Time. . . what time?

 
Nowadays, every second counts. Every person I know tries to cram as much as they can into each and every minute of the day, because we seem to just plain be running out of time. Even I, a young wife with no kids yet, seem to not have enough time, ever. My day is full to the brim and usually runs out before I'm done.

What are we all doing? For most of the day, the majority of us work. I don't work outside the home, but I work very small amounts of the week for two small companies as a virtual assistant. I also have a small home business that will eventually become our sole means of financial support. Living in a dirty part of the world, my house needs dusting all the time, the white (argh) carpets need shampooing once a week (my hubby got me a steam cleaner!), there are mountains of dishes from my cooking fiascos, cars to clean, weeds to pick, trees and rose bushes to prune, the list goes on and on.

It's nice, every once in while, to physically grab (or spear, bonk on the head, trap) some time out of the day, to just do something that actually doesn't have anything to do with anything, gets anything on your schedule accomplished, or serves two purposes at once.

One thing my husband and I like to do is have a tea party. LOL, yes, you heard me. No, we don't dress up our dollies and bring them along. For Christmas a couple years back, my husband gave me a gorgeous tea set: a porcelain tray, tea-pot, sugar bowl, cream pitcher, two tea cups and saucers, little cookie plates and two matching candlesticks. I also inherited a very old maple tea wagon, that used to belong in a very fancy house and would roll out every morning at 10 with my ancient relatives' tea and cakes. This tea wagon had displayed my tea set in the living room, basically just collecting dust, for about a year when I finally took a good look at life and said to myself, "Why the heck is that beautiful tea set just sitting there, never used, never loved, just looking pretty in the corner?" The answer basically was, who the heck has time for tea? Umm. . not me.

But the tea set stuck in my head, until my husband's next day off. He was sitting at his computer (ahem, like 97.9 percent of the time) and I wasn't doing much, so I put a pot of water on the stove, some tea bags in the pot, poured the hot water. . yeah, you get the idea. I actually put cream in the creamer too. And sugar in the sugar bowl. That began our little weekly ritual of tea time :-D

People back in the good old days used to just be able to take time to do silly little things like that, not for silly's sake, but to enjoy time. Sitting back with a small sandwich and a cup of hot tea in the middle of the morning, not hurrying for anything, taking your time to eat and enjoy each other's company is so enjoyable. But you have to steal time for it.

Loose leaf tea is the best by the way, and I ain't talkin' 'bout lipton's raspberry fako tea either. Fresh, loose leaf black tea is my favorite. You measure it out into something called a tea ball (really, just a metal tea bag that you can use over and over), steep it in hot water, and add it to the dainty cups that have a bit of sugar and cream in them. I've since added triangle shaped turkey sandwiches to the menu of cookies or brownies or whatever I've got. My brother, who lives with us, has even enjoyed the little parties we have, even though he doesn't really look like the tea party type;). . .it's just a nice way to spend some time together and enjoy some things that God has blessed us with.

What little time stealing rituals do my readers enjoy? C'mon peoples, speak up. There are quite a lot of you and only two or three ever comment;) So let's share :-D