Pausing and reflecting and my fancy electric kettle.

This morning: quiet. There are strips of packaging paper -- leftover from an enthusiastic boy opening the mail -- strewn all about my living room, with trails of it leading toward the refrigerator and the toy room, but there is quiet. And there is tea.

Cleaning? No. Tea first.
The wee boy has returned to preschool after a bout with the stomach bug that rendered him the most adorable little thing in the history of the universe. "Mommy, mommy, my belly hurts. Mommy, I neeeeeeeed you. I really need to cuddle with you riiiiiight now." My personal favorite was, "Mommy, may I have nursies, please? I need to rehydrate." I have spent a week cuddling the sweet, sick boy. He is happily playing at preschool today, however, all symptoms long gone. Hence, the quiet and the tea.

Back to tea.

I love it. I really don't love coffee. I feel like coffee is like cornbread: it's not actually very good, but lots of people say they love it. We all nod and agree, and no one wants to be the one to admit that it's merely okay, and only actually yummy with lots of sugar and buttermilk. But tea?

Mmmmmmmmmm.

I have taken to sipping my English Breakfast tea in vintage porcelain teacups that somehow ended up in my mom's basement. The cups are wee, which makes for extra strong tea. I even have an electric kettle -- the staple of a British home -- that goes from cold to boiling in 2 minutes. David bought me this one for my birthday, and it lives on the counter, making immediate hot water for me multiple times a day. It has settings for both green and black teas. One mustn't put too-hot water in green tea, you know? (Read that last sentence out loud in your most proper aristocratic finishing school voice.)

I have much to catch up on -- songs to learn, accordion parts to record (for someone else's album; don't get too excited!), one thousand emails to respond to, packaging paper to clean up.

But first: tea. See? That's why I love tea. Pause, boil, pour, steep, sip. Mmmmmmmm. Tea.

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