tea time

In 2005, my sister-in-law Lisa gave me a jar of Aveda Loose Tea. If you've ever had that tea, you know it is amazing and definitely adds to the whole haircut experience. That gift made for a lovely year of cozy drinks.

But it turns out, like a good haircut, that tea was expensive. So when my friend Annie posted on her blog that she had read the ingredients in the Aveda Tea and went to search for its knock-off, I was thrilled. Thank you Annie for being so diligent. She found it! And it's called Yogi Egyptian Licorice Mint Tea. However, it isn't at any of my local stores and apparently she has only been able to find it on Amazon (linked above). But I found something really close at Cub Foods, just without the mint and, as it turns out, I LOVE the stuff without the mint too. Don't be scared of the "licorice" part. It doesn't taste like licorice. It's sweet and an absolute personal favorite.

My other longtime favorite is Harney and Sons African Autumn. I had my first cup at a women's event while talking to my friend Heather. We both had a cup and couldn't carry on a conversation to save our lives because we kept saying, "wow! this tea is awesome. what is this? did you try this one? get the can. what is in it? what is a red bush? ah, cranberry and orange. no wonder we love it." This is my old faithful.  It never disappoints.

And then just last night, while out with friends, I got a cup of Harney and Sons Decaf Hot Cinnamon and loved it. Loved, loved, loved it. And I've been thinking about it so much that it resulted in this blog post on teas that I love. It's another great, sweet-tasting tea that sort of feels like a sugar treat, without actually being one.

These are my top three. I'm realizing now that I tend to not like the really earthy teas. Based on the three teas above, I think I'm basically looking for a sugar drink in a hot tea. If you have more of this sort of tea to add to the mix, I'd love to know!

burgundy

Well red is tricky. We all know this. I have painted the past two nights, after the kids went to bed, late into the night. The first night our living room walls felt sort of pink. But we didn't worry too much because you can never tell anything from the first coat. The next night I painted the second coat and it went on nicely and darkened up quite a bit, but it was night and I was painting by the glow of one light fixture. It was hard to say if we liked the color or not.

Thursday morning we walked down the stairs, looked around and Rory said, "burgundy. it's definitely burgundy. ron burgundy."

If we had been going for burgundy it would have been no problem, but that wasn't what we were going for. The walls are too purple and we were going for more of a warm red/clay/brick color. We have spent the day painting swatches over our burgundy, hopeful to find the perfect color. Because we are not going to give up. The color is out there. But is it Grand Canyon Red? Rich Chestnut? Terra Cotta Tile? Mars Red? Mexicana? Hot Apple Spice? Country Redwood? These are the deep conversations we are having at our house this weekend.

I'll keep you posted. We're confident the perfect color is out there!

it's tree tapping time!

We can hardly believe it is already time. The past two years we haven't tapped our maple trees until mid March, but here we are, end of February and the sap is flowing. Rory is trying something new this year, using tubes and five gallon buckets. He's excited not to have to empty the bags each day and pour them into the buckets. In theory, he should be able to simply replace the bucket when it gets almost full with an empty bucket. 

Ivar is quite the helper and stuck with his dad the whole time, even though it was very windy and chilly. Hattie and I were out for about as long as it took to take this picture. She was not a fan, even though she was adorable in her little peek-a-roo. Elsie lasted a bit longer but came in the house crying that she was cold and wanted to read books on the couch with me and Hattie. 

I am growing more convinced we were created to live on an agrarian calendar. Having annual traditions tied to the time of year always feels so, so right. It was fun to be out and seizing the day, watching Rory putter with buckets and hoses and for all of us to be getting a little vitamin D. I believe spring fever has hit the grovestead.

Here are pics from tapping our trees in 2013 and our how to,  2014 and the trip that got it all started...

sweet mara

My sweet niece, Mara, called yesterday and told me she is home from school again still fighting a fever. She was feeling very discouraged and disappointed because today her entire 5th grade is going on a field trip to go down hill skiing. And she's going to miss it because she's sick.

I'd like to pause right here and put on my old aunt hat for a moment. When I was a kid we took field trips to thrilling places like the county courthouse. Down hill skiing?!! My oh my, how things have changed. It was Mara's own mother who had to be picked up from her field trip at the Pickle Factory because the fumes made her puke.

Back to Mara. I just love this girl to pieces. And being that she is home in bed today, feeling sad to be missing out, I thought I'd leave her a little blog love.

Mara was born when I was a student at the seminary and she lived just 20 minutes away from me. Now there is something very, very special that happens when your sister has a baby. Because of the closeness of sisters, that first baby born between the two of you is basically your shared child. Of course your older sister doesn't quite see it this way, but the younger sister absolutely does. I loved Mara like my own and spent every minute I could with her. When she was one year old, Rory and I drove with her and her folks in a big moving truck out to Montana where she lived for five years. And I missed her so much that we decided to move out there for a while too.

Now she lives just an hour away and I still soak up every single minute with her. She is a very bright and intelligent girl. And she loves to write! She will send us her stories and it is such a joy to read all that is in her imagination. Writing has been such a gift for me, such a fun outlet for my thoughts and feelings, and I'm so pleased that she processes life this way too.

She is amazing with my kids and loves to hold and feed Hattie. She enjoys running and has become quite the soccer player. And she ice skates. And she does gymnastics. And she has a lovely singing voice. She's quite impressive all around. I love this girl with my whole heart and have enjoyed every age, watching her use all the gifts God has given to her.

We love you Mara! We will be praying for you to feel better very soon!

(Late last night I got a text that Mara has Pnemonia. So keep her in your prayers. Her cough sounds awful and even with a day of antibiotics she still has a high fever. She sent me texts from the doctor's office keeping me in the loop, and I sent her pictures of my living room that we are painting Girard Red. I loved it in that house and Rory was the one who picked it for this one. It's going to be awesome. Off to paint coat #2!)

a cheerful giver

Last night, after the hot chocolate stand I overheard Rory talking to Ivar. He asked Ivar to give a bit of his earnings to Elsie, since she was helpful in sitting with him the whole hour. And then Ivar came over to me and Elsie and said, "Elsie, this is five dollars for helping me." He was a little hesitant to do it, but I complimented him for doing something because it was simply the right thing to do.

Later on Rory talked to Ivar about tithing and giving a portion of his hot chocolate money back to God. Rory read from the Bible, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly, for God loves a cheerful giver" and explained to Ivar that he should give whatever amount he wanted, back to God. He shared how God loves when we honor him with our gifts because God is the giver of all good gifts and loves to give to his children. He told Ivar about God's floodgates, ready to burst open and pour out blessing when we give to God. God says in the Bible, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgate of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."

There was a part of me that thought this was all a bit too complex for Ivar to wrap his head around. These are some big kingdom themes for a five-year-old. But Ivar was taking it very seriously, thinking really hard about how much he wanted to give back to God. And I started to see the importance of having him wrestle with this "giving back to God" concept at a young age...because it doesn't get any easier when we get older to begin. But the blessing is there and waiting for all who give, and once you experience this truth, it actually does get easier. I want him to know this early on. It's the greatest foundational truth of money management: tithing, first fruits, cheerful giving. I could see his conflict in his head; wanting to keep it all, but also wanting to test God's promise.

I was upstairs when he landed on his number. He had earned 26 dollars, given five to Elsie and came to tell me with great joy, "I'm going to give God SIX of my dollars! And God's gonna open the floodgates!" He had come to that number on his own and was pleased and happy about his decision.

Rory got him an envelope and they put six dollars in it for the offering on Sunday. And Ivar remained joyful and excited the whole time.

Today we called my dad to tell him how the hot chocolate stand went and Ivar told him, "I gave five dollars to Elsie and gave God six dollars for a floodgate!" When I took the phone back I explained to my dad what we were trying to instill in Ivar's heart. Dad told me that when he and my mom were first married he made $3200 that entire year, working at a church. He said, "we tithed on every paycheck and somehow managed not only to pay every bill that came in, but we had money in savings at the end of the year! Try to explain that!" We talked about the mystery of tithing, how it goes against our mortal minds, but somehow this is truly how money works in the kingdom. God loves to give back to cheerful givers.

Then I told Dad how this morning I heard Ivar and Elsie talking in the bathroom, "Elsie, do you want to give your money to God too? Then you'll get your own floodgate!"