Sunday, March 2, 2025

Last Sunday was a day of gratitude for me.  We are blessed to sit under our son Steve's ministry every week, but our youngest son, Jeremy, was the guest speaker last Sunday with the Book of Acts, Chapter 10 as his text.  He also shared his newly launched Conqueror's Way ministry. Below is a photo of him speaking during the first service.  I'm so thankful he's using his spiritual gifts and talents to help others find purpose and fulfillment in life through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

After church all our family went out to eat together.  But while we were waiting for Steve and Jeremy to finish conversations with people, my dear friend, Lori, and I took the opportunity to chat and get caught up a bit.  My granddaughter, Izzy [Jeremy's daughter] took the unplanned photo of us.  It's such a blessing Lori and I can worship together every week.

It's rare that our family has the opportunity to worship together and go out to eat afterwards especially after Jeremy and family moved to the western side of the state, so I had to have photos at the restaurant to mark the occasion. ;-)  That's our daughter, Lori, on the left, with her two brothers, Jerry and me.

Below is most of our clan.  Steve's wife was away caring for her father recovering from surgery, and Jeremy's other two kids, Landon and Ellie, were visiting nearby maternal cousins.  L-R:  Jerry, Me, Jeremy, Lori and her husband Dave, Steve, Izzy, Jeremy's wife, Samantha, and Steve's daughter, Brooke. 

I just learned today when a Facebook article and photo of Steve was posted about his recent honor at a Washington Township Board of Trustees meeting for being an outstanding member of the community and for his dedicated service in full-time Christian ministry.  He never said a word to Jerry or me about it, but his life is another blessings I'm grateful for.  

Thank you for allowing me to share my joy.  God is good!

Paczki Day; Pancake Tuesday; Fat Tuesday & Mardi Gras

It was drizzling out when I left home this morning at 9:30 a.m. for my annual mammogram, but I told my hubby I'd stop at the bakery on my way home to get each of us a paczki - a yummy polish donut with a choice of several fillings.  The bakery I go to is Italian so they make a paczki with a cannoli cream filling.  They're not cheap - $4.40 each, but Paczki day only comes once a year so the splurge is justifiable, and I don't even think about counting the calories!

The parking lot was full, so I parked in the florist's parking lot next door [along with many other people].

The line was out the door when I arrived, but patrons got to stand under a canopy and the line moved fast.

What a mouth-watering sight when I advanced to the pastry/baked goods counter!  They were well supplied with hundreds of paczki donuts to choose from.

Enjoying our cannoli cream filled paczki at home with a cup of tea.  

In New Orleans, they're celebrating Mardi Gras - Mardi is the French word for Tuesday, and Gras means fat, hence the name Fat Tuesday.  It occurs the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of the Lenten Season when self-denial begins. New Orleans is known for its King Cakes, which I've only made once.  Hoffman Media advertised a cookbook on their Facebook feed today, Ralph the Baker, New Orleans Recipes. It's $39.95 and shipping is free today.  I'm really being tempted!  Look at the King Cake burger below.  Doesn't it look fun for a Mardi Gras celebration at home? 

Equally as fun and yummy are pancakes with praline sauce [also in the book].  

I don't have the book with the praline sauce recipe, but I do have a great recipe for fluffy buttermilk pancakes that I've decided will be our dinner tonight along with a new bottle of Maple Syrup from Costco to pour over them.  We'll celebrate both Paczki Day and Pancake Tuesday at our house.

I saw a great post on Facebook that said instead of giving up food for Lent, strive to spend more time in prayer, Scripture reading, doing acts of kindness and expressing gratitude, even though fasting has its place too.  

In closing, I'm sharing a tea-themed bangle bracelet by Alex & Ani that has a 'Spill the Tea' cup and teabag charm in gold finish.  It sells for $34.00.  I've never purchased any Alex & Ani bangle bracelets for myself, but I've bought a couple for my daughter.

When it came through my Facebook feed yesterday, I put it in my cart to purchase, but by the time they added $8 shipping and tax I decided maybe I didn't need it after all and removed it from my cart.  This morning I received an email from them saying they'd give me free shipping if I purchased the bracelet, so I bought it!   Don't you love surprises like that.

All Things Tea...

It's always a good day when a package from Harney & Sons tea arrives in the mail.  I ordered a 1 lb. bag of Blueberry Green loose tea for me and a 20 sachet tin for my son, Jeremy, and 2 boxes of Raspberry Herbal for each of us.

With St. Patrick's Day right around the corner, I made reservations to attend a St. Patrick's Day tea with my hubby on March 16th.  It's hosted by Pamela's Catering, who caters my church teas.  It's open to the public so if you're local and have an interest, the informational flier is below.

We have the date on the calendar for our ladies spring tea at church - Saturday, April 26th. More details will be forthcoming.

If you like wholesome, enjoyable entertainment, don't miss watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS Masterpiece.  Season 5, with seven episodes just concluded last Sunday night but hubby and I will definitely be watching old episodes from previous seasons.  You're sure to see tea scenes in every episode - not at fancy tea parties, but in everyday living.  It's filmed in the Yorkshire Dales, so if you're an Anglophile, this program's for you.

It's the retelling of the life of James Alfred ["Alf"] Wright [1916 - 1995], better known by his pen name, James Herriot, who was a British veterinarian, and is set in the 1930's and 1940's.

[Internet Photo]

If you're a Downton Abbey fan like me, you're excited about the release of the third Downton Abbey movie this September.  The second movie [A New Era] was released in 2022.  Maggie Smith won't be in this movie [she died Sept. 2024], and we will miss her wit and sarcasm but I'm looking forward to Downton Abbey 3 in spite of her absence.  I'm sure there will be lots of elegant tea scenes to enjoy.

I've heard a 7th Season of Downton Abbey is also in the works [season 6 ended in 2015], but I couldn't find anything to verify that.  We can only hope.

 

All Things Tea

As I type this post it is a frigid 12 degrees in Southeastern Michigan - it has gone up 7 degrees since I got up this morning around 8:00 o'clock.  Baby it's cold outside and I don't have any plans to leave my cozy, warm comfortable house.  It is definitely tea drinking weather. 

I have several tea related items I want to share with you in case you might be interested in getting them for yourself.  

You may remember my blog post last April when Bath & Body Works introduced a teacup fragrance plug in their limited edition Bridgerton product line.  I promptly went to their store and purchased one.

Fast forward to February 2025.  While scrolling through my Facebook feed I saw they now have a teapot shaped fragrance plug.  It was on sale for $19.95 [plus tax] so, of course, I bought one.  The fragrance refills were on sale for $3.50 each.  The scent I got was Bergamot & Birch.  Bergamot is a main ingredient in Earl Grey tea, and since the fragrance plug is a teapot it only seemed fitting.  ;-)  But there's many fragrances to choose from.

I put this fragrance plug in the master bedroom.

Speaking of the Bridgerton TV series, as the airing of Season Four approaches I noticed the growing number of companies adding the Bridgerton series to their product line. Hallmark now sells Bridgerton products as well as Walmart.  When I was looking for a sugar & creamer set for my Valentine's luncheon I noticed Walmart had one online for $10.  The problem, it was an in-store pickup only and the store was too far away.  It was listed on E-bay, but for $29.99 plus shipping and I was unwilling to pay that markup price.  

Not sure why I get Belk ads in my Facebook feed since there aren't any Belk Department Stores in Michigan, but as luck would have it an ad came through my feed for a Napier teacup brooch on sale for $9.99 [never mind that shipping was $10.95!]  It seemed like a good deal so I ordered it.  It's actually even lovelier in person than in the photo.

Another ad that came through my Facebook feed was from J.C. Penney for Cuddle Duds pink Latte spring/summer pajamas.  Since lattes are made with both coffee and tea, and by faith spring will eventually come, I ordered a pair.  They're really cute.  They're wrinkled in the photo below because they were crammed into a small plastic shipping bag, but they have a very soft feel.

A few weeks ago, a lady who was very involved in the beginning of my church's existence passed away.   She attended several of the ladies' spring and fall teas with her daughter.  Upon her passing, her daughter texted me and asked if I would like to have one of her mother's tea sets.  There were three available and she attached photos.  They were all lovely and two had teacups to accompany the teapots, but I chose a pink 3-piece Sadler set with a Cube shaped teapot because I didn't have one of those in my collection.  What a thoughtful keepsake.

I was pretty certain the sugar bowl had a lid to match the teapot lid that probably got broken somewhere along life's journey, so I Googled the tea set to see if I might be able to find an 'orphan' lid.  Imagine my shock when I saw the set listed on Etsy for $482.64!  The sugar bowl had a lid but the teapot had lots of crazing, which mine doesn't have.  I am so grateful to be gifted with this set even without the sugar bowl lid.  

We have so much teacup breakage at The Whitney, so I recently went through my collection and came up with 25 I was willing to part with [in addition to the 50 I bought from Maria's Antiques and Estate Sales] and put them into service at The Whitney.  I went in on one of my days off to organize and make sure all the teacups were in matching pairs.  Then I took before and after photos to show the servers how the shelves are to be maintained.  Time will tell!  

[Before]

[After]

We store all our tea equipage in the Music Room at The Whitney.  The shelves the teacups occupy were originally used to store sheet music and music books.  The two sets of shelves are on the left and right side of an alcove where a baby grand piano once sat.  I guess using the shelves for teacups instead of music is what's called repurposing! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day!  Will you be celebrating with your Sweetheart?

Today is my daughter and son-in-law's sixth Wedding Anniversary.   Happy Anniversary Lori & Dave!

Every year I make them a Carrot Cake on their anniversary, because it's Dave's favorite cake.  This is the first one I made on their wedding day in 2019.

~2020~

I must not have taken a picture in 2021 but below is 2022.  I try to change the decorating a little each year for variety, but it's always a heart in the middle of the cake. I'm not a professional cake decorator, so please don't critique me.  

~ 2023 ~

~ 2024 ~

This year's cake.  I think I need to find a Valentine's cake decorating book so I can come up with some new ideas.  ;-)

On Sunday, February 2nd the groundhog saw his shadow which means six more weeks of winter [more in Michigan].  We had a winter snow storm Wednesday night and the photo below is what I woke up to yesterday, but we've had worse.  This was only 3-4 inches.

The teapot below was on Facebook by Artistic Imaginings.  It looked 'icy' to me so I thought it was perfect for following pictures of our recent snow storm. I'm not sure it's functional, but it's probably pricey.

It might be a perfect gift for someone's Valentine, but I'm happy with my box of chocolate covered cherries and dinner after work at El Charros!  ;-)

A Valentine's Tea Luncheon

Last Tuesday [February 4th] I hosted a Valentine's tea luncheon for my girlfriend, Lori, and Raquel, a lady from my church.  I invited others, but one was sick and the other two had prior commitments.  But the three of us had a wonderful afternoon fellowshipping together.  Lori was the photographer, so I have her to thank for all the pictures in this post.  The only downside is she's not in any of the photos.

I used some of the dishes I recently acquired and blogged about, so you will probably recognize them.  Setting a themed tablescape and planning a menu to coordinate is one of my favorite things to do, and I particularly enjoy holiday themes.  In the past, I've made some of the tablescape photos into notecards which is fun.

Below is the teapot I bought recently at Marshalls' for $12.99.  I knew at the time I would probably use it as a centerpiece.  I got the flowers at Thrifty Florist and arranged them in the teapot myself.  [Don't critique me - I make no claims to being a floral designer].  Since purchasing the teapot, I've seen it on E-bay ranging from $34.95 to $39.95 plus shipping! What a profit markup. 

Instead of making scones, I opted for Fresh Strawberry Muffins from Tea for All Reasons cookbook.  Usually muffins have a sweet cake-like taste and texture but these actually tasted like scones.  The batter was very stiff, and I probably could have rolled it out on a floured surface.  A friend gifted me with a jar of homemade Strawberry Jam at Christmas so I served it with the muffins in individual vintage salt cellars.

I served Zuppa Stracciatella soup, which is really Italian Wedding Soup minus the tiny meatballs.

It was followed by a Spinach/Strawberry Salad with heart-shaped croutons [made with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and sprinkled with garlic salt].  They made a fun presentation.

The main course was a recipe from a former pastor's wife and it's always liked by all - Chicken & Noodle Casserole with a Ritz Cracker crumb topping.

Dessert was Love-letter Pastry Envelopes with Raspberry Jam tucked inside and Chocolate Mousse served in demitasse cups.  I used to tell the young women at church not to experiment on their guests, and I didn't follow my own advice with the Chocolate Mousse.  It was edible, but almost like molded chocolate candy rather than soft-textured mousse.  Fortunately, we were able to use our spoons to eat it so it wasn't completely solid.  I think I know where I messed up and will correct it next time [if there is a next time].  I didn't particularly care for the bittersweet chocolate taste.  

The tea was Strawberry Chocolate Black Tea.

~ Raquel and Me ~

My sweet girlfriend, Lori, came with a beautiful Valentine's Floral Arrangement and she left a thoughtful surprise birthday greeting sitting on the counter in my bathroom for me to find after she left.

I hope you enjoyed being my guest vicariously.

A New Book

If you're a follower of my blog, you know Jeremy is my youngest son.  Throughout the adult years of his 45 year old life, his career has taken him down several paths from a high school teacher to an Athletic Director and Assistant High School Principle, to a senior living executive, and presently CEO of his own company, Captain's Light Consulting. 

Last week, one of his goals became a reality when his first book became published, The Conqueror's Way.  Thoughts for this book began to formulate about six years ago when parenting his oldest daughter, Isabella [Izzy], as she navigated her way through a middle school challenge with some of her peers, helping her realize that her identity and value as a person are in no way connected to the opinion of others.   It is found in being a child of God!

Life experiences and lessons added to the development of his book until it became a reality and rolled off the presses for availability last week.

I offer no apology for promoting his book.  Mothers have bragging rights. ;-) 

Seriously, it is a thought provoking and inspiring book for all ages - teenagers through senior adults. Who doesn't want a victorious life filled with purpose for God's glory?

"...we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

Romans 8:37

The book is available at Amazon.  Podcasts to re-enforce each chapter will soon be available.  I'll keep you posted.

To inject tea into this post, he's the only one of my three children who is a tea drinker!  ;-)