Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello Tuesday Tea Timers!

Today we come to you with the fun news that baby Nelson can now be referred to as Frieda! Disclaimer, Frieda will not be her name, but it's a fun nickname till she's born. That's right, we're having a girl!

We truly had ourselves convinced that it was a Jimminy, but only based off of logic that wasn't all that logical. And yes, Jimminy is another baby nickname we use, inspired by Friends.

While many a person has said 'oh th pink you will have!' It strikes me as rather presuming. There is so much about our baby girl that she will decide & that may even mean someday she becomes a he. Yes, I know that's radical, but let's stop shoving the societal expectations in our baby's faces before they're born!

Don't get me wrong, my favorite color is purple. I also really like dark pink, greens, blues, oranges, yellows. What a second, I think I like the whole rainbow & then some!

I expect my baby will learn to love the rainbow of her world just as well. And we love her & her rainbow too. No matter what.

Sunday Snippits:good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: Time has been filled with so much good stuff lately that it seems to be flying by & it's hard to recap what happened a week ago because often it feels just like yesterday. On the other hand it often feels like it was much longer than a week ago because so much life has been lived since. That's where we are today with Sunday Snippits! A dose of good Spring Cleaning seems to be the medicine for Spring Fever. Piece by piece we've been working on a little cleaning at home, a little cleaning at work, a little cleaning metaphorically & a little cleaning literally. Just after feeling as if we hadn't left town much at all lately for anything, this past week we were both hopping around the state for one work related thing or another. We're moving through life remembering that while it is good to plan ahead & we often do just that, it is also good to sit in the moment at hand. Plus life is often MUCH easier lived day-by-day with a pinch of forward thinking & planning.

BAD: Jumping into one project it is easy to find more project & more project & more project. While we could get grumpy about why people have left so much stuff laying around & made a trail, we all do it. The trick is to take a set amount of time on a set day with company of other people &/or music & work at picking up these trails little-by-little. The bad part is, if we're all leaving our trail then we're constantly not only cleaning up after one another, but expecting others to clean up after us! So maybe this a goofy bad, but that's what you get this week.

AWESOME: I mentioned in Friday Favorites it's the little things. I realized recently my joy for reading for pleasure is returning! I knew it was there, somewhere. For Pete's sake I took part in a reading lock-in & loved it in elementary school. It's a matter of pacing oneself & balancing heavy topic books with light topic books & books that are most obviously continuing education with books that are simple fiction & imagination. It's a piece of me that has been missing & as many friends will be delighted to know - especially after all the books they've gifted me throughout the years - I am a reader. Don't be ambitious in the book giving though, this may only be a phase for now.

WORD: If you haven't guessed by AWESOME that I finished both I am Malala & Stitches this past week. I've now moved on to Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? for a piece of humor & I plan to start Children of Divorce this week. SO much to look to forward to! PLUS my good friend wrote an awesome piece about Grace, not Works.

coming up: More Spring Cleaning! Last Fall we had all of the bushes in the front of our house taken out. They were old & ugly. Now it's figuring out what to put in their place. This is totally not our thang so a little research will be in order... happy days till next time!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Tuesday Tea Time!

We have officially changed our clocks ahead, or simply enjoyed the fact that they're not an hour off any longer & now we wait for the thaw.

Being from the tip of the mitt means waiting for the spring thaw a little longer than other parts of the state or country. Even MN has had considerably more melting snow to the point of seeing earth below than we have. This is the week, the time has shifted & the temps have gotten above freezing (by at least a half of degree) for the last couple of days.

Can you say, Spring Fever?!

Spring Fever brings Spring teas & porch sitting with quilts! Spring Fever brings more hiking & contrary to what many might think more gray days than winter. I wouldn't mind being proven wrong MI! Spring Fever puts a new skip in our step even when we don't ask for it. Spring Fever brings a season of mud & wellies.

What does Spring Fever bring for you? 

Lazy days climbing trees like the cheshire cat perhaps?

Tuesday Tea Time...with the English!

Tuesday Tea Time!

photo courtesy of Trip Advisor

This morning I am drinking English Breakfast Tea,so I'm not really with the English. Though I often like to reminisce about my time in Scotland & England. It's hard to believe that this Fall it will have been 8 years since I ventured across the ocean on my own. The above picture reminds me of several tea rooms that I enjoyed with friends while I studied at Stirling Uni. 

While the snow continues to cover my world, I daydream about being back in one of these places. Shoot, I daydream about being back in IN or OH where they haven't had snow for weeks! However, there is work to be done to finish out my degree & then the sunny shores of warmer weather & iced tea can be a reality. 

What are you daydreaming about being a reality?

Sunday Snippits

We're back for another week life in the fast-lane!

Because I find it easy to highlight the past week we're gonna keep going with

the GOOD, the BAD, & the UGLY

& linking up with Classy Living Kate & Incorporating Color Kati

the GOOD: This last week was busy, but fairly mild. I completed a full draft of my thesis. The light is a little brighter! I also got to hang with WOK, a pretty cool 2 y/o that have been privileged to kid-sit for over the past several months.

the BAD: the snow...in April

the UGLY: more snow...in April

up & coming: MORE THESIS! It's due in next weekend. Rain pellets & today's Twins vs. the Mets game postponed till August! Hang time with WOK & a sushi date with Z.

Friday Foto Fun!

Photo Courtesy of T0M & Jerry's Wordpress Blog

While everything seemed to be melting & letting Spring come up, the Ice Queen reared her ugly head (with awesome dreads) & graced us with more ice & snow. The only place I've seen flowers like this are in church or the grocery store. In Minnesnowda, they really haven't had a chance to start to bud yet.

No, not the most uplifting reality of Spring, but a piece of beauty in the gray winter weather.

Where do you find beauty amidst the gray?

Tuesday Tea Time

Tuesday Tea Time! Anybody wanna write a theme song for that?! I think it'd be fun & quirky.....

First I want to say thanks to my followers. Yall don't comment very often, but it means something to see the stats provided by Blogger & even something extra special when you tell me in person that you like reading my blog.

 Mission Blog Makeover Success!

While I sit here sipping on my Tuesday Tea, I wonder when the snow will actually stop falling for the season. Here in the great white North, it just keeps dumping on us! It'll occasionally warm up to around 40 degree fahrenheit & then drop just low enough for another half foot of snow. I have to believe that in a month there will be significantly less snow & even better yet, would be no snow. It has snowed on my birthday in WI, not too far away from here, on my birthday before. Please, Lord, no more snow past March!

What will Spring bring for you?

For me it'll bring many walks & hopefully bike rides. It'll bring deadlines that will mean graduation is just around the corner. Graduation is 9 weeks from this past Sunday! It'll bring knowledge of future work and networking opportunities. It'll bring green grass & pretty flowers.

Spring will bring lighter, fruity flavored teas!

Tuesday Tea Time

This week I find myself telling myself to embrace my inner 9 year old, who would be very excited that there's new snow on the ground, & to enjoy the beauty of snow. It does make for perfect hot tea drinking.

Lately I have been very easily distracted. Part of this is due to the fact that Z & I & our community has had a lot of exciting news in the past two weeks. Aside from finding out our regional & synodical assignments we also have friends having babies. NJB - our next door neighbor - was born last week & today JWS - friends of ours from seminary - was born yesterday & just a few weeks earlier AGH was born to some seminary friends of ours. Plus there's more babies, & hopefully more exciting news about our futures, on the way in the next couple of months!

So I wonder, how do you stay focused?

I believe it's partially just choice, but there's got to be some practice to being focused & on task too, right? Today I'm drinking chamomile tea with a splash of half & half & a bit of honey to help ease my mind & sooth my head cold symptoms. Maybe this will help me stay focused? Maybe not though, since I'm blogging about it.

As winter weather falls from the skies & I spring fever heats up next to a good case of senioritis, how do I keep from going stir crazy? 

What are some of the things you do? 

Help me stay focused!