Killing It! (Not Quite Literally)

Thanks for the great pics, Jessica K.! Love you!

I feel so grown-up! 😊

Story Time:

Mom and I went shopping today, which we haven't done for a LONG time because she's been sick. Our main reason for heading to town was to look for a very specific, very bright, very orange shade of paint. However, Mom thought we'd better head to the WinCo next door so we could say we did something useful.

So. We headed to Wilco first, since they have a huge paint selection, and I accidentally picked the perfect color first try. There was much excitement. A sample can was bought. 😇 Also, we were super excited to find a pale, lemon yellow. (as opposed to a butter yellow.) A lemon yellow is more of a "true" yellow, while the butter tones have a creaminess that dilutes their cheeriness. They're more soothingly warm than brightly invigorating, and brightly invigorating is what we're going for. I think that actually describes Mom's character almost as well as her color preferences!

Can you tell we both like color? 😅

Where was I going with this? Oh right!

We headed on to Winco. Found Orange Spice Black Tea in bulk and got groceries for our 1.5 households. And I got whole mushrooms and a cherry tomato plant! #SimplePleasures 💗

But then. . . Did I mention that Mom's been sick? Well, her energy hasn't fully returned yet.

She had to take a break before we got everything. Being the soon-to-be-adult, loving daughter that I am, I volunteered to go and finish getting groceries so Mom wouldn't hafta feel pressured to get going again. She gave me her list, and off I went!

The cart was heavy. And wanted to go any direction but straight. Which means that there I was, purposefully pushing a swerving cart while grunting and groaning and straining to make corners and muttering things like, "Oh goodness." "Whoops." "Come ON!"

I don't really blame people for getting outta my way. 😁

But.

I FINDED EVERYTHING! And it didn't take too long! Although, I'm pretty sure I got done so expediently because I was walking through my own personal Red Sea. (AKA People were parting before me and I walked through on dry land.) 😏

But when I got back, I was very proud of me for saving the day. 💪 I was pushing a large cart in an unfamiliar store by myself for the first time in anything bigger than Halsey's Select Market. Which isn't a big deal, probably. But I was impressed! 😜

It's just another (albeit small) step to getting where I'm gonna be. And progress, no matter how minuscule, is progress. So I will choose to be encouraged by the little things in life, the small accomplishments, because big leaps in life are few and far between. Living for them is just discouraging after awhile.

I choose to let me be encouraged.

So there.

Cuz this Grown-Up-ness stuff? I'm killing it. Especially since I managed to not kill anyone with a grocery cart this afternoon.

~Dolly

The Best Kind of Friend

My heart is full right now.

My closest friend just let me call off our plans for tomorrow and agreed to come over and do homework with me because this week has stunk and I'm kinda behind.

Who does that, right?

Hannah's just one of those people though. She's loyal and fun and totally practical when I need her. She's up for girls' days out, and she's also cool with just hanging out at her college or one of our houses watching TV or swapping pics of cute guys. (Damian McGinty, anyone?)

We've had so many laughs together, but I know that if I need someone, she'll be ready to cry with me too.

I remember this summer, when we were hanging out almost every day. Seriously, her lovely German Shepherd wasn't even getting hyper when I came over, I was there so much! Anyway, I think we both got to a point of thinking 'Is she getting tired of seeing me all the time?' and were each relieved to find that the other person felt the same as we did and wanted to hang out again. Tomorrow. :)

Through this summer, we moved past a lot of insecurities with each other, insecurities in our friendship.

That's why our friendship is still just as strong even though she's in college and I'm stuck at home feeling terrible a lot. We know that both of us wanna make things work out. We're both committed.

So, Hannah! Thank you for being awesome. 😉 Thank you for messaging me randomly on Facebook to ask about hanging out. Thanks for not being scared away by my problems. Thanks for being so selfless. Thanks for being able to talk about anything from crushes to trusting God in pain.

Especially, thank you for being a fantastic baker and lovely-tea maker. 💖

Love you, dear!

~Dolly

Tea Memories

I haven't always been a tea drinker, at least, not a sophisticated one. My mom's always been a coffee person, so I grew up appreciating lattes, breves, normal coffee with (lots of) cream, etc. My Dad kept a stash of mint teas, and Mom occasionally made us drink chamomile (ugh) or sleepytime blends when we were having particular insomnia, but I'd never had experience beyond that.

All that changed when I was at Brownsville Mennonite's Girl's Club, and we had a tea party. The ladies in my cousin Jenny's (here's her creative blog. she writes her own poetry!) family are all avid tea drinkers, to the best of my knowledge, and Auntie Dorcas (her very insightful blog is here) brought an array of teas, including some fancy loose-leaf black tea from Kenya. Honestly, it wasn't my favorite. Kind of bitter and dark and strong, so not the ideal tea to start out with, but it broadened my horizons.

Later, after I (finally!) passed Driver's Ed (That's a story for another time, if ya'll wanna hear. . . read? . . . it.), Mom and I stopped by Auntie Dorcas's to tell them the good news, especially since it's a house full of empathetic listeners. When she heard the news, my cousin Emily (her blog is here, and it's pretty awesome. She's pretty adventurous.) literally jumped in the air, then ran upstairs to grab a celebratory pot of tea she'd been brewing in her room. (I told you they were avid tea drinkers.) That's when tea started to become a sign of happy memories and hospitality: something warm and comforting.

Then about a year ago, one of my favoritest people started broadening her own tea horizons, and I was invited along for the ride. This past school year and summer vacation especially, Hannah and I hung out a lot. And tea was quite often involved. We would sit around, listening to a new favorite song, talking about her latest Ted Dekker book, and catching up on each other's lives. And drinking tea. My personal favorite was Meyer Lemon (which we can only find at Fred Meyer's, which amuses us), and Hannah tried something different each time. She's more of a tea-adventurer than I am. During this time, my appreciation of tea deepened and became a sign of connections and friendships and shared enjoyment and peaceful. . . just abiding together. To me, abiding is being so comfortable with someone that you can totally rest in their presence without feeling threatened, and bare your heart without fear of rejection. That's what tea started to represent to me.

During this summer vacation (I think), Hannah made us a London fog. I pretended to be helpful and tried to stay out of the way. More recently, we experimented together on Early Grey Shortbread Cookies for a tea party. That's when tea, specifically Earl Grey, came to represent teamwork and warm fuzzy feelings, like the wonderful smells of cookies and tea mingled together and filling the kitchen, or the companionable feeling of making a drink together and then getting to appreciate your efforts. In short, I'm sitting by an empty jar that used to hold a London Fog I made this morning, and remembering how I got to this point. A year ago, I maybe would've had an idea of what Earl Grey was. Maybe. Now I have an entire (though short) tea history to look back over!

I'm grateful for the people that helped me get here. Auntie Dorcas, who introduced me to black tea, Emily, who introduced me to the celebration of tea, and Hannah, who introduced me to the companionship of tea. You have truly filed my life with good things. I'm grateful for our shared tea memories, and the new tea moments we'll hopefully share together.

~Dolly