My little afternoon routine

"Consider the birds" trivet from Haven Enterprises

I have never liked coffee and until last year, never liked drinking tea.  But somehow, this past winter, I got hooked on drinking a cup of hot ginger tea each afternoon.

It's become a little routine for me.  A little pause in the day where I heat water in my whistling teakettle, pour the boiling water into my Lilly mug, then steep my tea.  Fifteen minutes later I add a few drops of orange stevia to the tea, then drink it.  Oh yeah, and I have a piece or two of "Lilly chocolate" with it.  Perfect.

It's funny how this little routine just makes me feel better - no matter how crazy the day.  I used to laugh at the British for having afternoon tea time.  Now I think I "get it."

Speaking of the U.K., the other day I read an interesting article from the English paper The Telegraph.  It is entitled:  "Infants 'unable to use toy building blocks' due to iPad addicition."  Here is an excerpt from the article:

"Rising numbers of infants lack the motor skills needed to play with building blocks because of an “addiction” to tablet computers and smartphones, according to teachers.
Many children aged just three or four can “swipe a screen” but have little or no dexterity in their fingers after spending hours glued to iPads, it was claimed.
Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers also warned how some older children were unable to complete traditional pen and paper exams because their memory had been eroded by overexposure to screen-based technology."

Pretty sad, huh?!  Makes me thankful when I find a mess of blocks on the floor after Solomon has been playing with them.  (And yes he can STACK them!)

"Uh Mama - you should have a picture of me playing with blocks to insert here!"

Sometimes I do early Constitutional research for my dad.  I am currently finishing up going through a book of compiled documents from when Rhode Island ratified the Constitution.  I just skimmed through a chunk of the book with lists of names of men in different towns who voted for the ratification.  The lists of names are fascinating to me, as at least two-thirds of them are Biblical names.  And not just the common ones like John or David.  These names were apparently not uncommon in the 1700s:  Obadiah, Peleg, Zaccheus, Phinehas, Asa, Jabez, Amos, Elisha, Annanias, Ichabod, Othniel, and my personal favorite - Solomon.  (This is just a small sampling of the Biblical names.)  One non-Biblical name I saw several times on the list was "Remington."  I thought that was a really nice, solid sounding name.  :)

Names are fascinating to me.  Did you know that Solomon (of the Bible) had another name?  After Solomon was born (he was named by his father King David) we read:

"The Lord loved the child and sent word through Nathan the prophet that they should name him Jedidiah (which means “beloved of the Lord”), as the Lord had commanded." - 2 Samuel 12:24-25