A Cup of Tea.

Before Whit (BW) I was not much of a coffee drinker. I grew up with my dad who would drink a cup every morning (and sometimes finish that same cup in the afternoon. gross.) and my grandmama always liked a cup as well...but my mom did NOT like coffee and my aunt just brewed it for the smell...so that was somewhat the extent of my education on the bean...very limited. Oh I would drink "coffee drinks"...you know the ones that have more sugar than a donut and the whip cream that leaves that weird residue on the roof of your mouth...but not "real" coffee. So when Whit asked me out for the first time he wanted to know if I would like to go get some coffee...I was so excited that he had asked me I would have probably said yes to going just about anywhere. But I found myself in a dilemma...I didn't know what I would get! I didn't want to get the "girly" coffee drink...but I wanted to be myself...at that time I didn't know what all the different coffee drinks were and I was for sure not going to get black coffee. So when faced with the time to choose I ended up going in a totally different direction and got tea...earl grey to be exact. I love tea. I have loved tea for many years. I like it cold and I like it hot. I like it hot more so...but either way it has always been something I have enjoyed. The funny thing is when we met Whit liked his coffee black with nothing in it..I liked mine with "stuff" in it...I liked my tea with nothing in it...he liked his with a little milk and honey. I now drink my coffee black out of a french press and every now and then I put a little honey and milk in my tea. Who am I!? :)

One of the things that I really love about Whit is his knowledge about any particular subject. He knows the most random facts..interesting..but random. Sometimes I think "Did I miss a class in school or something that taught all these tidbits of information?!" But nonetheless it comes in handy almost daily. When we started dating he introduced me to tea on a whole new level (and coffee). He took me to different stores that sold ALL kinds of different blends and varieties...we would get little samples of different kinds to try and see if I liked. I loved it. Out of that I really came to love green tea. The taste takes some time to get used to (it's very earthy) but it truly does wonders for your skin (seriously) and it has great health benefits as well...one being a cancer preventative.

So this Christmas I asked my mom for a Bodum teapot (picture above)..it's so cool. It holds two cups of tea (you can get bigger if you desire) which is perfect for me. I would love to say that I make it in the morning but I am slightly spoiled. Whit gets up before me and makes his coffee and then brings me my tea and sits it on my bedside table. SO SPOILED. I love the bodum pot because you can put your loose tea leaves in the stainless steel filter...boil your water...then pour the water into the teapot. You let it set for 3-4 minutes(depending on how strong you would like it) then press down the plunger. It's so so good and really simple. I have a cup and half almost every morning and often a cup at night. My tea of choice right now is Earl Green and Jasmine Green. Every now and then I will add some milk and honey but I really enjoy it as is. If you do add honey try to get it from your local farmer's market. When it is local honey it has added benefits...it really helps with allergies seeing that the process involves local flowers while most supermarket honey is from overseas.

If you have never given tea a try I highly recommend it. It has many health benefits and is a great start or end to a day.

Enjoy!

Time.

Time. It's the one thing we don't have enough of...and at the same time I'm convinced that if we were given more we would once again find ourselves in the same scenario. A close friend of mine was talking to her counselor one day and was asked to list her priorities out on a piece of paper and then on another sheet she was asked to list a typical day...what she found was that the two didn't match. It's not that we don't have enough time it's that we don't use it for what we intend. 

Over the last 6 months I found myself constantly thinking of ideas for my blog and wanting to share them on here...but I couldn't find the "time". I started a new job and with that my days were pretty booked seeing that I was taking care of a 2 year old and a 2 month old. Yikes! I found myself often wondering, "How do mom bloggers do this so well!?!" But I guess they don't have someone watching over them everyday. :) The children I kept were extremely sweet and I loved my time with them but somehow...be it emotionally or physically...it zapped my creative time. By the time I would get home I was making dinner...going to community group...snuggling with Whit on the couch (aww..) and it was the last thing I wanted to do. But I missed it! Not to mention that almost every week or so Whit would say..."I miss your blog...will you please post something." And I would say " I know I know...I will...don't pressure me! ;)"

When thinking about the new year (2011..it has a ring doesn't it!?) I don't want to be someone that desires something and it ends there...I want to fulfill them. I want my priorities list to match up with my typical day list. I want to be true to who I am. All this to say..."I'm back!" I really desire to carve time out of my life to be able to share myself creatively and share the ideas and thoughts that come into my head throughout the day. I won't be perfect at it I can guarantee you that...and I'm not going to try to be (that's part of whole living...right!?)...I'm just going to give myself the space to create and see what happens. And that feels good.