Tea Time

Katie has decided that we should have tea every day at 4pm. I've had to moved that to 3:30pm so everyone will still be hungry for dinner at 6:30.

So, every day that we can, we sit down as a family and have tea or hot milk (Zack doesn't like tea), some tea biscuits, maybe some fruit and cheese and spend a nice half hour eating, sipping and chatting. Katie heads up the effort, keeping track of the time and reminding Pete or me to put the water on to boil.

We especially like Marie biscuits, that absorb the liquid and then suddenly puff up. You have to time it just right to wait for the puff but retrieve it before it breaks up and sinks.

That time of day is a real challenge for me and to give myself permission to relax and refresh for a few minutes has made a big difference in my mental attitude. We also get to enjoy having Pete working from home. Often, he is downstairs in his office and we're upstairs or out and about without him but he's made an effort to make the time to join us for tea.

I can easily discount how important these family rituals are. Tea time has reminded me how much better we all do when we take time out to gather around the table all together.