In The Moment

I miss moments like these. Mommy sent me this photo a few days ago. Little Sister dressed herself up as a princess (her big sister's old dance costume, an undershirt and her Minnie Mouse shoes) and held story time for her baby sister. Stories are better when the teller is in costume.  I'm pretty sure, too, that Little Sister read this book with great expression. Because that is how she has been read to all her life. I loved hearing her "read" when she was here.

All summer when they were at the farm, I marveled at how Little Sister spoke to Baby Girl—even when she was just a couple of months old. She spoke to the baby just like she spoke to the rest of us. To her, Baby Girl was a regular person. The rest of us went into baby speak when we talked to the baby.

As much as we miss having the girls here, we are okay with this season of life, too. One of my favorite Bible verses is from Phillipians 4:11— "...for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content." So, I will find pleasures in what is here and in front of me. Today that just might be a glass of iced tea on our porch. 

We are not done with summer here. Temperatures are still in the 90s. That's iced tea weather. So many people now buy their iced tea. By the glass. By the bottle. By the gallon. From a restaurant. From the grocery store. (We are not even going to talk about instant tea.) I hear people say all the time that they can't make tea. Well, when I grew up, my mother and her friends would have laughed at that. It's just tea and water!

Here's how you do it:

SWEET TEA (or, Iced Tea if you aren't from here)

Bring 4 cups of water to a rolling boil. 

Pour gently over 2 family-size tea bags. (I like Luzianne or Lipton tea bags)

Let steep for 3-5 minutes. NO LONGER  

Remove tea bags. 

Add 3/4-1 cup sugar and stir to dissolve. (leave it out for unsweet tea)

Add enough cold water to make 1/2 gallon.

Around here, if you order iced tea, you're going to get sweet tea. But years ago, I gave it up for unsweetened tea because I was looking for a way to eliminate some calories. I don't add sweetener or anything. One friend, who also drinks it like that, calls it "naked tea." 

But at home, I need both sweet and unsweet tea to make both me and Daddy-O happy. You cannot add sugar to cold unsweetened tea—it will never dissolve.  So now I leave out the sugar for me and make a simple syrup for him. He can add this to his glass and we can both have it "our way."

SIMPLE SYRUP

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

Mix and heat over low heat, stirring until dissolved. Store in refrigerator. 1 tablespoon of simple syrup will sweeten a tall glass of iced tea. 

Most of the time, I just use 1/2 water and 1/2 cup sugar. That's enough for us.