The Mergenthaler Family

Dislike: Lemonade Stands I think lemonade stands are obnoxious unless they are in conjunction with something like a family garage sale or an appropriate fundraiser . I'm not exactly sure what bothers me about them. Is it the fact that little children are not only talking to strangers but waving them down as they drive or jog by? Is it that they are begging for quarters? Is it the time I have to spend helping to set up a table, gather supplies, make lemonade, clean up, etc.? I'm not sure, but every time my children ask me to do a lemonade stand my answer is, "No." Then why did we have a lemonade stand set up in front of our house last week? The answer is another dislike of mine: persistent begging mixed with a little disrespect. When the children asked, and I said no, our little neighbor proceeded to give me reasons why they had to have a lemonade stand today and it would be easy. As annoyed as I was, I caved when they promised that they would do all of the work and...

A couple of months ago at dinner, Andrew asked "Where is Dad." I replied, "Oh, he had to stay at work tonight to get some things done. He'll probably be home at bed time." Andrew muttered to himself, "Busy, busy, busy. Work, work, work." I don't know where he learned that, but it made me laugh. Ever since then, when I am particularly busy running from task to task, I hear Andrew's little voice in my head repeating that phrase. I haven't been posting much lately not because there isn't much going on, but because I have been trying to keep up with all that is going on. Spring Thanks to some beautiful weather and very nice big sisters, Ricky has mastered his bike without training wheels. It sure took a long time--not because he couldn't catch on to the skill, but because we removed his training wheels right before winter. Last November, Ricky was begging to have the training wheels removed from his Spiderman bike. Dad helped him pract...