Teas, continued

This one was last Thursday, so Day 8- Genmaicha Yama- "green tea and roasted rice." Not gonna lie; I did not have high hopes for this one. It tasted like green tea and smelled like cooked rice. Nuff said. I guess truth in advertising DOES exist!

As you have perhaps guessed, Day 9 was delightful. So much so that a friend joined me for tea. However, I did not swim in HIS drink. Oh well. Upon fishing out my unfortunate fruit fly friend, I finished my passionflower, valerian and chamomille tea. It was quite pleasant!

Day 10 was oolong, flowers, and lemon and I enjoyed it so much that I made a second cup. It's called Dreamy Tea by The Des Songes and you can check all of these out here if you're interested. I'll also confess to forgetting to have Day 10 ON Day 10 so I had it on Day 11.

Day 11 Hmm, my teabag scribble says "11 on 12" so I must have pushed this one back a day also. Oh, that's right. I thought about it before bed and didn't want to try it then. It was Jardin tropical so that translates to "tropical garden" and contained "exotic fruits." It smelled amazing and I'll probably make a second cup of that at some point. Tasted good too!

Day 12 was Earl Grey so I channeled my inner Captain Jean-Luc Picard and murmured, "tea, Earl Grey, hot" to nobody in particular, twice, and was relieved that it tasted less of bergamot than it smelled. It's not my favorite scent and I was a little alarmed at how strongly scented it was, but it settled down and was a cozy mug of tea.

Day 13 was another double cupper. It's Hammam Tea which was a green tea with flowers including roses and red fruit. So pretty in my mug and delightful to drink so I did it again.

I'm drinking Day 14 right now- China Yunnan "Pu erh Imperial" on my teabag I guess translates to Imperial tea of some kind. The tag says, "dark tea ideal after a meal" so I'm enjoying it now that I've had my lunch. It reminds me of the Celestial Seasonings Morning Thunder black tea I have, "with energizing roasted mate" though that e should have an accent mark on it and I don't know how to add that. It's not thick but it FEELS dense like it could almost be a broth if it tried a little harder. 

What are YOU drinking to stay cozy? 

 

Hot and crispy... yet foggy

The above photos were on my walk yesterday. While fall isn't my favorite season, I'm learning to appreciate the russets and golds. 

Below, some of our mornings. I dunno how we get any fog when things have been as dry as they've been. Doesn't seem like there's enough moisture to MAKE fog, but I guess that's why I'm not in charge of such things.

 

Happy first day of fall, y'all

 

It has been hot enough that I still haven't wanted to bake, and that's saying something because I LOVE cookies. I owe some to some friends, so no, you guys, they're not lost in the mail; they're still ingredients.

Anyway, here's hoping we get slightly cooler temps, but more importantly, RAIN. It's been dry for... months? Things are sounding quite crispy and today is only the first day of fall. Could have fooled our yard!

Oot and aboots

Tell me it's hot and dry without telling me it's hot and dry. Cue the toad in Bosley's outdoor water dish the last two mornings. He keeps looking at me like, "what?" Completely unconcerned with the loud, ferocious beast I'm tying out there with him. 

These were all taken this morning in the mist. We found a huge spider and I kept maneuvering around to get the best shot. Personally, I like the above one where he's on the right, looking roughly the same size as half a wren...

Thing Three spotted the deer crossing the road, fortunately sans traffic at the moment, and he whistled at them to get their attention. So kind of them to pose!

 

Just goes to show

 I wonder if brain cells are the first thing to go once you hit middle age. All day I've been wondering, "hmm, it's July 24th. Whose birthday is it? Who have I forgotten?"

I checked my phone to see a text from my mother about, "happy half birthday!" Then I see an email from my dad, "happy half birthday!" 

Oh yeah. It's me. Happy 49.5 and be glad we are partying NEXT year for 50.5 because it is 93 degrees out there! 😅

Unseen-ums

 I've been "running" for about a year now. According to one of the apps on my phone, I have 20 documented runs, so that ought to tell you everything you need to know about my qualifications as a runner. I run. Sometimes. When I feel like it.

I wanted to go yesterday morning and was keeping an eye on the temperature. My watch said 61... 63... 64... 64... 64... perfect. I got ready and hit "start" and it said 68. 68?! What the heck happened to 65, 66, 67? Argh!

I went anyway and for a smattering of reasons (hadn't had enough water yet, perhaps shouldn't have had so much coffee, was burping my Raisin Bran, the sun got hot) had shorter splits than usual, which is okay as I'm only competing with myself. The further along I got, the better things felt. I was on the next to last leg of the running part (I do a fair bit of walking still) and was psyching myself up to finish. "It's right there. You've got this. You can do it. Keep going!" To my utter repulsion, two strides away from the end of the sidewalk, I hit an unseen cloud of gnats, hiding in the shade of a huge pine tree. My positive self-talk turned to a stream of "Gak! Pbbbt pbbbth pbbtttttth! Gik! Are you even kidding me?! EWW!"

So glad I could be a participant in the Cosmic Comic Humor episode. I'll be over here in my bug net...

April sunrise

We've had some gorgeous and hot days already (you will not hear me complain about them) and the sky has been so pretty in the mornings. I love waking up to light instead of the alarm...

I completely understand why people used to worship the sun when it comes up like that. Ta da! Here I am! The day can begin. Go about your business.

The promised graduation post and our typical Saturdays

Hi! I got a little carried away with karate pictures, as usual, so I tried to tidy them up some so I wouldn't be tempted to add a hundred of them. 

Damon moved from a low green belt to a high green belt, so he's featured in some of the pictures but didn't bump up to a different belt color. Hopefully that will happen in February. Brrr. I don't even want to think about February. But after that graduation all three Thingz will be in the same class again for the rest of forever and let me just make the sound here to express how excited I am about that: Wahoooooooooooooooooo!!

As always, click on any picture to see it in more detail and larger. Damon was featured in two of the weapons displays, though he informed us later that he should have only been in one (typical), and Carrie did one as well. 

New belts, with the exception of black belts, are tied on by parents after the graduation ceremony. Black belts are tied on, onstage, by instructors. The medals around their necks mean they graduated with honors. In order to do that, they had to have turned in at least three karate homeworks. The categories are Knowledge (reading minutes, which ties in nicely with the school reading logs), Self-Discipline (which encourages them to be responsible around the house and with homework, etc), Goal Setting (which seems the easiest to me: three goals and how you'll achieve them. Two of the three have to be completed before you turn it in. Liam's first goal is "to not quit until black belt!" Needless to say, his paper hasn't been turned in yet...), and Respect (going out of their way to be helpful/courteous/etc and must be signed by a parent AND a teacher). 

I can't say enough good things about this program. Yes, it takes up a ton of our time and, let's be honest, our money. But the instructors are amazing, patient, encouraging, dedicated, and fun. Not only are the Thingz learning martial arts and defense, but they're in something that isn't instant gratification. They're starting to see that accomplishments take a long time and that you need to stick to it to be good at something. Do they always want to go? No. Do I always want to take them? No. But we feel that these are good lessons for our family and that this particular program will help their lives in other ways down the road as well as helping them stay physically active now. 

And then there are these feet that I just adore. Damon is still disappointed that he isn't yet a brown belt, which is the lowest of the highest belt levels. He was pouting about his lack of a new belt in the above photo.

It's too bad that you really don't get a sense from the pictures of how hard these kids work. They go to class 2-3 times a week in our old town. Most weeks we go Monday for both of their level classes, Tuesday for weapons, and then again Wednesday for both classes again. Thursday nights are our night off, every other Friday tries to host home group, and weekends are crazy. 

This weekend we did our third Mystery Adventure (see previous post) and three karate classes on Saturday. This is a first. The Academy hosts a Grappling class at 10 AM. It is an elective, but highly beneficial towards earning one's black belt. Until now, the Thingz could only do one elective and they'd chosen weapons, which improves focus and concentration. Grappling is more like wrestling, and I am not even close to qualified to tell you how they differ. 

Anyway, now that the big kids are only six months away from being black belts, they are officially black belt candidates and are encouraged to take classes in everything. One, they'll need all that stuff for their black belt tests, which is taken in stages, and two, it's kind of a reward for sticking with the program for the years required to get to this point. 

So the big kids were excited to head into that first Grappling class. I stayed home and sent the camera with Pap, who was visiting. And kudos to him; in spite of being intimidated by the fancy camera, he did a great job capturing them!

As Damon is not yet a candidate, this was how he spent his time while Thing One and Two were on the floor:

After 45 minutes or more of hot, sweaty working, it was time for their regular family class which means any student of any level participates in the same class. There are jumping jacks, push ups, and some kind of ab work in addition to all the karate stuff they do.

After 45 plus minutes of that class, they take a break to put on their sparring gear:

That class is also 45 minutes or so. We had hot, sweaty, tired, starving Thingz come home! Again, good job to Pap for taking super pictures!

The Wright Brothers Memorial

How did it get to be September already?

I guess that makes this post a blast from the past as it happened over a month ago. While in the OBX, we used Liam's fourth grade national park pass (you GOTTA get one if you have or are a fourth grader! Go to this link and set it up! Click here so you don't miss out!) for our very first visit to the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk. 

It was like a bajillion degrees with equal humidity, yet off he goes:

It was fascinating to listen to the spiel given by the Ranger about the mechanics of flying. I'd never really thought about it before, much less in the high humidity of a hot afternoon. I also had never thought about "fuselage" as being a French word or known anything at all about the French word "aileron" meaning "small wing." All I could think about was my Pap Pap. I wish I could have listened to the whole talk with him. He would have understood every word, even though it was being given in Southern.

As I was fighting off tears, the Ranger called on Damon, out of the entire audience, when he talked about the aileron. Damon was hot and shy, but did his best, and received a paper airplane for his efforts. The Ranger laughed about giving him his very first French lesson. The paper airplane was still circling the backseat of my car not even two weeks ago, so I'd say that's pretty good. 

We got there late in the day and kind of had to hoof it around to see what we could see before they closed. It was probably just the right amount of time to do it as nobody had time to complain about being bored. Of course the sign says to not be on the display, but somebody's kids got up there anyway.

And then we found this photographer getting his picture taken.

After the talk we got back outside to see where the previous flights had taken place. Takes one, two, and three were all pretty similar:

But then, WOW, check out how far take four went. Waaay over there! I can only imagine how exciting that must have been.

I'm so glad we went, and I'm betting we'll go back when Damon gets his fourth grade park pass. Maybe by then we'll know a little more about airplanes. 

Christmas in July 2016

I'd like to thank the 77 of you who showed up for our Christmas in July shindig. We were so blessed by your friendship and fun fellowship and food!

Just look at all those cars in the yard! 

We had a lunch rush about noon, some downtime around 2:30, then at 4:00 I looked up to see my entire downstairs packed full of people. I had a moment of panic as I realized that it wasn't even dinner and we were pretty crowded, but then folks meandered outside and it looked more like this

Of course the tree was up and decorated by the kids:

That cracked some people up, but how could you possibly have Christmas in July with no tree? I'm stymied.

"And there was far too much food!"

There were some activities for kids:

And some for grownups, like reading in the library:

There was even green eggs and ham for breakfast for our out-of-town-and-overnight guests, especially to ones who brought along their own holiday cheer:

77 people (not counting us) was a lot, but we're sure there would have been more had it not been ridiculously hot with even more ridiculous humidity. Thanks to all of you who braved it to come check in with us, we missed those of you who couldn't make it (and there were quite a few of you, so don't feel like you were alone in missing out), and we'll see you next time! Merry Christmas!