Tuesday Tea Time!

Happy Tuesday Tea Time!

This week is SO exciting. Yesterday I saw the gift of my bulletins in color for my consecration - which was a surprise - & then while we were home for lunch the mail was delivered & a surprise package was included.

Just the other day my friend JM texted me for our address. I assumed that it was for Christmas cards, but boy was I wrong, sorta. The little red tab in this picture is the card. The Paris themed book box (a box made to look like a book) was packed full with some of her favorite things that she wanted to share with me. And no, they weren't used, they were new.

It was a Christmas/Care/Surprise/Consecration gift all in one! I do believe I have my very own Oprah from TX. Watch out Oprah!

Also this week we all will be gifted with some guest bloggers! I have shared many a posts mentioning TS but I'm not sure that I have shared about AS as equally. They're both equally fabulous & great writers. I've invited them to use their imaginations & creativity to share Friday Favorites & Sunday Snippits with you. Yes, this means ANOTHER surprise is in the works as I don't know who will post when or what.

Sitting in this cloud of feeling loved & cared for I'm going to enjoy my tea & a little time away from the norm to focus on my call & be with family & friends.

Happy Tuesday Tea Time!

Tuesday Tea Time!!!

Tuesday Tea Time is here! So crazy to know a week ago Z & I were finishing our trip in Paris with a visit to the Eiffel Tower, rickshaw music taxi to Arc de Triomphe, & a walk down Champs-Élysées to see all the fancy Parisian stores & glance in a few like the Disney Store & Kusmi Tea. May I just say that Kusmi Detox tea is delightfully fruity. However I did not purchase any because we also stopped at the river vendors for a few different gifts for ourselves & others on our way back to the hotel.

There are pieces of our lives that just fit our very beings. For me one of those pieces is travel. Traveling, especially outside of my home country, awakens my curiosity & pure love for the human race. About five years ago I had just returned from four months in SE Asia & was processing my love for my home town & country as well as my new joy of life in SE Asia. This recent trip to Paris was the first international trip I had taken in a while that was for pure pleasure & not work related. No matter the reason for the trip though travel is travel for me.

This has me dreaming about what sorta of call to ministry leadership I may have in the future. This may be something that develops in the next year or maybe in the next several years. One thing I know is that travel is so much a piece of my being that brings joy, adventure, & growth into my world that as life morphs I don't want anything to stop me from embracing travel in all its varieties. It's even more of a sparkle in my being when I find good tea to enjoy.

Whatever your sparkle pieces of your being may be, may they be for the good of your neighbors & yourself & may they regularly fill your soul with fresh air & pure joy.

**apologies for the funky alignment of this post! Technology.

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome!

 GOOD: This past week started with a day trip to the beaches of Normandy, France. Yes, that's right where D-Day happened. Nothing like throwing in a piece of somber reality with all the joy that comes with traveling. Our travels were great & we've thoroughly caught up on sleep & recovered from any jet-lag we may have been experiencing. It was unique to take a trip that was mid-week to mid-week because it seemed like the number of tourists greatly increased at the beginning of the end of our trip. We waited in a moving line to get into Notre Dame & then opted out of climbing the 400 & some stairs up the towers due to the fact that we had already climbed 300 & some stairs to the dome at Sacre Cœur that morning & there was quite a long wait at Notre Dame. In between Sacre Cœur & Notre Dame we visited the Center Pompidou where we saw a non-moving really really long line that we never did figure out what it was for because we walked around the other side of the building & walked right in. It helped that we had already bought our tickets for here before leaving the states. The thing we realized is that at many of the iconic sites you can go up in either a tower or a dome. Yes, the city is magnificent, but it's the same views from slightly different heights & different points in the city. The good that I think this trip did for both Z & I is that it awakened our spirits of adventure & travel & thinking outside our comfort zones of only speaking one language & knowing exactly what we were ordering for food or drink. Here in the picture you see Zack's café crème which he ordered at some point almost every day. Too bad I don't really like coffee because the tea options were limited. I did enjoy a nice chocolat chaud at least once though & daily enjoyed a glass or two of vin rouge or rosé. 

BAD: A dear friend passed away while we were gone. His death was not unexpected, but after living with colon cancer since 2009 one begins to think that he would just live that way for many years to come. Mikey was charismatic & vulnerably truthful about life which made him openly true friends with people he maybe never even really considered more than acquaintances. My prayers for God's peace are said often to fill the lives of his wife K, son N, sister C (all my friends as well) & their families. Upon returning we realized we needed to check in with one or two ailing people in our lives & I listened to Z essentially say g'bye to a good friend, colleague & mentor of his on the phone. 

AWESOME: The promise that I believe in that Easter brings. Plus, let's be real, I spent most of this past week exploring Paris, France. I got to go up the Eiffel Tower & enjoy champagne with my best friend. AND we came home to a very wet MI, but there is no snow left!

WORD: 1 Peter 1:13-16. Breathing this in a little bit each day. Plus still working on 'The Help' & started reading 'The Color of Tea.'

coming up: A trip to hoosierland & a visit with Gma Dixie! Some work & prep for the Summer & being reunited with my Horton (my big gray Mazda).

Tuesday Tea Time!

It's a great day for Paris tea from Harney & Sons. Happy Earth Day! Do something Earth friendly today.

Tuesday Tea Time!

HAPPY TUESDAY TEA TIME!

  

It's another cold cold day appropriate for thick scarves, fleeced lined leggings, two pairs of socks, leg warmers, 3 top layers, & a cuddly puppy in your lap.

And of course on this negative degree day, the sun is shining & making me think I should go outside.

My tea today is Paris from Harney & Sons.

Yes, I have blogged more than once about how I don't drink caffeine very often. Well I now have gone to drinking one caffeinated tea drink in the morning. However, this is also influenced by the fact that none of my gifted teas this past holiday season are caffeine free. 

This rich vanilla flavored tea takes me on that adventure I wrote about last week for Friday Favorites. This is an adventure that gets me through my day. An adventure that allows me to listen to the still small voice & dream & sometimes escape life's present realities. This is sacred time.

Keep on adventuring more.

Spend time in the sacred places of your life.

Let the still small voice be heard.