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The story of our precious little girl's 17 months of life with Trisomy 18 (July 4, 2010 - December 15, 2011) and of us, re-learning to live "after Lilly."
"I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made ...." Psalm 139:14

Sunday, April 27, 2014

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

10 comments:

  1. Tea is a common ritual for me in the afternoon. I often do green or plain black English tea. I find it "centers me" at the end if a stressful day. Very disturbing news about British youths unable to play with blocks...what?

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    1. I remember you drinking tea at the office. :) I'm sure American kids aren't any better with blocks. Out in public I see little ones (and big ones!) glued to electronic devices in any store I go into. They even make a training potty with a built in iPad holder! (I saw it on amazon.)

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  2. My boys love afternoon tea but I go for my decaf coffee:) it is nice to have a time of relaxation! I love names and there meaning also. Solomon is such a cutie!!

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    1. My sons do have an afternoon snack time. I ought to get Tabby having something too. She only drinks water and goat milk. :)

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  3. Thanks so much for this post. With all the demands on my body and soul lately, I have been struggling to find a way to take care of and refresh myself without taking away from my family. You have reminded me I can carve out just a few minutes for a cup of tea. I can quiet my heart and mind while it steeps and meditate on the blessings that fill my life as I sip. A little whisper of love and encouragement from my Lord through your blog. Thanks!

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  4. I love names and have several more names I would love to get to use! We go for unique but meaningful names. Our oldest son is Aslan Ezekiel. He was born just months before The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe came out so he is named after the book NOT the movie! Our second is Shiloh. Just 13 months apart from his brother, I had a difficult time during my pregnancy and often read the story of Hannah praying for Samuel at Shiloh. After we'd picked out the name Shiloh (for a boy) but before he was born, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie named a baby girl Shiloh and we wondered if we should still go ahead with the name... I'm so glad we did! He can always go by Ben if he chooses because his middle name is Benedict. Then we had a girl and named her Liesel Renee. Liesel is the German form of Elisabeth and Renee means to renew. At this point we realized that we were spelling the name of our oldest son with the first letters of our kids! Opps! That wasn't what we were going for! Next we had a son, Baird Isaiah. We didn't have a boy name picked out when he was born, but Aslan had wanted to find a name for Bambi's Papa because the movie did not give him a name. He'd opened up my baby name book and picked that name. We fell in love with it! Baird is a form of Bard, singing minstrel, storyteller. Next we had Evolet Eden. We'd had her name picked out since Liesel had been a few weeks old and we watched the movie 10,000 BC. My husband and I loved the sound of the name and watched the credits to see how they spelled it. We loved that it is 'love' backwards and the 'et'. So her name is totally taken from a movie! Thank you! I too like the name Remington. We've also considered Ransom and Rainier, so maybe we will end up with an R name one of these days!

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    1. Wow - how fascinating about your children's names! I love different, interesting names, with meaning. My "Tabby" is actually "Tabitha" - a translation of "Dorcas" in the New Testament. I'm sure if you do have any more children, their name will be as interesting as all of their siblings. Thanks so much for sharing!

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  5. Hi,
    you probably prefer your blog without music, but if you want to add some "Lilly" music to it, here is an easy way to do it-you can even just paste in a youtube url.
    http://scmplayer.net/

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    1. Thank you Christine! I am glad to know how to do that if I ever decide to add music. :)

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