Monday goes Tuesday – When life hands you lemons

make lemonade, is an expression that always have irritated me. Something about that preppy upbeat tone have been ringing falsely in my ears for a long time. Even if I actually never have heard anyone say this line, only seen it in writing.
This is quite a lot coming from a born optimist that has through the years been irritating the heck out of others by her happy, positive outlook of life. Darn, when you are handed lemons you want to squeeze them and trow them at someone, not add sugar and make them into lemonade. Cause you have to add sugar or else no one will drink what you serve and then, what is the point of it? Not all downfalls are blessings in disguise, some are just shitty things happening to nice people. And some may even not turn out right in the end. Depending of course on what turning out right means to you.

Sitting here outside in the sun in a lovely garden having just finished a lovely chocolate cake (I know I am a bit boring when it comes to choosing cakes), it feels a bit odd talking about lemons and bad things. And just to not be misunderstood, I actually like lemons. I love drinking lemon juice in warm water in the morning, and lemons look really lovely in a lime colored green ceramic bowl on your dining room table. However this is a subject that has been brewing in me for some time. So my life lesson # 4 is going to be about when things go south. And they do, no matter how hard you try to avoid it. It is not that I don´t understand the underlying meaning of this lemonade expression, I do.
I probably have made my own fair share of lemonades in my life. But still sometimes things just go wrong and even though we are bombarded with advice on how to look for the lesson in it (look for the silver lining, make lemonade and so on), I am not so sure there is a lesson to be found in all lemonades. Some just might be lemons and nothing else.

Guess which of the the cakes I was indulging in when writing this blog post?

Let me give you a very mundane and stupid example. When I do the laundry and wash dark clothes (well it is the washing machine that does all the work), usually some of my husbands trousers are one of the items that goes into the machine. Every time, I repeat every time, when I empty the machine I have also forgotten to empty the pockets and what comes out is a snowfall of what used to be paper napkins. It takes me ages to clean it all up while grinding my teeth at the same time. Every time, I swear that the next time I will remember to check the pockets. What happens? Nothing. Next time I once again grind my teeth while cleaning up shredded paper snowfall from the washing machine, from all the clean clothes and from the bathroom floor. Honestly, I cannot for the love of my life find any lemonade here, not even a small cup. Lessons learned? None.

Lilacs and Hortensia’s are one of my favorite flowers along with lavender

When I got the fabulous idea of writing 51 life lessons once a week, as a fun way of celebrating me being here on this earth for 51 years, I was determined to write every week. I even wrote each lesson in my calendar in case I would forget about it. I did not forget, but I also did not follow through on my promise. Life happened, the evil twins got their claws on me and I just did not show up. I have been looking at my lemons but have not succeeded in finding any clues on how to make them into lemonade, so I will let them be lemons and try to show up with my fifth life lesson next week instead.

In Spring 2012  I was listening to a series of teleseminars where female entrepreneurs were talking about entrepreneurship and money from a variety of angles. One particular interview with Bari Tessler (now Tessler Linden) where she was revealing how she combined chocolate with book keeping, was so eye-opening that it eventually led to me and my biz partner Minna starting our Tea Salon concept in the Autumn that very same year.

So when Bari announced the possibility to join forces with her and her husband to help promote and spread the word about her book that is coming out in June called “The Art of Money” I knew I wanted to jump on board. I have only just started to read the electronic version of the book so I cannot really share any nuggets yet which actually bugs me. It is kind of a lemony thing because I had all these wild ideas on what would be cool to do, like interviewing Bari on Jewel & Gem, the podcast we have together with my friend Maria, writing blog posts where I share all my new insights. I also promised to share on social media and when Bari asked for feedback in the form of a short video I thought, Hell yeah! That I will do! Well I did not. So now I am secretly waiting to get another chance.

Guess what I really would love to do? To have some kind of a book club around this book where a bunch of people could meet regularly at a nice café sharing thoughts, ideas and maybe even new habits. But here I am one month in and I have barely started to read the first chapter, feeling almost reluctant to do it because then I know I have to go forth with my ideas. The thing is, that I am very much of an idea kind of person, but when it comes to implementing I need someone to do it with me.

So these particular lemons really need to be made into lemonade! And they need company or actually it is me who need the company. Ehem, would you like to be part of a book club around “The Art of Money”? I´d love it if you would.

Enjoying nature and enjoying brunch – guess which plate is mine?

I had the fortune of being able to see my Mum´s apple tree being in full bloom