“Mom! It’s tea time!”
“Okay, I’ll put the kettle on.” I mentally decided to make this quickly-thrown-together tea a little nicer than our usual quickly-thrown-together teas. So for this tea…a beautiful autumnal tablecloth and a couple of faux leaves under a plain autumn harvest scented votive candle for a simple centerpiece.
Next thing I know, ten year old son Josh is out the door and back in again in a flash with a, “Close your eyes, Mom!” and then a handful of REAL autumn leaves to make the centerpiece more beautiful. (After all, it is October!) Add a little Bach for background music, Anna’s thin and crispy pepparkakors, red and yellow apple slices and a pot of Country Cranberry Tea and our little-bit-nicer-than-usual autumn tea is on!
From the Book of 1000 Poems:
“Swinging,” by Irene Thompson and “The Song of the Bath,” by Margaret Gibbs, chosen and read by Hannah (11).
“October’s Party,” by George Cooper, selected by Josh(10)
“October,” by Christina Rosetti and “Rich Days,” by W.H. Davies were Mom’s picks.
(The last three were all repeats from last week’s tea-time readings.)
Finally, we practiced our elocution (as suggested by Linda Fay on higherupand furtherin.blogspot.com) by reading about whales and whaling from McGuffy’s Reader– and Tea Time is done for another week (if all goes well!) If truth be told, I have the nagging fear (certainty?!) that my children’s love of tea time has more to do with the FOOD than the poetry (sigh…), but I also know that whether THEY know it or not, they HAVE been nourished all the same by what they have read and heard, as well as from what they’ve eaten!
Thank you, Julie, for blessing and inspiring so many of us.
Judi
