The Tea Trolley

There has been lots happening food-wise around here with more than the usual company gracing our doorway over the past week before our sabbatical begins in earnest.

I love the fact that Bible study always contains such wonderful, ethnic foods. We had Philipino fruit salad and purple yucca pudding as well as Portuguese olive oil cookies. This was accompanied by my favorite summertime decaf black tea with fresh mint from the garden.

One evening I needed to serve a vegan meal. I combined four things I love to make the meal and I certainly felt it was a feast! I made my favorite rice salad, my favorite chickpea salad (we left out the parmesan for those that couldn't take it) which I can never get enough of, a green salad with a new dressing my mom taught me (1 mashed avocado, juice of 1 lime, 1/4 cup canola oil, 1 mashed garlic clove, salt and pepper), and grilled vegetable kebabs. I should probably make meals like this more often!

A friend invited me to her house for tea this week and we sat with our tea in front of the window and looked out on her backyard. Can you believe the amazing blue sky with white clouds???? With the windows open we could hear all the birds that come to my friend's yard for all the treats she puts out.

We drank Bigelow decaf Earl Grey (which is my favorite decaf Earl Grey).

At the end of last week we had a birthday luncheon for a friend. I made the quiche filling using the recipe for these mini quiches. Christina pointed me to the recipe and it is amazing. We also had spinach salad with sliced kumquats and blueberries -- such a pretty and tasty combination!

The garden provided some lovely decorations for the cake.

Of course the cake is the usual King Arthur gluten free yellow cake.

Here are the Laura twins enjoying lunch.

And I had to throw in a picture of Laura as she is just too cute. :)

One last recipe I tried was tilapia with sliced kumquats and lime with garlic, salt and pepper. Kumquats make a unique and delicious accompaniment to fish!

And that is the week in tea! Happy Weekend!

Words and Wool

I finished this tea cozy last week for a friend's birthday. It is my new favorite thing. I had planned to make crochet roses for the top but they just weren't giving me the look I wanted. So, I ended up putting a few of my own wool roses on top and that made the difference! I used this pattern as a guide for the base.

Rachel finished this shawl for one of her 4-h projects this year. We just got it blocked yesterday. She lost the pattern and so we have no idea what the shawl is called!

A few more mini flowers were made for a special order. They are to go on little girls' shawls.

Here's a picture of the group around the table for the aforesaid birthday celebration. We spent the afternoon sharing various books we were reading and working on our knitting projects. Good fun!

Another friend passed along this bookmark which I was so excited about! Since Rosamunde Pilcher is an author I recently discovered and really enjoy, now I can find some other books that are similar!

I haven't really finished any books this past week -- I'm just in the middle of a bunch! I thought I would share a few CD's we have been listening to and really like.

Scripture memorization has been suffering around here of late and friends suggested a few resources to help me out.

Westminster Shorter Catechism Songsvolume 1 is not Scripture but is an excellent accompaniment to Scripture memorization because it condenses the theology of the Bible into simple questions and answers that are helpful for building a framework for life around. We only have volume one so far but I look forward to collecting all the volumes eventually.


 Scripture 2 by Lisa McCann is our current favorite! My kids and I LOVE this CD. Lisa has compiled several complete Scripture verses into each song around a theme and set them to lively music. She also includes the same songs a second time on the CD but this time set only to acoustic music. I think this can also be purchased directly from Lisa McCann.





  Multiplication Unpluggedis completely unrelated to Scripture memory, but this is the CD that we are trying to listen to this summer to help everyone with their skip counting and multiplication facts.





And that's all for this week! You can find more ideas over at Ginny's Yarn Along.

Please note: this post contains affiliate links.

Mondays are for Grace

"We are on a solemn journey at all times;

and the direction we are taking is of far greater consequence than the point we have reached."

-- John Duncan

The Tea Trolley

The week of tea began with a decaf coffee and a gluten free ding-dong at Le Dolce Vita in Zionsville, accompanied by a friend! The weather has been my idea of perfect for the last few weeks (in the 70's) and it is ideal for sitting outside!

Saturday found me stopping by my mom's artwork display at a local Art Fair:

And then popping across the street to check out the nicest little farmer's market type shop. Look at these amazing strawberries!

There was no time to stop for something to enjoy, but the atmosphere was so lovely I wanted to come back sometime for coffee.

Michael was away for two days at the beginning of the week and that happened to be the night that Laura decided to come down with a high fever and stomach bug. That meant little sleep and lots of time running her to and fro. Fortunately, Laura is a very patient sick person. But there was no time to run downstairs and fix my breakfast so I asked Rachel to bring me something up. Sweet thing came up with this tray she had fixed, complete with flowers. (This is my typical breakfast: whole milk plain yogurt with real maple syrup, decaf black tea with mint)

The biggest treat of the week was getting to go out to dinner with Michael! Thanks to Em and Craig who volunteered to make the evening happen! Michael and I enjoyed a lovely Mediterranean dinner alongside a local canal and then I sipped some herbal tea afterward.

I've been drinking hot things non stop this week in an effort to alleviate sinus pressure from a cold. Yikes! It does help though!

And now I am off to get ready for the next Tea Trolley event! I hope you all have a great weekend!

The Tea Trolley Link Up:
-- Any post that is tea, coffee, or hot drink related
-- Paste your link in the Mr. Linky below

Words and Wool

The Garter Leaves Shawl is blocking as I type. I'm very pleased with it. I like the crescent shape a lot and need to find another pattern with the same crescent or I will just have to keep making these!

Also began some crochet flowers/roses this week. They are smaller than I envisioned. We shall see what I do with them.....

I do love embroidery and took some time out to stitch the name of a new baby to a burp cloth.

 Otherwise, I am in between a bunch of projects and need to get into my craft closet and tidy things up so I can pull things out for the next round of knitting. Maybe I will have some to report on next week!

As for reading:

Missee Lee: The Swallows and Amazons in the China Seas (Godine Storyteller) The children and I started this next book in the Swallows and Amazons series last night. I think we have about three more books to go?

Books continue to be scattered everywhere in my room as I am preparing for our "summer school". We are off to the library this afternoon and I think there are 17 books waiting for me. I can't wait!

For more knitting and reading ideas, check out Ginny's Yarn Along.

Please note: this post contains affiliate links.

Thousands of Gifts

This post marks 1,000 posts for this blog after nearly six years of writing. There have been several other "thousand" milestones lately so I thought I'd tie them all up here together. 

Several years ago I read the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp and the idea of cultivating a thankful heart by means of writing down those daily little gifts, both joyous and sometimes difficult, really resonated with me. So I started my "Gifts from God" journal.

I finished the first 1,000 gifts this spring. Flipping back through the book not only brings me joy, but watching how God took care of us in every way gives me faith to keep moving forward. As I read the pages I find provision for material needs, spiritual needs, medical needs, emotional needs. 

That fall that Laura had her open heart surgery our family was faced with enormous amounts of medical bills. Far beyond the possibility of us ever earning enough to pay for these bills. For months whenever I wondered what we were going to do all I could think about were four brown bags of groceries. When I was about eleven my Dad worked far away from home and only came back every few weeks. One time he had to extend his stay for several more days and my mom was out of food money and there was no way to get more until he returned. Out of the blue we got a call from a family we hadn't seen in some time whose needs had always been so much greater than our own. They were calling to see if we could use some extra milk and things as they had an overabundance. The picture of those grocery bags entering our house at such a time of need has never left my mind. That experience of God's care in the past sustained me through those months of wondering how in the world we would handle those bills.

It wasn't until the very end of fall that the answer came. Our bills had been forgiven IN FULL. I still can't hardly write or tell this story without tears. The God who provided what seemed like a miracle of $35 worth of food for a young girl had provided again hundreds of time beyond that. 

I hope these little notebooks will be special for the children to read someday and to understand a bit more of how God has been providing for them all these years.

I'm onto my second journal now. :)

And the final thousands thing to mention is that a few weeks ago we celebrated 5,000 days of marriage! Michael was so thoughtful to figure that out and remember it! In the midst of life there are blessings upon blessings.

Oh, how abundant is your goodness,

which you have stored up for those who fear you

and worked for those who take refuge in you,

in the sight of the children of mankind!

Blessed by the LORD,

for He has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me

Love the LORD, all you his saints!

The LORD preserves the faithful

but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage,

all you who wait for the LORD!

Psalm 31: 19-24

Mondays are for Grace

"Don't let the craving to do something great keep you from doing something good."

-- Beth Moore