Iced Lemonade

I emailed a friend a few weeks back with some questions. We hadn’t talked for a while and the questions were rather pointed, not to mention the fact that she lives in Germany, so I anticipated there’d be some sort of lag between our time zones and her response times and such.

Instead, she emailed a pointed, warm, thoughtful reply that begin with this:

This will not be eloquent, but a mumble jumble of what’s been going on. Think of it as if we were sitting down for lemonade catching up.

I wasn’t surprised by her graciousness. She has always been full of grace. I wasn’t surprised by her goodness. She has always been so good. But, I was suprised by the power of her little sentence, “think of it as if we were sitting down for lemonade…” In that very moment, sitting on a plastic-covered chair in my own kitchen, the miles between us were immediately eliminated. Once again we were sitting on a park bench in the Colorado sun, watching our toddlers chase around the playground, side by side soaking each other up.

It’s incredible, the gift of catching up with old friends. And new friends. And children. And sisters. And mothers. Sitting and sipping. The power of conversation weaving in and around and through you, knitting you together with words, lifting your hearts and tying them into a sturdy bow.

My own mother was in town for mother’s day and we caught up Sunday afternoon over iced lemonade. The sun was high and hot. The children had created little pods of blankets around the front lawn, inviting us to sit upon whichever we desired. What I wanted to say was I desired to sit upon none of them and save myself the grass-covered laundry that was sure to follow such a scene. But, I smiled instead, kissed their well-meaning foreheads, and sniggled in next to my mama for a cold drink.

Praise and glory lemonade. Praise and glory good friends. Praise and glory moms on the front lawn. The End.

Iced Lemonade

laura

If you've got a high-powered VitaMix blender, you're just seconds away from an icy lemon smoothie that is as delicious as it is refreshing. If you don't have a VitaMix, you can recreate something similar by juicing your lemons first, then adding them to a regular blender with the remaining ingredients.

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Course Drinks

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• 7 whole lemons with rinds cut off
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 3 cups ice
• 1 cup water

Instructions

 

• Place the lemons, sugar, ice, and water into your Vitamix.
• With your blender on variable speed #1, begin blending. Quickly increase the speed then turn the blender to high. Blend until smooth.
• Serve immediately & enjoy, or pour into small plastic cups to make your own Iced Lemonade cups.

Keyword ICED LEMONADE