Teatime Talk and Popcorn Reading

Any other tea drinkers out there? Winter weather, even here in the Arizona desert, has a way of bringing out the teapots.  In this B.O.Y. heavy house, I try every once in a while to help civilize them.  My husband just rolls his eyes.  I look at it as a way to not only prepare them for marriage one day {ever seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers?}, but also help bring in a little balance as their sister gets older.  Poor Greta, at 16 months, is already wondering around the house with a toy 6-shooter making 'pshhh' sounds.  She is in serious need of some genteel influence...

As we've embarked on our morning Bible study using The Dig, we've added 'tea-time' to the mix.  Our favorite right now is peppermint tea.  My busy young boys need something to keep their hands busy, so that their minds can listen and engage in our study. Tea-time is perfect for short sessions like this.

{They loved wearing their Safari hats in fitting with the theme of our devotional...  And my boys get their sense of humor from their dad - hence the mocking of 'dainty' manners.}

I'm a big fan of pulling out REAL tea cups.  I think it is good for them to have some experiences where they need to execute great care with things. Tea cups certainly fit the bill for that. Of course it always comes with a reminder to be so very careful.  The four year old is repeatedly told that he is excused from his normal chore of clearing the table afterwards. I can just picture him tripping on his way in to the kitchen and my beautiful china shattering everywhere.  Although after Skypping with my sister and her kids this weekend and seeing K2's effect on their tiny teapot, I'm having second thoughts...

As an aside, I never thought I would be a Kindle convert since I just love the feel of real paper in my hands.  But I have to say that I'm loving it more and more.   

For our afternoon reading time, we pop popcorn.  Remember when I posted about Popcorn in the Park and shared our Kettle Corn recipe?  We eat popcorn pretty much ALL the time now.  I blame it on my limited diet last year when I was gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, peanut-free, soy-free, etc... 

Well, this last August, I began playing around with blending my love of popcorn and chocolate.  Hence our obsession with chocolate popcorn.   While we normally go for plain popcorn with some butter and nutritional yeast added, we love our chocolate popcorn so much that the boys wanted me to share our recipe with you!

• 1/4 c coconut oil
• 1/8-1/4 c sugar {I've worked us down to 1/8 c. It is NOT sweet enough for Rich this way, so sometimes we add more!  I've also added a few drops of vanilla stevia we have!}
• 1/8 c cocoa powder
• 1/2 c popping corn
• salt to taste

We heat the oil in our stove-top popcorn maker and add two kernels. Once those pop, pour in the rest of the corn, sugar and cocoa powder. Stir regularly until it is all popped. When finished place in a bowl and add salt for that delicious blend of chocolate, sweet and salty!  

If you are making this for read-aloud time, be sure and reserve some for yourself, otherwise they will devour everything and you will get nothing.  Trust me on this!

So what are we reading right now?  Earlier this month we read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  It was an amazing experience.  This last week we started reading a book about Johannes Kepler.  This is a bit of a stretch for the two younger boys {popcorn helps here}, but Xander and I are loving reading about this man's great faith in God, his love for science and his willingness to ask questions and challenge the status quo.

What are you reading right now?

 

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