Posts filed under 'Tea Party Girl'
How does a card-carrying member of the tea lifestyle reconcile the constant pull of the novelty available online?
From this morning’s online reading: The contemporary predicament in a nutshell: loving novelty, yet craving depth.
And as a parent trying to reconcile the CONSTANT media onslaught on our family’s attentions, I found this article incredibly helpful in knowing how to setup some basic boundaries.
Are We Distracting Ourselves to Death? Five Practical Tips Our Family Is Trying
It is no surprise that as real life is providing more depth, my time spent online is diminishing. Is there room for both?
But for me, the bottom-line question is: How do we protect our souls in the digital age? “Above all else, guard your heart for from it springs the issues of life.” As Tea Party Girl, I’ve always promoted the tea lifestyle over the grab-and-go hurry and scurry demands of our culture. And trying to build an online business was more soul-killing than life-giving, for the constancy required of blogging and interacting with the Internet community definitely requires hurrying and scurrying.
Thoughts?
July 22nd, 2008
Last Week’s Field Trip to the Japanese Tea Garden
Dear Readers, I don’t think I’ve let an entire week lapse without posting in the history of this blog. In cyberspace, a week is an eternity! I made no plan for it, am not answering emails and pretty much completely abandoned my business model; that is if I ever really had one. Hah!
If you are waiting to hear from me, you will, and I apologize for the delay. Next week marks my one week a year where I take a vacation in my own home without my children. This could mean a flood of writing here at Tea Party Girl or none, it remains to be seen.
Because here’s the real deal. The journey with Tea Party Girl over the last year has given me an incredibly satisfying diversion from laundry and teaching grammar. It is the first time I’ve written consistently apart from journaling. I reached beyond comfort zones to contact some of you, received a few free gifts along the way, and so enjoyed contributing to the conversation - especially in the areas of etiquette, beauty, and of course, the culture of tea.
But my true passion lies in the building of something brand new that impacts others. And another opportunity completely independent from the tea party has dropped into my lap. It involves connecting with other families in new and profound ways that will help take our family’s education and community life to the next level. And as you can see, they’re not interested in how to set the tea table - yet:
You see, I was a complete flunky when it came to hanging out day-in and day-out with toddlers and preschoolers, but I am completely in love with the age my children and their peers are now. Filled to the brim and overflowing with potential, curiosity, and raw, pure fun, my firm belief that investing in children is the number one way I can impact the future has finally kicked into high gear. The season of experiencing intrinsic reward for me is finally here.
I admit, Tea Party Girl’s future is on the table and up in the air. As soon as I know anything, I will let you know. In the meantime, Tea Party Girl is still in Google’s Top Ten for tea party information and remains visited by hundreds of readers per day. Please continue to remember it as a resource for yourself and others and we’ll see how long the Google Gods smile on this site.
I’ll be in touch.
July 17th, 2008
I don’t know, but it’s possible my family has hit their quota.
Between a Little Girl Luau:
To Wedding Wonderland:
I am wiped out.
And since I’ve spent over one hour now trying to post something more informative for you all and gotten nowhere, I think I’ll sit with my latest favorite novel, Broken for You, for awhile instead.
I’m sure you understand.
How was your weekend?
June 23rd, 2008
Helping my daughter introduce her three-year old cousin to the tea party at Teddy Bears and Tea Cups. A tearoom dedicated to the children’s tea party, they provided china, linen napkins, and a wide variety of well-brewed teas to us. They also provided the girls with a VERY chocolate-y cookie first thing and we joked with them about thrashing the beautiful napkins. We did an excellent job. My niece’s favorite part was the same activity I see children of all ages enjoy the most–using sugar tongs to pinch the sugar cubes…over and over again!
Visiting the Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano. Plays with Fire went with me and we sat on the porch admiring the gardens surrounding us. As the son of a former restaurant owner, he always brings the realism to my sighs of, “Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful to open our own tearoom?”
The tea highlight of the trip was our visit to the tearoom, Paris in a Cup. The more I visit tearooms, the more difficult I find it to be completely impressed. Few places seem able to pull together all the elements of the food, service, and ambiance and truly transport their customers. But as my mother would say (pictured above with my darling sister-in-law), Paris in a Cup knocked it out of the ballpark. We truly felt we were sitting in a tea salon in Paris, not downtown Orange, California. They kept the tea hot by refilling our tiny pots often, a feat neither of the other tearooms I visited made a priority, unfortunately.
This picture shows the number one place I wish I could have sipped a cup of tea, but couldn’t. I dragged my children to the gardens of Filoli, a historical country estate here in California, on one of our last days. The other two warmed up to it as we discovered the treasures, but medieval son, (pictured above, heheh) not so much. I relished every rose, inhaled vines of sweet peas, and almost laid down in the beds of sage and thyme. The home was equally beautiful and I expected to run into Jane Austen in the drawing room* any moment.
I don’t have a great tea reason for this last picture, I just love it. The Irish Wells look tan (!), rested, and glad to be together. (Yes, doodah, medieval son AGAIN has his mouth open in the family picture). I feel so very blessed to reap some of the work sown over the years when the children were really young, I was so tired, and daily beauty meant constantly wiping, wiping, wiping faces, counters, and other miscellaneous places. To still enjoy my children’s company (and husband’s!) and our time together truly makes me thankful.
*So, I just learned the reason it was called the drawing room. Who else knows? Leave a comment, even if you’re making a guess.
Au revoir!
June 2nd, 2008
I am running mile 22 of a marathon. Wait, I take that back. Not only am I running in the marathon, I had to organize the marathon. And after 4 decades, I am still not at ease in the particulars. But I was raised by a detail-oriented mother and I married someone less detail-oriented than me. So guess who gets the job?
Second son enters double-digit years tomorrow. I taught my last Kids Cook Farm Fresh class today. The last Mom’s Night Out organized event took place last Friday eve. The next day the cake, a packed car and I traveled 70 miles to celebrate an almost bride who’s waited almost 38 years to share her bed. Carpooling, sickness, school deadlines, laundry, award ceremonies, Boy Scouts, (need I go on?) all demand time and energy. I. must. drink. tea.
My dear, sweet, generous parents provide a week at the beach each year for my brother and I and our families. We leave at the end of next week! Somehow I will figure out how to slip away to the pier at Huntington Beach and watch the surfers for an entire morning. And I will. not. think. about coordinating anything.
While I’m gone, I have a few surprises up my sleeve for Tea Party Girl including another interview with a Tea Party Pro and some guest posts from fellow Tea Party Fans, interspersed with a few of Tea Party Girl’s favorite posts from yesteryear. And know I will be seeking out a few new Tea Party Hot Spots to tell you all about.
See you on the other side.
May 7th, 2008
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