Tea Tuesdays--Some things will never change!!

I'm so crazy about tea, particularly Japanese green, that I even have to write my tea posts in green, just to keep the feel. Now that's insane!! But there are so many reasons to love tea!! If you want to go back and read from the beginning of my blog posts on tea, want to educate yourself on this incredible beverage, want to see some nice pictures, and just how far I'll go to tell you about tea, go to my other blog, http://www.howdowegettherefromhere.blogspot.com/, and click on To the Tune of Tea Tuesdays. There is a lot to see and read.

Today, I want to give thanks to Lori Overcash and Larry Malone for gifting me with some incredible Assam black tea. Yes, I am primarily a green tea fan, but blended properly, I can really appreciate a great black tea also, and that is exactly what I am going to do with my latest tea gifts. I have enough to enjoy for a long time, and I have enough to share. Hmm...did you hear that? Share!!

I smell a giveaway!!  Yes, you can possibly win some of my pure, black, Assamese type tea and drink it straight or blend it with your favorite dried fruit, spices, or herbs.  What do you have to do?  Just leave a comment, I will take them all and draw a name at random. That person will be the winner. Pretty simple, huh?

The other reason for this post is to tell you my ideas of what I'm thinking of doing with the remainder of my black tea. I really, really have been wanting to make chai. Chai, as you may already know, incorporates, black tea, spices, herbs, milk, and sugar. Oh my goodness!!  It is one of my favorite winter beverages. It is so soothing, smooth, tasty, spicy, and delicious. I drink it as long as the weather is cool or cold, and I won't stop until well into spring. If I don't make chai with all of it, I'd like to blend the remainder with bergamot to try my own Earl Grey or blend some with dried fruit. For the spring and summer, I would blend it with dried, edible flower petals. Do you have any blending ideas? Help me decide. Maybe between us, I can divide it up and make samplings of many things.

I'll end this post by giving you one of many chai recipes you can try on your own. Have a great tea-drinking moment today!

Try This:

Boil 5 minutes, then steep 10 minutes:

1 Tbsp fennel or anise seed

6 green cardamom pods

12 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 in. ginger root, sliced thin

1/4 tsp black pepper corns

2 bay leaves

7 cups of water (spring or filtered)

Add, bring to a boil, and simmer 5 minutes:

2 Tbsp Darjeeling or Assam black tea

Add:

6 Tbs. honey or brown sugar

1 cup of milk

Parenting Is a Forever Trust and Treasure

You know, I've written an article similar but not totally like this before, but it's worth revisiting. For those of you who have grown children, especially ones who may have made mistakes, this may be especially worth reading. You never stop parenting some kind of way.

I have a semi-grown son (he's 19, married, and has our first grandson). Before he and his wife moved in with us to get their "footing" before he joins the Air Force, he called me one day and said, "Mom, I've decided I'm not a grown up after all. I still need your help and advice, and I've got so much on my plate, I wish I was a kid again."  What?!!  What parent didn't know this already, and upon hearing it, just wants to jump up and down--except you jump inside while you look calm and nonjudgemental on the outside. Well, I didn't have to have the calm look because my conversation was over the phone. That means I got to smile...knowingly.

In a perfect world, my son would be in college right now, on a full academic scholarship (he is such an academically smart and creative kid) more than half done with his 4 years, looking forward to graduation and his big future, still single but possibly dating with the intent of getting married (waiting purposely on that until some time after graduation), a job, a starter house to bring her home to, and only needing me to send love, blessings, those anticipated care packages and a little monetary support. Nice dreams mom, but that's not our world. I don't know if it was ever in his future for things to turn out this way, but one thing I am sure of, is that it wasn't in his future, at least not in God's perfect will for him, to turn out the way it has.

You see, my son, yeah, that smart kid, had a mental breakdown at 15 1/2 that lasted 2 1/2 years, rebelled against authority like never before, left home for short stints without us knowing, lost his short-term memory and sense of direction, lost some of his academic abilities, and thought he had gone so far that God couldn't forgive him or use him for anything. This was a few things among many that he and we suffered through those years. Poor kid. What now?

My job, at this point, was supposed to be Mom the Life Coach, the supporter who came alongside, the prayer warrior for the adult child out on his own, etc., not the mom who needed God to show her that she wasn't going to have some sort of breakdown herself when all of this hit. No, things don't always go quite the way we planned, expected, or think that we and our children deserve. But, whose world is this anyway? And is EVERYTHING not filtered through the hands of God? Am I any better than anyone else? Why should I think I DESERVE better and be disappointed about the fact that mine was a less than perfect world? What world did I think I was living in anyway? I got answers to ALL of these questions. I got clarity on the ones I already knew the answers to. I got closer to the Lord. I had a new job to do, and I needed to be a new kind of parent.

Grown kids can have anything from the greatest situations happen to them in life where we are just so extremely proud of them, we can't wait to tell everybody, or they can have situations where we're so ashamed of their behavior, that we don't want to tell anybody, except maybe our closest, prayer-warring friends. I chose to be the parent that learned how to parent an almost adult child, and one that had issues to boot. I chose to be what I needed in my friends and family--a prayer warrior and not a worrier. 

My son is better now, but his statement still comes to mind often. He needs me still, in some kind of way, even when he was rebelling and didn't realize he needed me. They need us. We're not done parenting, whether they've done well or made mistakes. This parenting thing is a life-long commitment, whether they live with you or live five states over. Their every conversation with you says that "I trust you to love me, support me, tell me the truth, pray for me, correct me, advise me, and be there for my children, if God chooses this for me."

My son has come back and not only apologized, but has verbally proved to us that he understands the need for a parent and that he doesn't want to live this life without one (until God calls us home). He doesn't want his son to miss out on the blessings of a loving grandparent.  Now this is where I smile again, but this time, I can let him see me. I want him to know that this makes a parent happy. This isn't a smile of pride that thinks, "Yeah, I knew you'd come back and tell me that. I knew you'd see the light one day boy! I knew I was right."  It's a knowing smile that God is good, and He is good all of the time, through good and bad. It's a smile that says He is in control, even when we think that He has abandoned us or briefly forgotten about us and our situation. It is a smile that says that He is still in the miracle working business, although a God that speaks the earth into existence didn't work a miracle. That would only be in our eyes. He just does what THE GOD of the universe does. He IS GOD! Creating things is easy for Him. I smiled that day because I realized that I didn't have to have a prodigal son who returned home, and if he didn't, I knew that I still needed to be okay with that. And you know what? I had already gotten that way, before he came back. 

God had promised good to me, and He wanted me to know that His good and my good may look different, but that He was still truly GOOD!  He can't be otherwise.  My son is not the same he was before his breakdown, but he is so much better than he was. I don't have any idea why God chose not to restore him completely or back to his former self, but I know it's part of His perfect plan for the rest of my son's life. I gave this son, in my heart and mind, back to the one who created and designed him. What better parent than God can he have? I don't come close. Our Abba Father is my son's loving parent. And God has used me as His earthly vessel to do His parenting through. So I can't afford to be prideful. I must be humble. For he still needs me...

Be Still Sundays

I love the "Be Still Sunday" button. I used this on my last blog. It's my Sunday post. I would use it in place of writing on Sunday. It was my reminder to myself and my readers to just take the time to slow down today and be still; let God minister to us and hear His voice. It's also a time to reflect on what you learned today at church or wherever you worshipped.

I really only slow down and am still for part of the day. I do AWANA (http://www.awana.org/) on Sunday evenings. It gives me a chance to minister to children, specifically the girls grades 3-6. I love what God is allowing me to do with them, and I love them.

Anyway, I usually won't post on Sundays. When you visit me here on Sundays, you will see the above button. I hope you take the time today, at some point if not the whole day, to be still.

What's Up With The Latest Outbursts?!!

Can somebody help me with the latest embarrasing outbursts we've been seeing for the last few months?  Is this lack of self-control, decency, and protocol becoming the norm?  But then, I guess when you have the start of this phenomena start with Jessie Jackson saying something negative about the President before he could even get in office good, and the whole world being privy to it, what can you expect?  I think that started the ball rolling and gave everybody license (including the person who is supposed to be the biggest "example setter"-the President himself) to do the same thing.

After Jessie (who is lower than the bottom on my "like list") spilled his cup of hater-ade, we turn to our Chief Commanding Officer admitting that he didn't have all the facts on the case of a police officer arresting his friend Henry Gates, yet publicly he said the officer acted "stupidly." Next up, we get Rep. Wilson who quite audibly and pointedly told the Pres he lied during one of the CCO's speeches/addresses. Move on to Serena Williams, whom everyone respected in the game of tennis, who loses so much control that she threatens to shove a tennis ball down the throat of a line ref, AND, as if that wasn't enough, we get Kanye "master at losing control-no tact" West who just completely embarrases and robs another singer of her earned moment in the spotlight.  I can top that one still, because we end these charades by having the President (yes, our leader again) overheard calling Kanye what he (Kanye) was truly acting like...a jack***!!!  What twittering or tweeting can do for you or against you!!  Be careful what you say folks!  Someone may be listening!

Yeah, I hear ya--"Everyone makes mistakes, no one should have leaked what the Pres said, everyone gets angry and out of control sometimes, we're all human, yadda, yadda, yadda."  Okay if that's the case, what do YOU have to say about all of this?  Comment or give me your OUTBURST!

Second Blog, Different Day, Something Old, Something New

(The nerve to be in my son's room--scaarryyy!)

I'm blogging again folks, and I'm sure, like the first time, I won't be one of the mega bloggers in blogsphere, but then, that was never the intent. In fact, I would have just picked up where I left off at http://www.howdowegettherefromhere.blogspot.com/, but I had been away from it for a year, didn't keep the same email address, and so, couldn't access or post on my old blog when I picked back up. Thus, a call for a new one. How exciting! (You can still access and read posts at the old blog. I think you'll like them.) I want to continue with some of the same labels and post themes that I had, but add some new ones. I hope you'll appreciate the old and the new.

If you know me, you know that I love Jesus, my family, my church, friends, tea, writing and a good writing instrument, poetry, homeschooling, learning, grilled veggies, my husband's BBQ sauce, watching my new grandbaby grow, learning to do life with those God puts in my path, Pampered Chef stoneware, vintage clothing, antiques, dogs, the Greek language, politics and a Christian worldview, and so much more. If you didn't know this, well, welcome to my life. Now you know.

Feel free to give me ideas and labels of things you'd like to talk about. Throw in your opinions and comments too. I can't promise you that we'll include everyone's ideas every time, but we'll do what we can.

Check in with me weekly. I'm looking forward to us meeting right here! It would be better if you met me over a cup of Oolong or green tea!