Make Lemonade

Listen to the podcast.

Which sentence best describes Carla's summer?

She had a problem but she had a good summer anyway.
She had a problem so she had a terrible summer.
She had a problem and it just got worse and worse.

Listen to the podcast again.
Try to finish the sentences.

1 It was a...............

Sunday morning
Sunday afternoon
Sunday evening

2 Dianne had been...................

home all summer
away in Vancouver
at her parent's cottage

3 Carla's husband Leo...................

got a new job
got fired
got laid off

4 Leo's company makes...................

car parts
machine parts
windows

5 Carla changed her job ......................

from temporary to permanent
from full time to part time
from part time to full time

6 They went camping........................

at a provincial park
near Ottawa
in the back yard

7 They went downtown for free...................

dinners
movies
clothing

8 Leo was teaching the children...................

how to swim
how to cook
how to paint

9 Carla had been wanting to lose..............

some money
some weight
some friends

10 Dianne was impressed by....................

Carla's family's new car
Carla's family's negative attitude
Carla's family's positive attitude

Listen again and try to fill in the missing words.

It was Sunday afternoon. Dianne was picking up a few groceries for the week when she ran into Carla. "How are you?" asked Carla, "I haven't seen you all summer!" "It has been a while, hasn't it!" said Dianne, We've been away at my parent's cottage for a few weeks. We just got back. How about you? How's your summer going?" Carla told Dianne that her husband, Leo, had been laid off in the spring so they had decided not to go away during their vacation. Like many people, they were going to have a 'stay-cation' instead. That means that they were going to stay home for their holiday. Leo works for a company that makes car parts. The company had been having difficulties because of the recession and had laid off over half of its workforce. Carla said that she and Leo had to be very careful with their money because they think that the company may soon close its doors for good. Then instead of being called back to work, Leo will be unemployed. "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that!" exclaimed Dianne. She was surprised to see that Carla looked so calm about it all. Carla smiled and said that things weren't going too badly after all. She had been able to change her work as a dental assistant from part time to full time. And when Carla and Leo told their three children that they were not going to go away for a holiday, they came up with all kinds of ideas for having fun close to home. They decided to camp out in the back yard when the weather was good. They visited all of the local parks and museums. They went cycling and hiking together. They bought a family pass to the community swimming pool and sometimes they went to the beach because it was only an hour away from their home. They went downtown for the free summer movies on Monday nights and they went to the free concerts in the park on Wednesday evenings. And for the first time in years, they had a wonderful vegetable garden because Leo had had time to plant and look after it. She said that Leo was teaching their children about growing their own food and that they were all becoming better cooks. Carla admitted that she was really enjoying coming home to meals prepared by her family. They had saved a lot of money by doing all of their own cooking instead of buying convenience foods and they had cut down on treats and junk food that they didn't need anyway. "We haven't been this healthy in years!" she laughed, "I finally lost the 20 pounds that I'd been wanting to shed." And she said that Leo loved spending more time with the kids. Carla also told Dianne that Leo was looking into going back to school and getting some retraining. She said that he was looking forward to doing something new. Dianne said that she was really impressed by Carla and her family's positive attitude. "Well, Dianne," said Carla, "You know what they say, 'When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!" In other words you can take what you have, like sour lemons and make something wonderful with it, like lemonade.