We had an awesome day! Today was the day of our first tea party based on the Fruit of the Spirit Teas. I got this as a freebie years ago and never got around to using it, until this year. I asked Tiffany which she wanted to do first and she said blueberry; so that's what we did.
It was a blueberry iced tea and blueberry scones. The fruit of the Spirit studied was peace. This was such a good study. The mom of the girls that came said that it was very helpful to her right now, and that she was going to type the verses up and read them each day. God is so good!!!!! He gave us just the right study to please these dear friends at just the right time for them.
I wasn't sure I'd like the blueberry tea, but I do like peach tea so I thought it was worth a try. I liked it a lot. It wasn't on my diet!!!! by any stretch of the imagination but my daughter would not have enjoyed it as much if I had not fully participated. Yes, there are any number of things I could have done, but I chose not to. I chose to share in everything with my daughter and our company.
Since we have been friends for 11 years, I knew that we would want a nice long visit, so we had them come before lunch and eat lunch with us as well as share in a tea, which we combined. We made a salad with a rotisserie style chicken and cheese cubes in it. (I followed the recipe card for the chicken that I got with my Turbo Cooker—purchased on clearance several years ago. But tonight I found a version to make something similar in the crockpot, linked above, which I will use in the future, since it does not have to be "babysat", just get it in the crockpot and let it cook. Anyway, we cooked the chicken last night and I removed the chicken from the bones. We put A LOT of it in the salad. It was very good. Even the girls had seconds and even thirds, I think.
After we ate and we cleaned the table off, the girls used paint pens to decorate the candle holders I had for each of them. I gave them some blue votive candles to put in them. I suggested writing something like, "Peace, Jesus gave it, follow it!" on it but they could choose to write anything they wanted to on them. I thought that the only way to remove the paint was to use a razor blade and scrape it off but we found that it dried very quickly and that rubbing alcohol cleaned it off quickly and easily. (We had a perfectionist and a mis-speller and an oops.) I chose candles as a craft because I felt that candles symbolized peace.
I also got some scratch cards from Dollar Tree. You use something hard (wood stick provided) to scrape off some of the black on the surface of an animal shape, revealing a pretty silvery prism of colors. There were a total of 10 die cuts (animal shapes) approximately the size of a 3x5 card; not bad for a buck. It is something similar to this.
I may get motivated an take a picture of it and post it; of course, I'm more apt to do that if there are comments showing interest in such.
Our friends left around 5pm; what a wonderful time we had. It was easier for the girls to part because we will be going to our homeschool Back-to-School Picnic tomorrow, together, if their momma dog shows no sign of delivering her pups yet. But it was funny because the older girl said she'd bring her DVD player to watch something in the van and Tiffany "needed" to call her and tell her not to bother because she gets car sick if she even listens to a video while riding in the car. She ended up talking to her for a while on the phone. I'm so glad that God provided good friends for my dd!!! He knows just what we need and when we need it!
The only thing that would make the Fruit of the Spirit Teas Bible Study, that I mentioned before., any better would be if it included a craft for each study. But I'm sure God will continue to give me ideas as we go along.
This has been a great experience and I look forward to future teas. Tiffany is learning that hospitality is hard work but very worthwhile. I'm so glad God inspired the "course" for her education this year. I am eager to see what God will do with the rest of them.
Oh! I learned something today, that I will share in another post, about jealousy and envy
(Me and my dd, Tiffany on an easy to climb tree limb on vacation in VA in 2007.) These are my ramblings on homeschooling and whatever else comes to mind.
Counting Down
We are starting school, so it's time to look forward to the holidays!
) I chose candles as a craft because I felt that candles symbolized peace. 
