Tension Tamer Tea--the December Antidote!

There's nothing I love more than an herbal remedy.  Jars of fermenting kefir and kombucha are a staple on my kitchen counter.  Essential oils and diffusers are a fixture in every bedroom.  The medicine cabinet is stocked with an array of homeopathic bottles, the most colorful of which is KickAss Immunity Spray (the boys are still trying to figure out how the company's mom let them get away with that name!)  

A recent factory tour at Celestial Seasonings awakened a love for another all-natural elixir....tea!  I love a good cup of tea to ward off the afternoon munchies.  And tea in the evening is lovely, if only it didn't have me going to the bathroom all night.  But this week has brought the introduction of tea as a way to relax.  Tension Tamer tea.....I wonder if it will work?

The need for my own personal tension tamer became apparent on Monday morning.  We had a lovely first thirty minutes of the day reading Christmas books and our Advent calendar.  Backs were rubbed, kisses were distributed.  Everyone was relaxed and smiling.  Then, in typical Monday morning fashion, all hell broke lose. 

Kenny, my laser-focused 4th grader, readied himself and moved on to his December literary project for school.  Can we just take a minute to ponder how a literary project assigned in December is counterproductive to mental and possibly physical health?  In addition to baking, addressing, and wrapping, do I really need to be making sure my child completes a series of journal entries from the perspective of a character from the book "Holes"?  Can't December be for completing hand themed Christmas crafts, watching movies and sucking on candy canes? 

Back to Monday morning.....Kenny was working on his journal entry, hollering a word from the living room every thirty seconds (because in addition to cooking, cleaning, and chauffeuring, I am now also a talking dictionary!?)  In the meantime, Jacob and John were in their bathroom "getting ready", but really having a war with a spray bottle of water.  The bickering and ranting about the wrongs committed by the other was reaching an alarming decibel.  This perfect storm pushed me past the limits of sanity, and rather than continue to step into the shower, I stomped out of my bedroom to put a stop to the madness.  While evicting one of the Js from the boys' bathroom, I shouted at Kenny that if "HE NEEDED MORE WORDS SPELLED HE WOULD NEED TO MARCH HIMSELF INTO MY BATHROOM BECAUSE I CANNOT HEAR HIS YELLING OVER THE RUNNING SHOWER."  The fact that I was completely naked with a shower cap on my head was a nice touch to the tirade, and the final clue that I might need something to ease my tensions.  Ha!   

So this Tension Tamer tea has been a daily companion.  I don't know if its doing any good, but it does force me to slow down long enough to boil water and let it steep.  I sip it while sitting in the carpool line with tension taming scents greeting the boys and hopefully having a second-hand effect. 

Whether or not the ingredients have any impact on tension, the process of drinking it reminds me to relax.....to be a little more like Mary, pondering all these things in my heart, and a little less like Roseanne screeching at her sitcom kids.  Come to think of it, I better go buy more Tension Tamer tea before they sell out!

Adventures in Advent

It's December 3 and I'm not sure where our bonus week went.  Last week I was all relaxed and feeling ahead of the Christmas game, what with having the decorations up the day after Thanksgiving and all.  Now I'm frantically searching for my bag of nativity finger puppets, a must-have for active boys' engagement in daily advent readings.  I found a Mary under a chair, and my suspicions are the crew of holy characters have been conscripted into the Lego/army battle set up in the basement, or they have become victims of Nerf gun target practice.  It all leaves me feeling a little disheveled. 

We carried on with our advent reading this morning, despite the missing props.  I found comfort in the realization that I'm not the only one feeling disheveled.  The Israelites were living under Roman oppression:  unable to practice their religion freely, and faced with taxation without representation.  There was no Mayflower boat to carry them to a new world, so they hunkered down and waited for the savior Isaiah predicted.

The oppressed people surely had a strong picture of what this savior would be....an unbeatable warrior like Sampson, or a wise and rich king like Solomon.  Their expectations were high, and rightly so.  The Jewish people had experienced God's faithfulness countless times in their history.  God had parted the Red Sea to facilitate their escape from Egypt.  He had leveled the city of Jericho without a soldier's sword to deliver on the promise of living in a land of their own. 

The Jew's expectations were so honed in on one thing, that they weren't prepared for the Savior God actually sent.  They weren't willing to see a baby in a manger as their promised salvation.  They were so worried with the circumstances of their world, they missed the bigger picture.  Living under Roman rule was no picnic, but it was a temporary situation.  God was sending the Savior of all saviors.  This Savior was concerned with leading people's hearts out of slavery more than their bodies.  His goal was to establish a heavenly kingdom rather than a kingdom of this world. 

So no matter where you find yourself on the spectrum of disheveledness and misplaced expectations, you can be assured you're not the only one.  It's not about having your props in place, lists made, and parties planned.  It's about the wonderful knowledge that God is faithful and works in unexpected ways.  It's our job to be on watch, so we don't miss the unexpected. 

"For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end."  Isaiah 9:6-7