Friday Favorites!

Happy Boxing Day!

No we don't exactly celebrate that here in the JZ Parsonage, but we do so more than the time my family was traveling throughout the UK & tried to get on a train on Boxing Day. Thank you uneducated travel agent for booking that reservation! We ended up taking a very long & crowded bus ride to get to our next destination.

Christmas 2014 was a joyous easy going day with lots of fun, good food, & crazy dogs. Yes, our sweet little MG has a stogie in her mouth in this photo. Thank you to the Ruff Life Pet Outfitters in Petoskey!

The scarf I'm wearing is a consecration gift & yes, that's an embroidered "N" on it. Fun & quirky indeed!

May your holiday travels & celebrations continue in good fortune as we let 2014 wind down to an end.

Tuesday Tea Time!

GOOD morning!

Christmas time is near (thank you Charles Schultz & your peanuts specials for the tune). If I thought the mind of others & my own were a flurry of thoughts & emotions before, somebody has increased the volume.

Increased volume & a flurry is a stereotype of how we are to live this time of year. But why the rush? Why the increased "to do" list? Why the stress?

When I talked about about leadership under the "BAD" section of my Sunday Snippits it's not that my thoughts or discussions around the topic have been bad. TS finds all sorts of good stuff about leadership worth looking into & living out. It's more the immediacy I find our culture jumping to the worst points of a situation or often even the "what ifs." This is not a way I tend to live nor do I want to live this way. It creates grumpiness & unease.

Insert the voice of your Life Coach saying, "SO Don't! Don't think/live that way." *Thank you to DT for being a voice of reason*

What do you find yourself doing this Advent season to alleviate the stress & flurry of thoughts & to step back & take in Advent? (Seriously, please share!)

Amidst the flurry of my life I'm stretching myself to put the lists, calendars, projects, screens & work away for at least 5min a day (which in the doing of this it is a piece of work) & breathe. Breathe in the beauty of the season, the fact that each breath is a gift (thank you Holy Spirit), & that good is happening all around us (thank you #heartfind challenge). With all this good, I challenge myself & all of you to keep a journal of at least 5 uplifting pieces of your day for the next month. *Cheers again to DT! It will boost spirits & that spirit of joy will catch on. Smiles ARE contagious just like yawns!

And on a side note....Don't you just LOVE this snowman teapot? I truly enjoy the tea related things that you find in antique stores!

5 pretty great pieces of Today: 1. Tuesday Tea Time 2. Energized mornings 3. Christmas lights 4. Puppy cuddles 5. Having jobs I really enjoy

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome

GOOD: Hello Sunday! The alarms went off all too early this morning, but at least they went off so that we weren't late for work. This past week was a great mix of work & relaxation. We baked our first turkey with simple ingredients, made a mess of the kitchen, & enjoyed the Thanksgiving meal & all of it's left overs several times. In fact we're still enjoying pieces of it today. Just like we're still enjoying pieces of our trip to Paris back in the Spring. 2014 has seemed to be the year of fly-by days. You blink & a whole month or two has gone by! The other fun piece of this week putting away the Fall decorations & pulling out the boxes of Christmas/Winter decorations. We're getting our tree today, or at least that's the plan!

BAD: My friend TS blogs about "leadership" amongst other topics & so I've been thinking a bit about leadership. What kind of leader am I? What kind of leader are you? While I've been told I am a "natural born leader," I think those words can only go so far. Let's be real, there a lot of people we read about in the news that we deem to be poor leaders. What is it about them that makes you say this? The really saddening aftermath of something they led? Or what they stand for? As a glass half full sorta thinker, I have to try & believe that the saddening aftermath of events is usually what was hoped for by the leader. However, things never go quite as we expect now do they?

AWESOME: This past week I e-mailed, text, & talked with many friends & family (especially on Thanksgiving day) but one of the best messages was an e-mail from my SIL saying that our niece was "talking with me" on her phone. It's warms the heart to know she knows me across the miles to let her little imagination soar to wide depths of the world to walk around & say, "Hi Aunt Julia!"

WORD: Yes, still working on finishing that book I started back in September (I am Malala) & looking forward to reading a few good pieces from my friend's blogs such as TS & MBR.

coming up: Advent season is upon us & thus Holiday festivities are in full power now! Decorating, Christmas cards, present bought, & special shopping nights in town.

It's Tuesday Tea Time & before I actually looked up the site that this picture is from I thought that it didn't exactly look like a tea drink. Well, check it out, for your Thanksgiving "Tea". I'll be the first to admit that it doesn't sound half bad. However, I don't believe I'll be trying it at the same time.

Being the holiday week I thought a holiday related photo was in order. However, it does take away the fun of editing my own photo & putting #TuesdayTeaTime #LifeSpiritSparkle on the photo. Yes, I know I could've done a screen shot & then done the editing, but to be honest the way this week started out, that was more work than I wanted to do. Not to say this week started out bad, just busy busy busy as usual.

So where do you find yourself this holiday week? Headed home where the article for this "Thanksgiving Tea" says you'll need this recipe or staying in where it's quiet? Many people I'm sure are working. While I will be enjoying the holiday in my home, it'll only be a day "off" in a manner of speaking. We still plan to make our own meal, take down the Fall decor, clean the house, & get out the Christmas/Winter decor. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a decent amount of work to me. It will be fun as we'll be on our own schedule & putting up the decorations that bring back many memories from the past 30 years.

May your Thanksgiving be joyful & give you one or two or three grateful pieces in your day!

Friday Favorites & Merry Holiday Cheer!

This bitstrip comic is very true.

While my home looks nothing like this picture - & probably never will - & my friend JM said I looked like I was about to go crazy on those reindeer, I haven't totally felt this excitement this year.

I attribute this lack of holiday love to being busy. I preached on Psalm 46 at the end of November & I shared then that we - all of us - are SO good at being busy.

In fact, Advent/Christmas is often figured to be the busiest time of the year. And really, this is nobody's fault, but our own. We pick & choose what we say yes to & no to & what we actually accomplish.

I'm a people person. I come from a very social family & we like to talk & visit & we are filled with the holiday joy by spending quality time with people. However, when that time is limited, it becomes a stressor of how we will spend that time together.

Sometimes its hard to enjoy all the things that go along with Advent/Christmas. But I urge you - as I'm urging myself - enjoy the time, take in the lights, play a game or in the snow, bake some cookies - or buy them from the store - & indulge. For this is a holy celebration time of the year.

No matter what you believe, there is something for everybody in Christmas. Sweets, lights, butter, cheesy tv shows, cold weather, hot weather if you live in or near the Southern hemisphere, songs, angels, crazy decorations, & a more focused vision of giving to & being with others.

Saturday Surprise!

I have gotten SO bad at posting my Friday Favorites on Friday!

Here it is, though, the first ever real Christmas tree for Z & I.

We went to the tree farm that everybody recommended, but there was nobody there during the week day. That's what ya get when you take a day off in the middle of the week 'cause you work weekends!

So we drove into town to check a few other locations, pulled into the first site we saw, & purchased this beauty. AND it just so happens that it was from the tree farm we had gone to.

We spent the afternoon filling it with lights & decorations & listening to holiday music on Pandora. Thanks to Momma P, we had NO problem filling the tree with decorations. She has done such a great job at saving and preserving all my ornaments over the years.

The house is decorated, the gifts are mostly bought, the menu for the Holiday Hop is planned, & the puppy is pretty well adjusted to her new home.

What Holiday ADVENTures have you been on lately?!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Drinks Time or TeaTime?! 

I know it's just icing, but I wonder if these fun treats taste good. They remind me of something from Alice in Wonderland!

Today's Tea Time includes 

Coconut Chai!

And I'm sitting here waiting for the snow! 

Last week I got to briefly see my bff BGEG when we were both in our hometown for Thanksgiving. Being one of the only non-family members that I still gift with,  I asked her what she would like for Christmas & she gave the most perfect answer.

"A coffee date with you!"

BGEG & I live 8 hours from each other, so we don't see each other very often, but we share a lot of favorites in common, such as tea. Neither of us are really coffee drinkers, unless it's super "weak" or super sugared.

As the holiday season is in full gear with Thanksgiving behind us & Advent just starting up, don't stress about "the perfect gift." The "perfect" gift may just be quality time with your friends & family. Even if it is quality time using Skype, FaceTime, or GoogleHang (check out their props next time you use it, very entertaining). And if I may make a suggestion, send each other a card with your favorite tea (a tea bag fits nicely inside a card) & enjoy tea time together!