Tea for Two

N and I have gotten into the habit lately of having tea while we do our read-aloud time in the afternoons.  It's usually peppermint or ginger pear for me, and Just for Kids Tummy Comfort for N (which I highly recommend if you have a child with occasional digestive issues... she loves it so much that she drinks it every day now, even when she isn't bellyachin').

It's the perfect way to keep warm-- we keep our thermostat quite low, and it gets reeeeeally cold in the house when we're sitting to do school work.  We snuggle under the covers on my bed and bring our tea in travel mugs while the other two girls have nap/quiet time in their rooms.  As I mentioned, we've been reading The Long Winter... today was the chapter where Laura and Carrie get trapped in a blizzard on their way home from the schoolhouse and are unable to see to get home in the blinding whiteness.  They barely escape wandering out into open prairie by just happening to bump into the end corner of the very last house on the Main Street in their town.  A few steps in the other direction and they would have just kept pressing on into vast nothingness and surely frozen to death.  N and I were both on the edge of our seats through that chapter!

Today N brought her tea to the dining room table after we read our chapter, and continued her handwriting practice.  She was very excited to borrow Daddy's Star Wars travel mug because he happened to *not* take it to work today.

This is definitely the favorite part of my day... when our activities slow down, the house is quiet, I'm usually procrastinating on any chores or work that I have to do... and we can just stop and enjoy some tea... for two.