’t really salvageable at that point (unless you like eating bitter lettuce), so your best option is to just pull it up and replant when temperatures are cooler, or to plant in a location that receives more shade (particularly afternoon shade). You can also find lettuce varieties that are more resilient to heat and don’t bolt as quickly. {I’m thinking I’m definitely going to have to look into that this year!}
Planting: When planting lettuce, it’s fun to choose a variety. {Right now we’ve got about three different kinds growing, and the mix makes for a beautiful salad. I especially like the small amount of red romaine we’ve got included.} Prepare your soil by loosening the top 10 inches or so, and mix in some compost to the top layer.
You can plant lettuce by either broadcasting the seeds (which means you basically just sprinkle them all over your prepared garden soil area), or you can plant them in rows to a depth of about 1/4″ and spaced about 1″ apart. I like to plant in rows, but the seeds are so tiny that I don’t worry about how far apart they are spaced within that row. I just sprinkle them down the row and then, when they start growing, you can thin the plants out, if needed.
Tending: Lettuce does best when the soil is kept cool and moist. Water in the early mornings so that the leaves have time to dry during the day and you can avoid mildew and fungal problems that can come if the leaves are continually wet overnight.
Harvesting: One way to “thin” out your lettuce is to just start eating it! As the plants start growing and getting crowded together, just pick the outer leaves (new ones grow from the middle of the plant) and throw them into a salad and leave the rest to continue growing. There’s no need to let the whole plant grow to a certain point and then pull it out or cut it all together. Just harvesting the outer leaves allows for a continued growing process and you will enjoy your lettuce for a long, long time (or at least until the end of the growing season). Also note, that it’s often best to harvest in the mornings. This is especially true if your days get pretty warm as they move to the afternoons. The hotter temperatures will make the lettuce wilt in the afternoon hours and then it’s hard to get your lettuce to be crisp (even if you stick it in the fridge). However, if your temperatures are mild all day long, you can really harvest at any time during the day.
We’ve got a good amount of lettuce growing right now in our winter garden and it is doing pretty well (yes, that is lettuce from my garden pictured above). Granted… Houston’s “winter” isn’t exactly the same as the majority of the country. We don’t usually get to freezing temperatures until sometime in January/February, and even then, the periods of freeze are so short (generally only a few overnight hours) that crops can often make it through unharmed. {You hate me now, but trust me… you’ll be the one with the last laugh when I’m suffering through the miserable, humid, Houston summer heat with withered vegetables! }
We lost a fair amount of the crop over the Christmas holidays when we were on a 3-week vacation right during the time the lettuce was sprouting up and needing to be thinned… so we came home to a fairly tangled mess of mixed up and strangled lettuce leaves (not to mention the weeds!), but I was just impressed any survived at all! We were able to revive quite a bit of it by getting rid of the bad parts and giving the rest room to thrive and grow.
So anyway, we’ve been enjoying having a healthy salad dinner at least one or two times a week without having to buy any lettuce at the grocery store! It. is. SO. cool! I absolutely love it. If you’ve never planted lettuce, you have seriously GOT to try this. You will not regret that you did!
(And P.S. If you don’t have any garden space at your home, lettuce would do awesome in a small or decorative pot as well!)
Happy Gardening!
There’s nothing like starting the New Year off with a Grand Finale, eh? Begin with the end! (I’ve always been a little backwards in my life.)
Well, this project has definitely been a BIG one. I still have a long way to go in getting my folder all put together and completed, but maybe that will be another pseudo goal of mine for this year (there are so many!). It really would be nice to be able to just have all this information in one place, organized, and right at my fingertips.
{For those who are unaware as to what the Important Papers Folder is, click HERE for all previous posts, downloads, and information. There’s about seven other posts that take you through this process. }
So anyway, {drumroll} here are the FINAL FOUR sections of the Important Papers Folder (just click on each image to view/download/print it)…
- Section 11: Individual Family Member Information (have info for each member of your family)
- Section 12: Household Information
- Section 13: Home Property
- Section 14: Miscellaneous
And that’s it!! That’s all the sections! {Deep breaths. In. Out.} Now just remember… this book is (or will be) full of all your most important information for your family and home. That being said, you will want to keep it in a safe place where it could not be easily stolen or destroyed, but you also still want to be able to easily access it for the information you need. So choose it’s dwelling place wisely. Good luck with your project, everyone! And HAPPY FRIDAY!!
So, one of our family’s goals for this year is to read the Book of Mormon (one of the books of scripture in the LDS church). It was a challenge given to us by our Stake Presidency and we hope to fulfill it. It takes us a bit longer than most to 
get through the book though (since our girls’ attention span is quite low when it comes to sitting still for reading that doesn’t involve princesses ), so I’ve created this chart to help track our progress. {My chart was actually inspired by THIS one, but seeing as I don’t have a bunch of extra cash to drop on that sort of thing, I just made my own. }
Anyway, I of course wanted to share it with all of you in hopes it can be of use to some of you with your goals as well (click on the file name below to download it… it’s in PDF form). You can use stickers to mark off each chapter completed, or let your little ones color in each circle… whatever floats your boat. And hopefully this will help keep our kiddos motivated to sit still a little longer. Enjoy!
Download Here: Book of Mormon Reading Chart
