Jessica

My ten year old has quite the head for business.  At a young age, he started peddling rocks in his red wagon.  By kindergarten, he had set up a stand to sell fresh eggs from our chickens.  Last summer he went door to door selling bundles of kale, spinach, and lettuce from the garden.  During the spring, he taught an art class to 20+ children and was delighted to watch his bank account grow.

He'd been drawing up and dreaming about an amped up lemonade stand for a few years.  Making do in the past with kitchen stools or a board laid across tree stumps, this year he decided he was ready to go pro.  Using his savings, we took a trip to the local price club.  He invested in a small snow cone machine, a good starting stock of bulk candy to sell, and of course, the quintessential can of lemonade powder.  

Using scrap lumber we already had on hand, he worked with dad to build a wooden table, skirted with scrap from an old Pinewood Derby track.  He and his eight-year-old brother worked together to sand everything smooth.  When the electric sander broke, they wore their knuckles down sanding the rest by hand.  What determined young men!  All four of my children painted the stand with a little help from me.  Let me tell you, it's an exercise in patience to bite your tongue, stand back, and let the paint fly.  Thank goodness for large drop cloths.  

After drying overnight, my husband screwed in wheeling casters and it was ready to be set up in the front yard.  Glass jars from my sewing table and laundry room were swiped and filled with candy to sell.  Lemonade was mixed up and iced.  We boiled cups and cups of sugar to make flavored syrups for the snow cones, and finally they were ready for business.

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the kind of people who stop for children selling things on road sides.  I always try to keep spare quarters in the cup holders of our car for just such a purpose.  The delight on my children's faces when even our postal worker leaned out the window to buy some licorice whips was absolutely priceless!

Find more balance with Jessica at www.balancingeverything.com/.