Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello Tuesday Tea Time!

I'm here with many thanks today after a celebratory weekend filled with birthday shenanigans. Growing up birthdays were always made fun for a few reasons. One reason was it was always the start of summer & another was that it always meant good food shared with family & friends. Of course it's always fun to be gifted too. And there was always somebody else with a birthday within days of mine to celebrate too, such as my friends KPK, HG, & 3MD!

Over the years I've had some memorable birthdays. For years my birthday meant my Mammaw would make me whatever kind of pie I wanted. Generally I chose cherry. I was 'kidnapped' more than once by friends & surprised once in Hong Kong. The HK surprise was pulled off so well because I was actually returning to the states a few weeks before my actual birthday, but my friends wanted to celebrate with a cook-out in the park. My birthday has always been an excuse for adventure of new life pieces.

This year we went on a hike, enjoyed a Starbucks treat, took part in the monthly pancake breakfast at our apartment complex, saw Alice in Wonderland: through the looking glass in IMAX 3D (it was excellent), then had dinner at Patisserie Amie. That was all the day before my actual birthday! My actual birthday was filled with a wonderful Sunday morning at work, a quiet afternoon, & a graduation party in the evening. 

The biggest surprise this year was when my children's message got hijacked in the best way possible. My message was highlighting church camp & I had just mentioned camp fire songs when I was told they had a song for me. Before I knew how to respond, the entire congregation was singing 'Happy Birthday' to me. I was blown away in the best way possible. Not only did they sound good, they weren't even prompted to do such a thing & it is quite powerful being sung to by roughly 100+ people.

So today as I enjoy my Kombucha Tea (he picked up the right kind this year!), I am thankful for the fun & the memories & the many well wishes from around the world. This year is bound to be a little better & healthier than the last. Farewell to a beautiful Lusty Month of May!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Grab your drink & a comfy seat, and together we'll enjoy our Tuesday Tea Time!

Together, we'll smile at the unpredictable Spring weather & hold tight in the comfort of a warm mug in our grips. Some say tea is a hug in a cup.

Together, we'll share highs & lows & ins & outs of life as of late.

Together, we'll be, you & me, with our mug of tea, warm in our souls.

Together, there'll be tea, for you & me.

Together.

Tuesday Tea Time!!!

Good Morning from the MI Gathering 2015!!! Follow #MIgath15 for more awesome pieces from the gathering.

On day 3 of the gathering, I am treating myself to possibly the chai latte of the year! What makes it so great? They purposefully charged me the price of a coffee refill. If you know your coffee shops, you know black coffee or a simple hot tea is the cheapest drink available & lattes are a few dollars more.

If you've ever been to a youth event you know there are late nights & early mornings & days filled with lots of different activities. By day 3, as a tea drinker, I need my tea to taste like tea. So while I always pack my tea bags & most often use the hotel room coffee maker for my morning tea, this morning a treat was in order for my jump start.

Today may your tea taste like tea & a treat to you!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello everyone! Lacey Bauer here, filling in for Julia!  I'm an old friend, hard working entrepreneur, doula extraordinaire, passionate memory maker, and tea lover to the extreme.

For those that don't know me, I have a pure fascination with books & literature. I have a degree in English literature and find that when I get my hands on those bound pages, I get deeply lost in the story woven in front of me. It's not often these days that I have the time to sink deep into my favorite chair, cuddle up with my favorite mug and sip on that delicious tea, absorbing the words that lay before me.  But today, I made time to wander to a book store and add to my collection. I took home a variety of books; entrepreneurial, inspirational, and fictional.  Some are practical for growing my business, and some for pure enjoyment.

It was hard to make that time; to dedicate a morning to the things I love outside of my career. Sometimes I beat myself up over indulging in these outings.  "But you have more important things to do, Lacey." This time, I looked inward and remembered self care.  I remembered what it means to find the things I love most and to breathe them in and simply enjoy. So I made the time, wandered the aisles of that book store, and came home to my favorite chair, my beautiful teal hand made mug from a dear friend, and sipped on that smooth cup of chamomile lemon tea.

My encouragement for you this week is to think about the things you love(d) most and whether or not you're making the time in your busy life to do them. But always do them with that warm cup of tea.

My recommendation this week? A cherry almond black tea.  It always hits the spot.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Greetings, and Happy Tuesday Tea Time!

 

I’m happy to be sharing this tea time with you, filling in for my friend Julia the next couple weeks. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Timothy, and I most often blog here. I’m also a: husband, son, brother, mission developer, hot chocolate and chocolate milkshake connoisseur, a sports fan crazy about the Mariners and Seahawks especially, and grateful to be asked to share this Tuesday Tea Time with you. 

 

In the spirit of Tuesday Tea Time, as a place to take a few moments to sit and reflect while sipping on your favorite tea or hot beverage of choice, here’s a question for you:

 

What big question are you wrestling with right now?

 

If you’re like me, you may well have more than one. Some of the questions I’m pondering are:

• What am I most excited about right now in this awesome role of being a mission developer?

• What would it be like to serve on staff and in ministry with my wife Allison beyond this one year of internship for her and me serving as a mission developer?

• What’s Thanksgiving and Christmas going to look like this year?

• When will the Mariners make the playoffs? Will the Seahawks get on a hot streak? 

 

Whatever your question or questions are, take a few minutes during today’s tea time while you sip to ponder about the questions. Jot them down, and if you don’t mind, share them in the comments. I believe life is about conversations, questions, and relationships. If there’s no wrestling or curiosity, I know at least for me, I would be very bored. What about you? 

 

On a different note, I’m so excited for Julia’s news, and invite you all to send her great thoughts and hold her in your prayers. 

 

Until next time, thanks for sharing this moment with me, and Happy Tea 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!

Happy Tuesday!

Check out the mammoth of tea kettle in today's photo! If you could keep the water warm, you could have tea for twenty!

It's hard to believe that it was only just over a year ago that I had my first tea with TE. Z had scheduled a home visit & she made sure to tell him to bring me too. We were friends before we even met face-to-face! It's not very often in life that we are connected with someone else quite like this.

To honor my friendship with TE & our love for tea, I have remedied the cause for discrimination in a heavy coffee drinking work world & bought myself a new electric kettle. While setting it up, just yesterday, I thought to myself, TE would've loved to come have a cup of tea with me in my new office. And thanks to the love for tea that we shared, I know the importance of sharing it with others.

Some times it just feels good to hold something warm - even if you never drink it.

The nice feature of a hot water kettle is it can be used for much more than simply tea. I will have to get some packets of fun drinks other than tea to offer to my guests. For now though there are 3 different tea varieties with the option of honey stirred in with a chopstick.

Maybe some day soon I'll have tea for twenty! or at least tea for two!

Friday Favorites!

Happy Harvest Pumpkin from Celestial Seasonings! There's no changing the the cooler weather so why not embrace the crisp mornings with a touch of Fall?

As my sister-in-law pointed out, it's boots & jeans weather. I'll add to that & say, it's scarf weather, but when isn't it scarf weather? Scarf's go with my daily life as much as a mug of tea.

Friday Favorites are inspired this week by my co-worker who sweetly surprised me with a box of this tea earlier in the week. While I did make one last batch of sun tea in the last week in my attempts to cling onto Summer, I am not gently welcoming this touch of Fall.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Good morning! This morning I come to you with HIGH ENERGY tea that seemed needed for the second gray day in a row. Thankfully today it is raining! I don't know about you, but I deal better with the cloud cover when it brings rain (or snow). While I don't think I would do well living in an area like the Pacific Northwest, I do enjoy a rainy day.

As I continue to process my summer working at camp I'm simply amazed at the people I've met & the good they share with the world. Thus today I was inspired to use this giant "Good morning" mug. No, I can't read every language on the mug, but I honestly believe I know enough people that working together we could decipher every language shared on this mug.

Who's up for the challenge?!

It's interesting the things or people that make you share different pieces of your past. It was easily the second to last week at camp & I made a nonchalant comment about when I was in  SE Asia. I hadn't realized this was a piece of my past that just hadn't come up in the conversations with staff over the summer. This is the beauty of relationship though. As Z & I have learned from our grandparents, you may know a person for 70+ years & you will still never know everything about them.

Surprise somebody today with a piece of your story you haven't shared recently or maybe ever! And while you're doing that, enjoy your tea time!

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: I'm typing my blog from a computer again! The last couple of posts have been from my Iphone or Nexus tablet. This past week was WONDERFUL! It started with worshipping with 26 of my family members from my dad's side of the family out in CO where we were all gathered to celebrate my cousin's wedding. The worship was Spirit filled, the wedding was beautiful, & the family time was fantastic. One highlight from church is receiving an entire loaf of bread just for being a visitor! Monday was K&D's wedding & I got to hang out with my cousins' M&A's little guys H&C the entire morning. SO much fun! Fill the rest of the time with family meals & games & that's a family reunion for us. We made our way back towards home mid-week & stopped in Chicago to really visit with good friends from college & a few from other pieces of life. I say really visit because up till now all we had taken time to do was a brief visit passing through the city or at each other's wedding receptions. I thought we were spent from all our travels, but we took it easy & went to one museum a day. It was fun to show Z some of Chicago after having traveled through the city dozens of times either to visit friends or going from wherever I was living North of Chicago towards my parents' South of Chicago. And yes, as everyone should, I celebrated my birthday ALL week long. It started with my family & ended with my friends. What more could a girl ask for?!

BAD: BUGS! They're out like crazy now & I'm scheming up new ways to be able to enjoy spending time outside. Ideas that don't cost a lot of money are welcome! Also, that i just planted some of my outside plants today. You may not think this is bad, but they "should've" planted them apparently more like 6 weeks ago. Here's to growth! Plus our poor puppy keeps having what is known as 'reverse sneezing' attacks. I think she maybe has some allergy problems. And yes, my heart is heavy yet again, truly heavy, from the death of a leader, mentor, & friend from MN.

AWESOME: Being gifted a movie from Z that I gifted him for Christmas. Yes, this really happened. We hadn't watched it & it was actually the second copy of the DVD due to the first one cracking (on a night that Z & I were watching 6 kids 10 & younger!). So I'm still waiting on what Z will pick out as he has diligently returned the 3rd copy of 'How to Train Your Dragon.' AND all the ways people wished me a happy birthday. Seriously, I think the only way I wasn't told 'happy birthday' was via e-mail & that's saying something because I received wishes by FB, phone call, voicemail, text, Instagram, Twitter, Linked-in, snail mail, & in person.

WORD: Acts is hot on my brain right now with this coming Sunday being Pentecost. Plus tonight, I will finish 'The Color of Tea.' Then hopefully in the next few days I'll finish 'The Help.'

coming up: Today after worship we spent a bit of time outside & I painted our new doormat you see above! This is just in time to welcome a visit from J&E! Then prepping to head off to camp for most of the Summer. I haven't figured out how to keep up with the blog over the Summer so no fear, there will be random posts & most definitely more posting come Fall.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Credit given to UnripeHamadryad

It's Tuesday Tea Time!

While I definitely have other tea lovers in my life, it seems the coffee lovers outnumber the tea lovers. Some of these people are people who don't care how they get their kick of caffeine & will go with either tea or coffee. However, I think some of the people in my life just like the idea of tea, but regularly go for coffee when given a choice.

I am thankful for this variety in my life. Without these two preferences there wouldn't be the crazy fun drinks that mix both tea & coffee that I've only ever found in the random quaint corner local coffee shops.

This mixture of tea & coffee preferences also brings us the joy of people in our lives that own a lot of the beverage they don't drink to be hospitable to people who do drink that beverage when they visit. The problem with this is both tea & coffee go stale when not stored properly or used regularly. And the problem for tea lovers is that coffee not only stains mugs & thermoses in color, but also with it's bitter flavor that most teas cannot mask.

I as an avid tea drinker, use to buy coffee to have for when visitors came, but did not know what sort of coffee to keep around that my visitors would actually want to drink. Lucky for my coffee friends Z is an avid coffee drinker & keeps a good supply of the real stuff. (But if you want a real education on the quality of coffee ask our friend PMc)

The cute thing about this piece of art is the quaint tea cup & the hearty coffee mug. I may decorate with tea cups, but I rarely drink out of them. I'm a true child of the 80s & 90s & a citizen of the USA & I want my tea in abundance (& I want it now!).

All that said, no matter which you prefer, you are always considered my cup of tea.

Tuesday Tea Time!

TUESDAY TEA TIME!

Knowing that I missed posting last Tuesday & next Tuesday we'll be filling up a moving a truck, I couldn't skip out on yall this week.

Since it's our last full week in the Twin Cities, I'm doing a few last time things. Such as, yesterday we went for an afternoon snack at John's Pizza Cafe (LOVE their dill sauce) & today I went to Juut Aveda for one last hair cut from Meg B.

I love the ambiance that Juut has created. It's relaxing once you walk in the door. I also love that they offer you coffee, tea, or fruit infused water. Naturally I almost always go for the tea. It's a refreshing blend that invigorates & soothes the soul.

Up next on our list of things to do last minute is enjoy being with friends & MN family. Oh & finish packing everything.

Stop & breath in the adventure God has you on today & know that you are not alone.

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!