Tea and Trick or Treating

The question in my head today is, do kids go door to door anymore to trick or treat?  When I was single, I can only remember a handful of kids that knocked on my door.  And that is over a ten year period.

Now, I do have to take into account, that in that time I spent many a Halloween working either graveyard or swing shift.  So I was either sleeping or working most Halloweens when the kids would be out.  But, in the time that I have been working an 8-5 job I only see about 2-3 kids each year.

And each year the downtown businesses do a big trick or treating thing, the malls do a trick or treating thing, and a few other businesses have special trick or treating events.  Not to mention the churches that do the "trunk or treating".

So, with this being the first year I'm taking my child out I have to decide.  Will we go door to door? or will we simply do a few events and go home?

Honestly.  Probably the events and go home.  For one, most of those are on the Saturday before Halloween, and I don't have time to get home from work, get everyone ready, get dinner on the table and get trick or treating in before bath and bedtime.  I can barely get dinner on the table before bath and bedtime. Lets not add in the Halloween sugar addiction.

So tell me, do you trick or treat door to door?

Tea and snow

Friday it was chocolate mint tea day.  I'm not sure what brand it is, but it's teabags not loose leaf.  I'm going to order teavana's chocolate mint tea soon, and see how that tastes.

Friday, I stayed home from work.  My babysitter didn't want to try traveling in the weather, and I don't blame them.  So I watched as around 16 inches of snow dumped onto my yard.  I wandered outside early in the morning to shake the snow off the trees.  The sound of tree branches cracking and breaking all around the yard and in the neighbors yards is a scary sound.  Very never ending story nothingness.....

I went out with my husband after dark, when the snow was slowing down, to shake the trees again.

Today, he's been cleaning up branches all day.  This crazy snowstorm completely snapped the top of some trees around here.  But really, we have it easy.  A good chunk of this town was plunged into darkness as the tree branches downed power lines.  Now we, the collective we, as in the entire town, is going to be spending the next week or so cleaning up tree branches, and trimming what's left of the trees so they survive the rest of the winter.

Tea and Fall

Today's tea is  Sterling Tea Caramel Nut.  Is it currently brewing as I type, but it does have a nice caramel flavor, and there are bits of almonds in it.  I think I've posted about it before.

Fall is here.  We had a bit of a snowfall Friday, and even though the weatherman predicted it, I didn't believe him and was surprised when I woke up and it was snowing Friday morning.  It followed a nice heavy rainstorm on Thursday night, so everything was heavy with snow.  Trees hung low, our canopy we have set up in the back yard is fairly demolished.  The metal rods that used to support the canopy in an arching upward fashion, are now arching down, so you have to duck under them.  Since this is the first September snowstorm we've had in four years, and the temps were in the high seventies all week prior to this, I don't think anyone was prepared.

So today I have some fall yard work to tend to.  Mostly coiling up hoses, picking up all kinds of branches that broke off the tree yesterday, and putting any leftover remnants of summer away.  While it's sad to see the warmer days go, at the same time I can look forward to having just a little more time to myself.  Since now my evenings and weekends won't be full of tending the lawn and garden.

Which means that this is the first weekend since the gardening began that I have brewed a full pot of tea!  Because while I do have yard work to do today.  I don't think it will take up that much of my time.  (why am I blogging instead of doing that?  I'm waiting for my two year old to settle down and nap.  At the moment she is in her room singing to herself.)

Today is the first day the farmers market down the street is selling pumpkins.  Since I always have put it off until the last second, I have always run around town finding out that not even Walmart has pumpkins.  This year I was prepared and a week or so ago I had cash in my car, waiting for the pumpkin sign to show its self.  Therefor, I have acquired quite the large pumpkin (as seen below)  Now I must keep it safe and chilled until Halloween, and we can carve it into a large "masterpiece"

You'll also notice the BOX of pomegranates.  I love pomegranates. In fact, that bowl of seeds pictured is already mostly gone.  This is the only box of fruit I will get from bountifulbaskets.org because at the moment, I don't can, or freeze, or any of that sort of thing.  And my husband doesn't think to eat the fruit in the house as a general rule, so I eat most of it.  So a box of peaches or apples would go bad before it could get used.  But a box of pomegranates won't.  I know because I got a box last fall and I pretty much ate the entire thing.  Which is not ever something to be ashamed about.  It's not like it's a pallet of cupcakes we're talking about.

If you have not heard of bountifulbaskets.org I urge you to look into it.  It is a very affordable way to try a wide range of fruits and vegetables.  Through them I have discovered my love for butternut squash, and Brussels spouts.    Not to mention I've finally learned not to hate bananas.  Like I said, my husband won't just snack on the fruit.  I have way too many frozen bananas in the fridge waiting to turn into cookies, or bread, or something to not just start eating them, and learning to like them.

Well, it sounds like a nap is not in the works today.  Looks like I'm going to have to bundle the little girl up and take her out there on my yard cleaning mission with me.

Until next time, enjoy that cup of tea!

(Can you tell I write so much better at three in the afternoon instead of about midnight?)

Tea and Teacups!

The tea this week has been fireside by The Old Wilmington Tea Company.  Mostly a cinnamon tea.  But it's a bit too cinnamon for my taste.  Probably thanks to some email I got a few months ago that said hot water mixed with cinnamon and honey is good for all kinds of things.  So I drank said hot water with cinnamon and honey for about a week or two.  Now, any seriously cinnamon tea makes my stomach turn a bit.  Which is sad, since I did enjoy such teas prior to that.

So this week I visited a thrift store, and found a pretty teacup to drink my tea out of!  I have been drinking it out of the prettiest coffee cup I own up until this point.  Granted, this is my cup for drinking tea at home.  I still use my silly cat mug at work.  Although, I am seriously considering going back to the thrift store to find another cup for work.

I had been looking all over town, and a few places online, for a nice teacup.  Why I never thought to look in a thrift store I don't know.  I wasn't even looking when I went to the store.  I was just there because of my job.

I don't know, there is just something about drinking your tea out of a delicate tea cup to make you feel all fancy, no matter what you are wearing.

Of course, I had to take a photo of my first cup of tea in my new teacup.

Tea and rain

This week has been crazy.  Between the constant overcast days.  The rain that has followed, and not to mention all the flooding going on, it's been different.

At the beginning of the week I stepped out, and found that fall had arrived!  Saturday we were running through the sprinklers, Monday I'm shopping for sweater dresses.

So, the tea of the week has been "holiday" by Old Wilmington Tea Company  It has the perfect flavor to begin the fall with.



As I was enjoying the fall weather outside, I was pondering pencils inside.

I wonder how many people, not counting school children, still use a pencil.  Anymore people directly type their thoughts, projects, or what have you's onto a screen.  Whether it is a computer, tablet, cell phone, what have you.

I find that when it comes to this blog, I just type it out.

When I have a moment to work on my book (because we all are working on a book right?) I use a pencil.

When I am at work, again, I use a pencil.  There is just something to putting a pencil to paper that seems to help me think creatively.

And it has nothing to do with the fact that you can erase a pencil.  I can erase text I type a lot easier than I can erase a pencil.  I am a bit heavy handed when it comes to writing.

To tell me, what is your preferred method of letting your creativity show?

Tea and meditation

Tea of the week has been a return to the cupcake tea.  Although, there really hasn't been much tea drinking this week.  It seems the busier I am, the less tea I have time to brew.

This week I spent quite a bit of my free time at home rearranging my office to fit in a desk that a house down the street abandoned.  The entire experiment started with moving a bookcase across the room. Then trying to get the desk into the room, only to find it didn't fit.

Of course, with a little (er, lot) of re-arranging I managed to get everything to fit, and ended up getting a lot of the clutter off the floor.

Which leads me to the actual point to this whole entry.

In creating a giant mess,  I managed to clean up an area that has been a constant thought in the back of my mind.  In the sense that I walk in the room to get something, look around, grimace, and shut the door.  In the end, the larger mess encompassed the smaller mess, as of course, I had to clean up the entire thing.

And now, I have an office that is a space I can relax in.

Now, the challenge will be keeping the clutter of the desk.  Being a flat space and all.....

Everyone needs a space that is there own.  A room, or even a corner.  Depending on your situation.  But whatever it is, make that space, take it over with the things you love.  Own that space.  It will help create a sense of self and and calm.

Or at least it will give you someplace to go when the world has gone mad.

I have returned

The previously mentioned pomegranate tea has been in my cup the last few weeks.  

My computer was almost drop kicked through the window. Or at least out the door.  It's acting a little nicer today, but still not completely behaving its self.  I blame Windows 8.  

Anyway.

Right now the only thing I have on my mind is a book I read years and years ago.  I have no idea what it was called, or who wrote it.  And Google is of no help at the moment.

So, what's a person to do?

Well, what this person is going to do is describe what I remember and hope someone knows what I'm talking about.

Pretty sure it was a Harlequin book.

It was about this woman who was blind, the starting scene is her running into a man after going to the library, literally.  He, of course, is completely upset until he realizes she is blind.  Romance ensues until the end when she shows up and can see.  She had lenses placed in her eyes and had voluntarily been blind for a year as research for newspaper articles (or something of that nature).  I want to say he had some kind of a scar or something on his face.  Not quite disfiguring, but enough that he was more comfortable with her when she was blind.

So, if this story is at all familiar to anyone out there, leave me a comment! I'd love to find this book again.