Tea

Do you like tea?  Or are you a coffee drinker?  Perhaps you like both as I do.  Because of my allergy to coffee, I don't drink much of it, so I have become a connoisseur of tea.  I like all kinds of tea; black, green, flavored, and I always have a "new" tea that I like.  I get tea catalogs and tea emails.  First thing in the morning I like hot tea.  My new favorite is Twinings English Afternoon Tea.  How much sense does that make; afternoon tea in the morning?  But it is just the right strength; not too strong or not too weak.  Also, you can't go wrong with Twinings. I like their English Morning Breakfast Tea also. 
In the summer the only time I like hot tea is in the morning with a piece of toast.  After that I put it on ice; plain or with a lemon.  
In restaurants, I like to order an "Arnold Palmer" which is black tea with lemonade.  Sometimes they put too much lemonade in it. I like 3/4 tea to 1/4 lemonade and I will ask for it like that.  
If I buy a jug of tea it is Trader Joe's Unsweetened Green and White Tea with Mint. The chef likes that too even though he is the undisputed coffee drinker in the house. 
I also like iced Tazo green tea at Starbucks; sometimes with lemonade in it.  The lemonade all depends on the diet that I am on. Lol.   
If I make sun tea, I put five or six tea bags in a big jug; add some Stevia leaves that I grow and a few mint leaves along with lemon balm leaves. And I steep it in the sun for a couple of hours.  
In the winter, I like the spicier teas like chai tea; but not too sweet. I like Cinnamon tea also in the winter.  Sometimes I will take a strong tea like Scottish Breakfast Tea and put milk or cream in it.  
I get catalogs and email from "Republic of Tea" (served at Panera), Teavana and a few others.  I was in a Teavana store at Partridge Creek Mall on Saturday and boy were they are HARD SELL.  For that reason I didn't buy anything and decided I could order it on the internet if I REALLY wanted it.  
What about you?  Do you have a relationship with tea?  Just come and check out my stash.  

Party

My mother used to say you feel older when your children get older.  Today is our first-born's 43rd birthday.  I can't believe that!  He was born one week early and cried before he was even completely into the world.  The first thing the doctor told me was that he had red hair.  The first grandchild of my parents had red hair like my dad.  My parents had six children and no one had red hair.  I had strawberry blonde and freckles so I was the closet to the red hair.  I think they were pleased to finally have a red-head in the family.  
Yesterday we went to said child's house and celebrated all the July birthdays including his.  The kids had a ball playing together on the new play set with swings and a slide and climbing ropes.  The moms (Audrey, Karen,) and I sneaked off to the sidewalk sales at Partridge Creek Mall.  Don't ask me where it is...I am not familiar with their side of town.  We had a good time and picked up some bargains.  
Then we had dinner which Kevin and Audrey cooked.  They are the best cooks around.  I would rather go to their house than to a restaurant.  I felt a little bad Kevin had to cook for his birthday, but that feeling passed quickly after eating the shish kabobs of beef, chicken and veggies.  We had corn on the cob (so sweet) and bean salad.  And then Karen made the best brownie trifle that everyone loved, even down to licking the bowl.  
Kevin is off to Paris today for work; he goes there a lot and he is even getting immune to the sights, especially since he has to work until 8:00 p.m. and deal with jet-lag.  
So, Happy Birthday to our oldest.  We are proud of you and your lovely family!
                     

Birthdays

July is a big month for birthdays in our family.  Yesterday we celebrated Joy Boy's four-and-a-half birthday (yes we do that in our family) and today is Amels' (as we call her) fifth birthday.  She is number six of our seven grandchildren.  She is our son's little live-wire.  We will actually be celebrating all the July birthdays this weekend.  
Amels has natural curly hair and loves most bugs and little creatures.  You never know what she will have in her hand.  When she spent the weekend here she seemed very partial to frogs.  So...when I went birthday shopping I had this frog theme going.  The birthday card doesn't say "Happy Birthday" but "I miss you" only because it was the only frog card I could find.  
I remember my fifth birthday...it is one of the first memories I have.  We were on vacation at a cottage on Gun Lake and I learned to tie my shoes.  I remember distinctly trying over and over again until I got it right. 
Meanwhile, Happy Birthday to our littlest granddaughter; Five is a big number!

Joy Boy's half birthday

Hmmm...this sand cone looks good.

I think someone is faking

Stupid Game

Well, I am hooked, I really am.  I can't stop even if I want to. It goes on and on and on; over and over again. Just new letters, different words, different people.  After awhile you forget who you are playing.  Yes, it is "Words With Friends."  The computer game like Scrabble.  You pick your friends and you play them making words or in some cases making up words to see who wins the final game.  I have lost more than I have won, but I am still learning...ha ha, wonder how long I can say that.  Capri K has talked about this game for months.  My friend Betty got me started with the help of Kristen and I haven't stopped since.  I stay up later than I like.  Every time I sit down I check "my" games.  It is all made easier by the portability of the iPhone or in my case the iPad.  You wouldn't believe the words.  I literally make up words and about 50% of them are actually words.  
Now I have heard there are "Cheat" sites that will help you make words but I don't know what they are.  I did use a Scrabble dictionary for awhile, but I found it is easier to try the words yourself.  Unlike Scrabble you can try multiple times a turn.  
The other day I swore I was going to quit playing.  I either had all vowels or all consonants; in fact, that happens a lot.  But then I scored BIG and I am hooked again.  
JA and QAT and JIVEY and DIVOTS are all words.  I have stopped looking them up in the dictionary to see what they mean.  I just want to know what they score.  Well I am off...there are games to play.

What A Fun Day

I must admit, I just love birthdays; especially my own. Lol.  Donaldo took me out for breakfast which was a treat for him also.  I got lots of birthday wishes on facebook from family and friends.  I got calls from all my kids and one of my siblings and a text from another one.  And my dear dad gave me a call because he wrote the date on the calendar.  
Donaldo gave me a beautiful card and we are going out sometime this week to replace my wedding ring because the diamond fell out in a pool in St. Louis and we never found it.  
In the afternoon, Karen and Riley and I went to one of those pottery places where you paint the pottery and they fire it and you pick it up in a week.  It was harder than I thought and because I am a perfectionist, (okay, I am working on that) I am worried how it will turn out.  I had picked out a vegetable bowl with handles and I had some large areas to paint and some curvy areas to paint.  I painted it the color of my dishes at home.  I promise to put a picture of it on my blog when I pick it up.  
We finished the day at California Pizza Kitchen for dinner with Karen and Raymond and kids.  I had my favorite dessert, tiramisu.  I am not sure on the spelling of that one.  Brady and Riley couldn't wait for me to open their presents. Brady made his (so cute) and Riley had to tell me SHE picked out mine.  
It was a great birthday.  Aren't birthdays fun?  I loved all the cards too even the Medicare card.  

07/07/2013

Well I feel the same as I did yesterday, but I heard a quote from David Jeremiah this morning that I want to practice this coming year:  "Every day enjoy what God has given to you.  Joy is his gift and heritage to you."  Amen

Carol is my friend who lives in Florida.  We have known each other since junior high school.  She visited me for a few hours last week.  She will be 65 next month.  Impossible, I still maintain!!!

The Eve Of......

....my 65th birthday, I wonder how I got to be this age.  Here I am in the picture on my first birthday in our band new house.  The hymn writer wrote it well that "Life at best is very brief; like the falling of a leaf."  I have been making a scrapbook of all my baby pictures and other mementos my mother and I have saved and it has been a walk down memory lane; so many of them.
I can't think of where the time has gone, but I also am thinking what to I want to do in the remaining time I have left.  Of course I have always thought the Lord would come before I died and perhaps He will.  That would be the greatest way to end my life on earth.  Both my mother and grandmother told me they thought He would come in my lifetime.  That doesn't make is so, but I have held on to that hope.
I look at the little girl here and I don't recognize her because I don't remember being one.  I am glad my mom kept the pictures and gave them to me.
I am on Medicare now of course, and that always follows with a few jokes here and there.  But tonight I am thinking of my blessings and wish I could name them all one by one, but there are too many.

*I was born into a Christian family
*I had wonderful grandparents
*My dad had a good job
*I had good friends in school
*I had Christian friends outside of school
*I was born again when I was young
*I married a wonderful Christian husband who provided well for us
*I got to work part-time when the kids were little
*I have Christian friends now
*I had three children-a boy and two girls who have seven children (our grandchildren) among them and are responsible,loving parents.
*I have gone on some lovely vacations
*I live in the old homestead
*I have lots of siblings........ a little trying, sometimes :)
*God loves me
*I love God

I feel like I should only be forty-eight or something like that, but I am slowing down a bit; things aren't quite the same as they used to be.  It's the new normal and as long as I keep a sense of humor things should go well.  I am thankful to so many people for investing time in my life both past and present and for praying for me.  I can't complain...I will leave the belly piercing and tattoos to those others who are searching for something different in life.  I don't like different so much anymore; I like what I have.  So cheers to my 65th year; may the Lord make it meaningful to Him.

Another Fourth

You can see, I am still spotty with my blogs; they come here and there, at odd times.  We are celebrating the Fourth today with Karen and family and have some chicken skewers for the Barbe.  We have some veggies and pineapple for Donaldo to grill also.  
The firecrackers have been really loud this year.  I finally put the air conditioning on last night so I could sleep.

  
I have kept this picture in a frame for years; my mother had it up at the cottage for a long time, but I finally rescued it.  It was taken the year the cottage was finished except for the deck. We were up there for the Fourth of July.  They were playing patriotic songs on the radio and my mom and Kristen were marching around the unfinished deck to the music.  This picture reminds me how much fun my mother could be and she loved doing things with the kids.  It makes me wish we could back to those fun times.  But we create new memories and Kristen is a grown-up mom with kids the age she was in this picture.  But that is why I hold on to the pictures-such a trip down memory lane.