Tuesday Tea Time!

Hiya Tuesday Tea Time friends!

This season of life I've decided to watch Dancing With the Stars instead of The Voice. I have also been looking for the glimpses of blue skies & sunlight amidst the gray days. Just yesterday I intentionally took a different route to work to be able to admire the small piece of blue sky.

Dancing With the Stars simply means flipping between the two channels we get for the show I prefer in the moment. The blue skies means I'm looking for the pieces of good like I always try to do. The days are getting darker much earlier already & the time change isn't for another month!

This also means cooler weather & hopefully the Fall colors soon. In this area of MI Fall means not simple apple cider but cherry apple cider. And yes, it's delicious! 

If you haven't gotten out & enjoyed a piece of Fall in you're area this Tuesday Tea Time go & explore, even if you have to go over your lunch break. A little exploration is good for the heart & soul.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello Tuesday Tea Time friends!

After a week away, I have returned. I had to show myself grace when last week's Tuesday came & went & there was not a Tea Time post. Apparently I've been so on the go that my lack of social media posts is cause for concern to some (ahem mom). There is nothing to worry about, just on the go & took a few days away to celebrate #LifeSpiritSparkle with friends.

This past week I got to check off another state visited on the U.S.A. Map. As random as the trip was, it was well worth the wear & tear of travel. I stayed with family on Z's side in CT for the special occasion of my college days best friend AJO's ordination. I enjoyed family time with legit family & Cap fam. I enjoyed a quality New England lobster roll & apple picking adventure. The days were cooler & the leaves were just on the verge of turning color.

The main event was very special. It was a joint ordination for three individuals & the bishop shared a sermon that spoke to everybody present. The music was phenomenal & the reunions & new introductions were life giving. You can't ask for days like that! Well, OK, you can, but they don't happen without a little effort.

May we seek & live into providing the life giving moments of our days.

Tuesday Tea Time!

 Hiya Tuesday Tea Time Friends!

Have we all said goodbye to summer & hello to Fall?! It's not quite over as the late summer heat is still lingering for good parts of the day. Plus as far as the Starbucks app told me, I am unable to purchase a pumpkin spice anything at my local Starbucks just yet. No worries as I have pumpkin spice tea from a few Christmases ago. I know some tea drinkers think it goes stale, but I haven't noticed.

As Labor Day has come & gone, so has a season. The school & programming year are back in full swing officially today & there's a freshness in the air for new starts. The next several months hold much promise with more structure in the calendar. With the slight change in weather & the scheduled days more solid there is a peace of heart & mind that bring in the fresh air.

Amidst the flurry of our days may this peace dwell within us all in the fresh air of late Summer.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hiya Tuesday Tea Time friends!

The reality is that the month of July has been a very trying month for not only our country, world, but my simple every day life. One never knows how certain dates or anniversaries or random days are going to hit them & the majority of the July days have been unfortunately heavy.

While my heaviness has not been because of infertility, I want y'all to check out my friend's new project through her business of Hampton Roads Doulas at This is Infertility. Because of my health history I was lead to believe I may be infertile & thus the pure surprise of my pregnancy with Kaia Gene. I know this project will benefit hundreds of people. My friend LB is doing amazing work & recently expanded her business across the country to LA at Doulas of Los Angeles.

I pray to put this heaviness to rest with the coming memorial service for our sweet Kaia Gene in another week & a half. I know that this time will pass & lighter days are ahead. And till then I move along one foot in front of the other with my tea in hand.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello Tuesday teatime friends! I'm coming to you a few days early sitting on my patio drinking a homemade iced chai. I'll be at camp today, when this is posted. But don't worry, I will enjoy Tuesday Tea Time at camp just as much as I would from home or work or wherever! And don't think that I'm so fancy that it's truly homemade chai. It is Tazo Chai that was on sale at Target, my favorite shop, and mixed with Meijer brand unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

I've had a lot on my mind as I think the whole world has these days. This last week has been unreal in many ways. I learned about the Orlando massacre during the prayers of the people in church on Sunday (6/12) morning. By late Monday morning, I learned about an unexpected death of a close family friend, that also happened between Saturday night and Sunday morning. then I believe it was maybe the next day that on the radio on the way to work that I heard about the little boy who was taken by an alligator at the Grand Floridian Resort at Disney World. One piece after another, weirdness and things completely out of our control popped up.

It seems that in the last year I have been reminded of how much is truly out of my control and all the people I know as well. Maybe I just don't know the right people! Kidding! I love the people I do know and in fact I was raised in such a family that I find myself feeling love, philía or brotherly of course, for people I don't know. The last year of life has been completely about things happening that nobody has any control over. We may point fingers at people or at inanimate object's but the reality is that life happens and sometimes it's hard and other times it's wonderful.

While life goes on, lift your chin, lower your shoulders, plant your feet on the ground & take a deep breath. This is where you are, right now & that is where you are for now. Be where you are, who you are & while it may be messy, know that you are loved right in your spot. You are you, & that is good.

Share this with others who need this love - ahem, everybody! - & know that love is greater than hate.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello Tuesday Tea Time Friends! It's good to have you here safely, shining like a star with the tutu girl.

In the wake of the Orlando hate crime, I find myself rather speechless. Our gun laws have to change. We have to listen to each other's stories more intently & show respect to each other for the sheer fact that we're all trying to survive this world.

The Gospel lesson I preached on this past weekend was Luke 7:36 - 8:3. The main focus was the faith shared by the strange woman who was in a home where she was not welcomed. The Gospel news of the story is that it is not up to us to choose who is welcome in our world, but it is up to Jesus, our resurrected Lord & Savior. It is ours then to love like the strange woman, no matter who tells us "no," because Jesus tells us "yes."

So love as best you know how. We don't have to understand or see eye to eye, we just have to love.

We weep with those who weep. For Orlando, for Muslims, for LGBTQ, for individual families mourning tragic loss, we weep.

Because we love.

Love in action, being lived out as the verb that it is, will change this world.

In the words of artist Britta Gene, just love.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Good morning & happy Tuesday Tea Time!

Today as we enjoy our morning beverage I introduce you to the Britta Gene Art Tutu Girls. They're some of my favorite work because they have so much character. Their story is shared in poetry & there's always a touch of sparkle.

Their stories aren't always easy & that makes them very real. Their stories are often dream like & that makes them Britta Gene Art. Britta Gene just had her first art fair of the season last weekend & has a show at the Ft. Wayne airport in July, followed by another art fair.

Summer is a fun time for new opportunities. There's new teas & new festivals & new sunsets & new trails to be hiked. Hop on over to Britta Gene Art & contact her about her new pieces today!

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!

Good morning Tuesday Tea Time friends!

It's good to be with you today. Last week I could not find the words or energy or focus to join y'all. It was a touch of adventure just to get my own cup of tea to truly begin my day & that happened 2 hours into my morning.

Last week my mind was wondering about the two Amber Alerts on my phone in less than a week. Both babies were found, but what really bothers me is that these alerts have to be sent out ever. Warmer weather does not equal the right to kidnap or steal or give away children or humans of any age.

More recently, in just the past few days I have heard stories of the loss of children in two different ways. No matter the ways in which a child leaves this world, the hard reality is that it is beyond our control. Like the case of the one Amber Alert, we may mess up & make the wrong decision (to leave a child unattended), but more often than not it is not an action of our own. The questions that arise from these instances most often go unanswered.

What brings solace, is the witness of baptism & new life that defies this reality of death. When we acknowledge our lack of power in death, we make room for God's greatness to shine through with the promise of everlasting light. Thanks be to Christ!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello Tuesday Tea Time!

Today in the lusty month of May (have you listened to the wonderful Julie Andrews sing this yet?) we celebrate all the mothers of our lives. Yes, this is in lieu of the observed Mother's Day this past Sunday (in the USA & Germany at least). This was my first Mother's Day as a mom to baby Kaia & my furbaby MG. As women are becoming more empowered to talk about, & act against, the challenges of being a women, with or without children, & the adventures that bring us to our different identities of motherhood, I stand firm in that all who identify as a female have the ability to claim 'mother' as a piece in their life roles.

I shared an article titled 'When You're Not a mom on Mothers Day,' on Facebook the other day, taking no time to write any of my own thoughts or reflections on the article. Throughout the day the article received many comments of people reassuring me of my motherhood & sharing their care for me/women who would still be pregnant if that mysterious day didn't happen as it did 8 weeks ago. The love that continues to be shared is wonderfully overwhelming.

I am a mom. I've been a mom for years, but in a different way. I took care of my cousins children when they were little ones. I even taught the twins to tie their shoes! The twins are now finishing their first year of high school. I was a camp counselor, day camp director, Spoke Folk leader, baby sitter, youth director, pet sitter, & many other roles that taught me to be motherly. 

I was never phased much when that one random doctor told me I may never bear children back in the mid 1990s. I honestly just figured if that was true I'd adopt if having my own children was ever part of my calling. I knew that I'd never know what it felt like to be a mom until I had the chance to feel like that. And as I've mentioned, I've had many experiences to feel motherly about, but of course none of that compares to holding my sweet Kaia Gene against my chest while she breathed life for those 93 minutes she had with us (on Pi Day).

I am a mom, madre, mother, mommy, mama. I am beyond thankful for all the moms that have helped me learn how to be motherly. And I am thankful to all the moms who entrusted me with their children & gave me the time to grow as a mothering being. Mother's Day was different this year, but that's alright. 

Happy Mothers Day today, the other day, & every day to all the mothering type of people.

And if you still have a spot of tea left, or need a refill, hop on over to Stumbling into Faith for a read on Mother's Day in 2016 written by my dear friend MBR. A "new mom" herself, she reflects on the brokenness of Mother's Day.

Tuesday Tea Time!

It's the first Tuesday Tea Time in the lusty month of May!

May is my favorite month! It is a month of continuous warming weather that brings Spring buds to bloom & a month of many celebrations. It is May, the lusty month of May!

A huge thank you to my friend TS for editing & posting last week's Tuesday Tea Time. You know you've got good people in your life when you text them (yes both TS & AS) at 7am their time, simply to ask for help getting your blog posted, & they willingly jump on board with not a peep about the time difference between your location & their's. I'm sure it was a delightful way to potentially be woken up to on a Monday morning!

This week marks 7 weeks already gone by since baby Kaia Gene graced us with her presence. Every Monday I remember the Monday morning she was born & give thanks for her life, my life, Z's life, & Easter. I then take a deep breath and move on into my day. 

Last Monday I was attending a work related retreat & while it is a bit of a retreat, it is also work related & therefore of course there was a guest speaker. This year's speaker was Dr. Ben Stewart of LSTC & he shared his passions regarding creation care & natural burials. It really is fascinating work for the church & world, but all I could think while he was speaking was 'shit! My daughter is in a pearl urn.' There's nothing natural about a pearl urn or the reality that Z & I had to make the decisions we did about our daughter's life. Many parents can relate on a variety of levels to this unfair, but real & natural piece of life.

While life can be unfair at times, there is plenty of life to celebrate. And that is just what we do in this lusty month of May, we celebrate!

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!

Hello Tuesday Tea Timers!

Northern MI has finally been kissed with a touch of true Spring weather. It's amazing the buzz of energy this brings to everybody & everything. We're eager to celebrate the warm weather & all that it brings. We've already been enjoying the usual Spring cleaning pieces of switching out our wardrobes, sweeping out the garage, putting the cushions on the patio furniture, & taking longer walks with the furbaby.

Over the past several weeks one of the biggest blessings has been people sharing their stories of life with me. The stories have spanned the ages, years, & topics. They have all been raw with life & spirit, & the sharing created sparkle.

For decades it's been taboo to talk about the loss of a baby (at any stage), mental health complications, & much of life. We seem to make these taboo pieces taboo simply by not sharing our stories around them. The reality is though, even if our stories are that we don't have words to tell our stories, that is our story. There are great stories told in the silence & sighs of life, as well as in the the screams & exclamations.

My story, in just the last year or so, has been greatly impacted by the realities of a loved one living with mental health complications that have rocked our world. And if you've been following tea times recently, you know that last month I delivered our first baby extremely prematurely resulting in her death & the loss of a piece of our hearts. We are a living taboo & our stories are one in a million.

Thank you to all for sharing the deep, below the surface realities of life with me. We learn how to react & care for one another in the taboos of life, when we live through these moments together. Living through these moments with y'all near & far is a blessed time of sharing our hearts with one another.

Tuesday Tea Time!

 Hiya Tuesday Tea Timers!

What a wild ride of life over the past month, to say the least. Many of you have joined in the abundance of tea consuming & good life discussions that can do nothing other than deepen relationships. Thank you for being part of community. As my friend, colleague, & mentor Dr. Terri Elton, has said about me, I thrive on community. Being part of a community that works to exist for the sake of each other is key to many a persons, if not all, well being.

For now our space for Kaia is complete. In its current state, 1 month after her birth & death, it has almost the most decor it will have. Providing friends come forward with art they wanted to make for baby Kaia, those pieces will be added to her memory space. In a few months we'll bury her ashes, and in due time her future siblings will be gifted the use & play of the books, blankets, & Beatrix Potter stuffed animals. The pieces that will always be a part of her space in our home will be her name blocks, framed foot print piece, a glass cross from the funeral home, a ceramic angel from her Papau's pharmacy co-workers, a few knit pieces, and a gifted piece of art or two.

The pieces have come together for today. Our baby Kaia rests peacefully in our hearts & more literally in the heavens around us with God who holds us all together (despite our attempts to break apart) & even more literally in her small pearl urn on the cedar chest in our room. We drink our tea & move along one day at a time.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello tea time friends. Have you ever had the experience of watching something on tv & then watching it come to life right in front of you? We all know the things we watch on tv are based from someone's (or perhaps many a someones) real life story (& the pieces of many stories). It's not often we actually believe our lives could become a piece of such story telling.

So much life has happened in the last year that not only have we joked about a movie or a book, but others have even suggested it. While we choose to acknowledge the hardships, celebrate the joys, & continue into the tomorrows, it's hard to imagine our crazy wonderful challenges as captivating for an actual media story. We've been friends since the Fall of 2009, a couple since the beginning of 2010, & JZ since Summer 2011. 2015 was a year of one scary life piece after another (ya know, mental health diagnosis, a few change of jobs, multiple moves, glamping & a trip to Japan) & then, just when we didn't think more excitement could be had in a year, we found out we were pregnant.

2016 is a new adventure with names to many of the wild life challenges, but yet much of the pieces leave us wondering. The wonderful pieces leave us to dream. And pieces of those dreams will become reality & we'll have new unnamed pieces that send us into further wonderings. The named pieces will give us the grounding we need to move forward one day at a time, piece by piece. And so we go with the courage to be (& simply be) & Life, Spirit, Sparkle as our guide.

For a glimpse of what we watched the night before Kaia was born & in our recovering days since, check out PBS/BBC Call The Midwife.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Kaia Gene

March 14, 2016 9:33a - 11:07a

Beautiful & pure new life

You graced us

With your tiny breathes

Your long feet

Your potential height

Your daddy's nose

Baptized with ice cold water

Holy in the moment 

& the Word of God

The Spirit present

May you dance

& dance

With the saints

Gone before

Always loved

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello Tuesday Tea Time!

In the last week I have been processing one significant life change. While it has nothing to do with baby Frieda, of course it makes me wonder about her future.

Last week Youth Encounter (YE) announced their closing. This was not a huge surprise, but just as a beloved spot such as camp is hard to let go of, so is an organization that provided those spots all over the world.

I grew up with YE ministries. I learned about church, love, friendship, adventure, missions, & following a Spirit led call through my experiences. I went to my first youth quake in the fifth grade & was hooked by the Spirit. I then attended my first Congress turned Construction Zone (aka Zone) as a 9th grader & when I went off to college I volunteered at all the events nearby that I could. It was only natural to apply for a year of volunteer ministry to follow my college graduation. And when you survived nearly a full year of living in intentional community, why not apply for a second year?!

And we can't forget being introduced to great opportunities such as Side by Side (SxS) Global Missions & Spoke Folk (SF). I signed up for SxS in September 2001. I told my parents I was going to Kenya in 2002 & that'd I'd be 18, so they couldn't tell me no. Possibly not the best approach, but it's what was done. So when I returned from a month of travels to & from Kenya, I blindly signed up for SF. It took one SF tour to have me hooked. I was always trying to recruit others to do SF with me. In fact some of my CAP fam couldn't believe when I said I hadn't toured in a year or more.

Now it's been 14yrs since SxS, 8yrs since SF, 8yrs since Mosaic, & 7yrs since New Dawn. After finishing my year with New Dawn in Fall '09 I started seminary & started a new phase of life. Time slipped by & I have volunteered & worked temp jobs for YE as I was offered & able. In fact I was working for YE right before my current call.

Saturday night I attended my last piece of a YE event. I saw friends I hadn't seen in years & trust the Spirit will bring us together again. I was hit by all these pieces of ministry that have helped get me to where I am today. Then I was hit by the fact that it was my first & last chance to share YE, in that way, with baby Frieda. Frieda will no doubt have her own story, but she will also have one of the largest extended families one could imagine. No matter where I go, there are connections of friends who pick up right where we are & I trust they will offer that same YE family welcome to baby Frieda as she builds her own adventure.

Thank you YE for being such a powerful presence for the church over the last 51 years. I'm beyond blessed to have known your ministry & to take it with me through the years to come.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello Tuesday Tea Time!

Today I come to you 3.5 teas in for the day. One to start the day, 0.5 in my Arnold Palmer at lunch, & a 2 bag oops to end the day. If decaf drinks aren't truly 100% caffeine free, what does it mean when you accidentally (or purposely) use 2 tea bags instead of 1?!

That's life though, filled with surprise of all sorts! I was multitasking & went to remove my tea bag to find & remove two tea bags. Double the plum green tea! 

After the last week of family matters, crazy travels, work, & the health of both my dad & Z's dad & our growing families (we have a new niece!) this 2 tea bag at once crazy seems pretty normal. All these pieces of life plus gray late winter weather & continual snow fall & the whole pregnancy piece have me wiped out!

To pick myself up I drink more tea & water, but really it's all about pace & balance. I think I've written before about not feeling guilty when Tuesday Tea Time happens late, so today toss your self inflicted guilt aside & enjoy an evening tea. 

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.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Tuesday Tea Time is here again!

Lately I've been drinking a lot of tea in lieu of the bitter colder than articles that catch  weather & the cough I can't seem to kick to the curb. It warms the soul & the throat.

I finally read that one Still Steeping article I've been saving for weeks, if not a few months now about why tea is a religion & coffee isn't. Anybody else do that with articles that catch their attention but aren't pertinent to their day to day life? I'm certain I'm not alone.

So why is tea a religion & coffe isn't? I urge you to read the article, but here's my takeaways. Coffee brewers are always trying new things (also good for religions) & tea is highly based on traditions (& so are many a religion. This was the catch for me bc I appreciate tradition, but it's important to make new (try new) tradition.

Like I said, read the article, but know that by being part of Tuesday Tea Times, you are participating in the religion of tea & we are part of an ancient world of traditions that build a beautiful community of tea love.