Summer Sun Tea

One of my favorite things about summer is the iced tea!! I crave it when the weather is hot and it reminds me of when I was little and my mom would always have a jar of sun tea sitting on the wall in our back yard. Having cold iced tea always available in the fridge as an alternative to water is one of the things that simply makes the summer for me (not to mention I am not the biggest water fan and if I can encourage myself to drink more liquids in some form, that is a plus!) A few summers ago on our visit to Lake Powell my mom had made the most AWESOME sun tea and I have been making it every summer since. I do not like my tea really sweet but sometimes just plain iced tea needs a pick-me-up. I am also trying to get swimsuit ready and do not need the added calories of honey or sugar (I am very against artificial sweeteners and refuse to use them in anything but gum). So here is the awesome concoction that I came up with for my tea with a sweet twist. I have a pitcher from Pampered Chef that I LOVE and it is perfect for this function. Fill it with hot water (makes the process faster) and just put in approximately 5 bags of green tea (caffeinated or not) with 2-3 (depending on how sweet you like it) bags of Good Earth's Sweet and Spicy Herbal Tea which is naturally caffeine free. Let it steep in the hot sunshine for a few hours and then put in the refrigerator immediately. Apparently there is some controversy over how safe it is to leave the tea out for a few hours because it can grow bacteria but growing up we never had a problem and so my motto is just to make sure to put it in the fridge immediately from the hot sun. In AZ or CO the tea makes pretty fast because the sun is so intense (probably why the bacteria isn't really an issue). This tea comes out refreshing and slightly sweet without adding ANY sweeteners and I LOVE IT. Try it out and let me know what you think :o) {from the pampered chef site} {from the TAZO website} {From the Good Earth webiste}

growing a garden

The garden is finally in! After months of taking care of the little seedlets in the basement then moving them outside to get them heartier we finally planted them in the grow box! Mike never ceases to amaze me with the little hidden talents that he has. We went back and forth about what kind of grow box we should have, I of course wanted the hardest, most expensive kind and he (as always) was the practical one. We ended up going with his decision with the caveat that we could always make it more glamourous in the coming years if this was something we were successful at. But Mike just whipped out this ability to build a grow box... just like that. He just picked out the wood, came home and bam- GROW BOX in like 1/2 an hour flat... shocking talent :-) I love me some handyman-ness. The successful part is the big question mark at this point because once we planted all my little green babies outside they suddenly looked like the tiniest plants anyone ever put in a garden... So who knows if they will really grow/thrive/produce vegetables... maybe next year we will go with already established plants... maybe we will decide that the farmer's market is cheaper and easier... who knows but at least we gave it a go right? Here's hoping for some awesome peppers and onions so that I can truly call it a SALSA GARDEN.

The sad plot

babies ready to move on up

skillzzzzz

looking good

salsa garden!! Can you even see the plants?!? lol

Spring time!

I love spring. It makes me happy. I feel like there is just so much more time to get things done and to enjoy being outside. Winter makes me grumpy and dreary and I am just really enjoying the sunshine and the fact that SUMMER is getting closer. After a long winter I always feel the need to freshen things up a bit and this year we did that in the bedroom with a new duvet (why did I never knew how much more awesome duvets and duvet covers were than comforters?? I love this thing!) and curtains from IKEA.... ok now, I might be REALLY behind on this excitement but I had never gone to IKEA before a few weeks ago. I thought of it as cheaply made furniture and crowded parking lots... ok so this is still true but HELLO, I loved some of their choices for decor! The fact that it was cheap didn't hurt either. Hooray for thrifty cuteness to brighten things up in April. ;) We are also (still) trying to figure out our furniture arrangements and have moved the entire house around trying to see the best fit... Now, what was our living room is sort of a computer/sitting room that I am not sure that I love but we decided it needed some tables. I thought it would be NO PROBLEM to get some old tables at the Salvation Army, sand and re-stain them and VIOALA, new living room furniture... Not so easy my friends.... three weeks later and I am still sanding and staining ONE stinking side table... I will post pictures when I feel that I have made enough progress to have something to show for it. We are also planting a salsa garden this summer (yaaaaay) so I have been growing peppers, onions, jalapeños and cilantro in my basement with my brand new grow-room, courtesy of Mike and his dad! We will be building grow boxes out back to transplant everything when Colorado stops snowing randomly. So that's that, new plants, new duvet love, new projects.... must be spring!

Growing a family. One year later

Yesterday marks the anniversary of a pretty dark day for us. As I look back on the events of one year ago, I have sad feelings and tender feelings, bitter feelings and even grateful feelings. It is interesting all the directions your mind can go when navigating something so deep and personal. Ultimately I have decided that I am not sorry we went through it, I wouldn't take it back or wish that it never happened to us. I think that it has made us a stronger couple and it has truly helped me realize that women need to speak up and support one another. Miscarriage is such a taboo word around women my age that are in that baby-making mode. It's like if they say it out loud, it might happen to them, or happen to them again. Through my experience I realized that women that have gone through such heartbreak are aching to connect with others, to know that they aren't alone and that their story isn't hopeless. As difficult as it is to share the details of such personal loss, I have found that people can come out of the woodwork with their own stories of grief and then stories of hope and happiness again. That needs to happen more often. Why are we so reluctant to talk about these things? Women see this as a failure. A friend of mine recently said that she just wants to be able to do the most natural thing that God made us for, to reproduce. It feels like we are not complete women, that in a different time without science and adoption, our dreams of motherhood would be lost. I am not sure if it is competition between us or shame of the "failure" that keeps us from reaching out to one another but I wish it were something that we would just get over already. The more we share those "failures", the less alone we are. My very best friend from high school called me as soon as she heard what had happened and I can not tell you how sweet her voice was to me. She had experienced multiple miscarriages in between her first and second child and just the fact that she could relate to my pain and knew immediately how much her words would carry me will always stay with me in the most cherished part of my heart. So where are we now in the whole scheme of things? I can not tell you how often I am asked, "So when are you guys going to try again?" or "Did you guys give up?" Seriously people? These are some of the most insensitive comments to a woman who lost a child and is not having success getting pregnant again. Now that it has been a year it is like it makes people uncomfortable that I am not pregnant yet. Like the pain that was just mine and could be kept on the inside where no one else had to look at it is now being worn on my clothing like a scarlet letter. You know how when people are uncomfortable they will inevitably try to ease the discomfort by offering advice? ugh. "Just relax". That is the best one. Thank you so much for telling me to do that. Before I was trying really hard to be stressed about it all and each month when I'm not pregnant just makes me more and more relaxed... so thank you for pointing that out. Really. Also, I think it is a scientific fact that when you have one woman trying and "failing" to get pregnant, five of her friends or family members will get pregnant by accident and then complain about the pregnancy/ child to said "failing" woman. I promise you, it is a fact. Although the above sounds cynical, Mike and I are trying to keep a sense of humor about the whole process. What else can you really do when you are going in for fertility testing and tracking your cycles like they are the newest trend? It's all very bizarre and so we are trying to keep it light and remember the positive things. Like... nothing is technically wrong with us (fertility stuff keeps coming back happy), we have more time to spend together, we might be able to take that vacation we keep talking about, we still get to sleep and have a glass of wine. But most of all we have learned that when we do become parents either naturally, through IVF or through adoption, we will be so grateful and have a deeper appreciation for what took so long and was so painful. I truly believe that this has taught me patience, how much I want to be a mother, how to reach out to others and that I am not in control, that I MUST give my worries over to and trust God. In the mean-time... I will just keep adopting puppies. :o)