I do not like coffee at all! It took me until I was in university before I could tolerate even the smell of coffee. That came about because all my dorm sisters loved going to Starbucks to study. Naturally I wanted to go too so I got use to the smell. I was NOT a tea person. I've tried a number of times but I cannot stand the bitter after taste that tea leaves in my mouth. I did really love the smell though and I could not understand why it didn't taste like it smelled. I may have mentioned this before but my husband and I work with the youth group at our church and often have the students over to our house. A few of them expressed how much they loved tea. It got me thinking about trying to drink tea again (I try every couple of years because it just seems so relaxing). I have been able to down a few cups of peppermint tea if I add enough sugar. I kept hearing all these great things about David's Tea and two stores just opened in town. I had my first experience with David's Tea about a month ago and that was simply walking into the store in search of a gift for one of my youth girls (still haven't figured out what I want to get her). Every time I walk in to the store I am extremely overwhelmed! Yikes! I never knew there were different types of tea and then flavours within those types of teas. I mean they have an entire wall full of cans of loose leaf tea that they willingly take off the shelf and let you smell! Wow! I spent at least 15 minutes just sniffing tea. I also found out that the bitter aftertaste is caused from over-steeping or burning the leaves. What? You can burn tea? How does that even happen? A few weeks after that first experience I actually consumed my first cup of David's Tea! Yummy! I tried White Chocolate Frost! It is composed of peppermint (my favourite), white chocolate, pink peppercorn, stevia leaf, natural sugar flavouring, natural and artificial white chocolate mousse flavouring. I was hooked! It just so happened that this whole experience happened right around my birthday and I received a number of options for my birthday along with a sweet mug and tea pot both with infusers. I've tried peppermint amour, spearmint, and white chocolate frost. I also have Mom's Apple Pie and Nepal Black, although I think that one is more for my husband but I haven't tried either of them yet. I have a new addiction and it tastes so good!!!
What's your favourite type of tea or hot drink? Have you had a David's Tea experience?
Be joy filled!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Friday, November 8, 2013
Operation Christmas Child
I LOVE putting together shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. It is an amazing way to spread the love of Jesus with kids who are less fortunate around the world. It is run by Samaritan's Purse and all the info can be viewed at their website (http://www.samaritanspurse.ca/operation-christmas-child.aspx)
Basically, you fill a shoe box (or small plastic tub the size of a shoe box) with small items (school supplies, toys, clothes, personal items, hygiene items and hard candy)! This could be the only gift these kids get in their whole lives. Matt and I started putting these together the first year we got married. Each year we put together a box for the oldest age group, which receives the least amount of donations (10-14 years). Once we started having kids, we decided that we would let each child pack a box for their age group. The youngest age group is 2-4 so Caleb will be putting a box together for that age for awhile. The first couple of years it was much more of a stretch to fill the boxes with enough stuff, partially because we didn't have very much money and partially because I just didn't know what to put in the boxes. This year I am so excited about these boxes! As soon as they announced the collection dates at church last Sunday I started planning and shopping. My parents put together a couple of boxes too so my mom and I hit the stores. We went to a couple of dollar stores, Wal-Mart and Michaels. Here is a list of what I bought for each box and an approximation of what I spent. Keep in mind that Samaritan's Purse asks you to include a donation of $7 to help cover the shipping costs.
Girl 10-14:
-Water bottle
-Pencil sharpener
-4 pens
-4 pencils
-Coloured pencils
-2 bracelets
-Hair elastics
-Sewing kit
-Bag of hard individually wrapped candies
-Light weight scarf
-Socks
-Sports bra
-2 little pony toys
-Crayons
-Pencil case
-Scissors
-Bandaids and alcohol swabs (in a bag)
-Bar of soap (in a bag)
-Facial tissues
-Comb
-Toothbrush
-Beads and elastic
-Embroidery thread
-Necklace
-Turtle foam craft
-Tote bag with fabric markers
-Pad of paper
-Bouncy ball
Value: $28-32
Boy 2-4:
-Tiny frisbee
-Bar of soap (in a bag)
-Small dinosaurs
-Baseball
-Bag of candy
-Facial tissues
-Crayons
-3 pairs of socks
-T-shirt (size 4)
-Toothbrush
-Teddy bear
-Scissors
-Colouring book
-Cars stickers
-2 exercise books (thin pads of paper)
-Water bottle
-2 bouncy balls
-2 cars
-Pencil sharpener
-Bandaids and alcohol swabs
-2 pencils
-Coloured pencils
Value: $28-32
Boy 10-14:
-Bar of soap (in a bag)
-Bag of candy
-Football flyer
-Wood workshop build a race car set
-Bandaids and alcohol swabs
-Scissors
-Facial tissues
-Pad of paper (Team Canada Hockey)
-Soccer ball (deflated) - not pictured
-Air pump and needles
-Water bottle
-Pencil sharpener
-2 bouncy balls
-Pens
-Pencils
-Coloured pencils
-Toothbrush
Value: $30-35
As you can tell we have a few staples in our boxes. All the boxes have toothbrushes, soap, bandaids, alcohol swabs, scissors, bouncy balls, pencils, pens, coloured pencils, and a bag of candy. Water bottles were new additions this year and I love them! I packed mine full of pens, pencils, coloured pencils, facial tissues, bandaids, alcohol swabs, pencil sharpeners, bouncy balls and hair supplies (where applicable). My advice though is to find some that are tall and skinny. The ones my mom bought were a little wider and shorter and made for more challenging packing. Matt's favourite thing to put in the boxes is a soccer ball. I couldn't agree more. I mean what kid, no matter what age, wouldn't love a soccer ball? All in all, it'll cost us right around $110 to put these together plus the $7 a box to send them; however, if you 'donate' more than $15 to help send the boxes then they will give you a tax receipt. I see so much value in putting these boxes together and helping my kids realize that there are children all around the world that don't get lots of stuff for Christmas. Last year Caleb didn't really help since he was only 6 months old but this year I made sure he helped pack the boxes. He put the pencils and pens in the water bottles and the candies in the bags. It was great to see him get excited about helping. I'm hoping next year he will help pick out the toys or something. I am also going to start looking for things throughout the year since we had a bit of trouble trying to find little crafts or a variety of items to go in the boxes. I thought the start or end of summer would be great to find bright coloured crafts. I also thought that back-to-school sales would be a great time to get cheap school supplies. If you spread out the cost throughout the year, then it doesn't seem like a such a big cost all at once.
Be joy-filled!
Basically, you fill a shoe box (or small plastic tub the size of a shoe box) with small items (school supplies, toys, clothes, personal items, hygiene items and hard candy)! This could be the only gift these kids get in their whole lives. Matt and I started putting these together the first year we got married. Each year we put together a box for the oldest age group, which receives the least amount of donations (10-14 years). Once we started having kids, we decided that we would let each child pack a box for their age group. The youngest age group is 2-4 so Caleb will be putting a box together for that age for awhile. The first couple of years it was much more of a stretch to fill the boxes with enough stuff, partially because we didn't have very much money and partially because I just didn't know what to put in the boxes. This year I am so excited about these boxes! As soon as they announced the collection dates at church last Sunday I started planning and shopping. My parents put together a couple of boxes too so my mom and I hit the stores. We went to a couple of dollar stores, Wal-Mart and Michaels. Here is a list of what I bought for each box and an approximation of what I spent. Keep in mind that Samaritan's Purse asks you to include a donation of $7 to help cover the shipping costs.
Girl 10-14:
-Water bottle
-Pencil sharpener-4 pens
-4 pencils
-Coloured pencils
-2 bracelets
-Hair elastics
-Sewing kit
-Bag of hard individually wrapped candies
-Light weight scarf
-Socks
-Sports bra
-2 little pony toys
-Crayons
-Pencil case
-Scissors
-Bandaids and alcohol swabs (in a bag)
-Bar of soap (in a bag)
-Facial tissues
-Comb
-Toothbrush
-Beads and elastic
-Embroidery thread
-Necklace
-Turtle foam craft
-Tote bag with fabric markers
-Pad of paper
-Bouncy ball
Value: $28-32
Boy 2-4:
-Tiny frisbee
-Bar of soap (in a bag)
-Small dinosaurs
-Baseball-Bag of candy
-Facial tissues
-Crayons
-3 pairs of socks
-T-shirt (size 4)
-Toothbrush
-Teddy bear
-Scissors
-Colouring book
-Cars stickers
-2 exercise books (thin pads of paper)
-Water bottle
-2 bouncy balls
-2 cars
-Pencil sharpener
-Bandaids and alcohol swabs
-2 pencils
-Coloured pencils
Value: $28-32
Boy 10-14:
-Bar of soap (in a bag)
-Bag of candy-Football flyer
-Wood workshop build a race car set
-Bandaids and alcohol swabs
-Scissors
-Facial tissues
-Pad of paper (Team Canada Hockey)
-Soccer ball (deflated) - not pictured
-Air pump and needles
-Water bottle
-Pencil sharpener
-2 bouncy balls
-Pens
-Pencils
-Coloured pencils
-Toothbrush
Value: $30-35
As you can tell we have a few staples in our boxes. All the boxes have toothbrushes, soap, bandaids, alcohol swabs, scissors, bouncy balls, pencils, pens, coloured pencils, and a bag of candy. Water bottles were new additions this year and I love them! I packed mine full of pens, pencils, coloured pencils, facial tissues, bandaids, alcohol swabs, pencil sharpeners, bouncy balls and hair supplies (where applicable). My advice though is to find some that are tall and skinny. The ones my mom bought were a little wider and shorter and made for more challenging packing. Matt's favourite thing to put in the boxes is a soccer ball. I couldn't agree more. I mean what kid, no matter what age, wouldn't love a soccer ball? All in all, it'll cost us right around $110 to put these together plus the $7 a box to send them; however, if you 'donate' more than $15 to help send the boxes then they will give you a tax receipt. I see so much value in putting these boxes together and helping my kids realize that there are children all around the world that don't get lots of stuff for Christmas. Last year Caleb didn't really help since he was only 6 months old but this year I made sure he helped pack the boxes. He put the pencils and pens in the water bottles and the candies in the bags. It was great to see him get excited about helping. I'm hoping next year he will help pick out the toys or something. I am also going to start looking for things throughout the year since we had a bit of trouble trying to find little crafts or a variety of items to go in the boxes. I thought the start or end of summer would be great to find bright coloured crafts. I also thought that back-to-school sales would be a great time to get cheap school supplies. If you spread out the cost throughout the year, then it doesn't seem like a such a big cost all at once.
Be joy-filled!
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