Hi friends! I hope you all are enjoying your summer. I definitely have, and although I’ve missed you all terribly, I’ve truly enjoyed the break and have been spending a ton of time with my family! Don’t panic… school hasn’t started back up yet. We still have a few more weeks of summer here in Kansas, but I wanted to come share a little “I love this stuff”, love with you. You know what I’m sharing today has to be good if I’m interrupting my summer hiatus to tell you about it!…

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This past week I had the chance to visit the Celestial Seasonings Headquarters, one of the largest specialty tea manufacturers in North America. One of my favorite things about my job is getting to see the “behind the scenes” of brands I love and use everyday. Opportunities like these…to meet the people and see the hard work and dedication that goes into bringing my favorite cup of tea to life is something I really love. I could never imagine all the thought and effort that goes into something that gives me my most simple of pleasures each day, like tea time.

The people at Celestial Seasonings were as warm and welcoming as their tea… they made us feel so comfortable and appreciated. Driving up to the facilities was especially humbling as the entire company was standing outside, holding signs and cheering our arrival. I was so touched and I know the other bloggers I was with felt the same way. For a corporation this big to stop their production line to welcome us is a pretty big deal.

We took in a lot of great information during our day, but I’d like to share 5 fun facts I learned while on my tour. I hope you can learn a few things about Celestial Seasonings and you just might learn how you’ve been making your tea wrong all these years, like me!…

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The giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Lisa W., the winner. Thanks to all who entered!

The clock is ticking and my kids are counting down the hours until Santa hopefully shows up at our house. Christmas music is blaring and goodies are being baked. It is finally, beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I hope that even with the rush of the holidays, you take a moment or two for yourself…savor the season and enjoy all the activity happening around you. I see it all to often, with people rushing around in the kitchen trying to get every last thing done, the moments are being missed. I’m guilty of it too. This year let’s commit. Stop. Breathe. Savor. What’s important will get done. The rest doesn’t matter.

You won’t hear a lot from me between now and the 7th. I’m taking some time to be with my family and loved ones. I have been reading some incredibly good books lately, so I do have a packed Connect Through Reading post coming for you, but for the most part I plan on being unplugged. …

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This is my Friday night. A spiced chai tea latte with a little indulgent whipped cream, a stack of books to choose from, candles lit, and three sweet girls lying on the floor of my room engrossed in a Disney movie. The boys are out on the town at a baseball game, and at 6:30pm my girls and I are tucked in for a cozy fall night.

Ten years ago if you would have asked me if I would be content… happy, if you will… sitting at home on a Friday night doing absolutely nothing, I probably would have said not so much. Now? Girls night in on a Friday night, especially when the weather is cooler and we can be snuggled up under quilts with comfy PJ’s on, is my Friday night of choice. I look forward to low key Friday nights. I crave them and treasure them.

Whatever your Friday night looks like, I hope you are happy and find contentment in whatever season of life you are in.

Oh – and if you want a delicious recipe for Spiced Chai Tea Latte and a gorgeous blog to go along with it, head over to The Sprouted Kitchen. Enjoy.

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My sister recently went through a divorce…in fact her divorce was final at the end of October. It is hard for me to write about because it is still so fresh and personal with all of us. I have known her now ex-husband since they started dating when I was 14 years old. I looked up to them both and felt like they had the “perfect marriage”. As things often are, what appears to be reality often isn’t. I love my sister and hate that she has had to go through this pain…a pain that I know she never envisioned being a part of her life. Even though the marriage has ended between the two of them, some wonderful things have come out of their relationship. I have a nephew who is incredibly talented, brilliant, witty and wonderful. I also have a niece who is loving, beautiful, compassionate and smart. We have lots of great memories, laughs and family moments that will always be in our heart. And, last but not least, our families have swapped some pretty tasty recipes.

What would our birthday parties be like without his great-grandma’s sugar cookie recipe or our grandmother’s homemade ice cream recipe? I have several emails from his mom sharing family recipes that I have asked for. Not to make light of the situation, but if these two families didn’t unite at some point in history, our recipe boxes would be void of some great tasting things.

The Viva Diva Cafe (home of Viva paper towels) is hosting a great family recipe contest on their website and they have asked me to be one of the judges when the contest has closed. The prizes are fantastic… top prize is a $1000 gift certificate to Willams Sonoma. 2nd prize, a KitchenAid Professional 600 series mixer and a set of OXO utensils. 3rd prize is an Apple iPod Nano 8GB and JBL On Stage II Speaker System.To enter, all you need to do is register with The Viva Diva Cafe (which seriously takes less than a minute) and then enter your favorite family recipe. Whether it is one passed down from generation to generation within your own family, or a recipe snagged up from a relationship lost, head on over to The Viva Diva Cafe and share it with us.

The recipe I am sharing with you today is not one that has been passed down from generation to generation in my family, but the cup and saucer shown have a story to go along with this post. My sister, one evening feeling hurt and angry about the divorce, decided to take her wedding china out to her back porch and have a little therapy session with it. She put a blanket down on the concrete porch and began throwing pieces of her china against her homes brick wall watching the pieces fall into the blanket (which I thought was brilliant… much easier to clean up!). After she broke the first setting, she called me feeling much better and explained to me what she was doing. I, being the sensitive sister that I am, applauded her for finding a way to let out her aggressions and then thinking of the most important thing first said… “Ummmm, if you are just going to be crashing your china against the wall, would you mind saving out a place setting for me for my food photography photos?” Yep… you can call me Mrs Sensitive if you want.

Chai Tea Latte (from Simple and Delicious Magazine, October 2008)

15 min | 5 min prep

SERVES 2

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