Tuesday, September 1, 2020

T is for Tuesday

 

 Tuesday.... "chooseday"  

we are required to make so many choices each hour, each day each year. Some of them are small... what to wear today? (I know whatever I choose will be too hot or cold) 

Which mug to drink your coffee or morning tea from? 

I was adopted as an infant into an existing family with  16 and 12 year old daughters, who got married early giving me faux siblings (their kids) to grow up with. My "niece" came to visit me once bringing her kids along. One morning I asked which mug she wanted with her breakfast coffee. 

She was incredulous saying what does it matter? who cares? 

I blinked... I care, I thought. I pick the one that suits me each time, why not? Why wouldn't you care? 

choice.... a blessing and an annoyance at times. Increasingly these days of home cooked meals, I'm asked what do you want for dinner? 

People chow, so I don't have to choose what to have. 

I am an artist by temperament. I make a meeeelion choices with each design. I like the choices. Often with fabric I can audition different patterns before committing to them but with painting it is more of a commitment since I use watercolors. Mostly I enjoy the process of making a decision on art. It is not life and death, it won't impact many people and I have to primarily make myself happy. 

I remember having to choose from the car I really wanted and the one that was practical and affordable. With some sacrifice I could afford both. My head and my spirit were at odds... and I wasn't sure what to do so I asked my older sister. She said, if you tossed a coin, and it came up the practical one, would you be upset? then pick the fun one and make it work! Someone else told me once, if you have two choices and go back and forth then likely they are both good, and either will work so stop dithering! 

My sister's husband once told me, most decisions aren't right or wrong... they just are choices. Once you make a choice, you take that road and live with it... accepting the good and bad that come with it. 

Hindsight isn't 20/20 it's an annoying little brother who says nyah nyah! you screwed up! It is best friends with regret, the hateful friend who makes you question your actions instead of reminding you that you're capable of handling the consequences. 

 
chooseday... it's Tuesday... and I choose to link up with T is for Tuesday because it's a nice group of people and I need niceness. My drink of choice this week is iced tea. It is always iced tea, I grew up in the South. I steep cinnamon tea bags, with decaf green tea bags, then make a quart of tea with filtered water to keep in the fridge. 
Now that I'm older, I can't have the amount of caffeine I used to consume hence the half and half, but we like tea at lunch. 
I can drink it from my little goblet because that makes me happy. 

tell me about the choices you are making today... let me get a glass of tea so I can relax and listen!

linking to  all seasons

Quotes About Choosing Wrong Path: top 1 Choosing Wrong Path quotes from  famous authors

24 comments:

Mae Travels said...

Your point is very relevant right now. Being locked down cuts our choices enormously, but many of them aren't important. What store do we go to? Answer: no stores. What brands do we buy? Which cereal? Which crackers? Which soft drink? Answers: the ones we can get when we order things. Maybe we can skip the soft drink and make do with water (that's our choice now). Maybe we opt out of meat. But these aren't really important choices.

Then there are the really meaningful choices. Travel to foreign places? Seeing polar bears? Seeing whales? Birding tours? Exotic islands? No choice: we have to stay home. Inviting people for dinner? Can't do it. Picking a restaurant? Ha ha.

You made me think.

be well... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

Jackie McGuinness said...

I wish I had to choice of where to travel to. Well, I guess I do in a way, but have chosen to stay close to home this year.
Definitely I have a choice for my mug, I have a couple I love and some I would never have my coffee from!

Mary in Peoria Handmade said...

I have really enjoyed your posts these last few days as they really make me stop and think instead of just looking at pretty pictures. Plus, they give us such insight into you being you. My life is so rote compared to yours. I use the same coffee container and same water container all day every day. How boring. LOL I barely make serious choices due to Covid! Oh well, “maybe “ I’ll paint today.

kathyinozarks said...

Good points-so glad you joined us at T wonderful and kind bloggers over at T Hugs Kathy

Karen said...

So did you take your sisters wise advice and get the fun car?? My youngest daughter is dithering on something and this was a good post for me to understand where she's coming from. I like your drink choice, I forget that you can mix two tea bag flavors to make a different drink! ~ Enjoy

Eileen Bergen said...

Lovely muse, LeeAnne. Today I choose to visit my T-friends. Then I choose to make some art. I feel grateful to choices like this that I can make.

Happy T-Day! Hugs, Eileen

Valerie-Jael said...

Too true, choice is not always easy! Happy T Day. Valerie

Sara said...

I do agree with you that the process is really more important than the result. Today I chose NOT to argue with a friend who was venting about being kicked off the indoor walking track this morning at 5:30 am because she was not wearing a mask. I wanted to yell at her and say "follow the rules!", but I just agreed that the staff person could have been more polite about it. It was a good choice for me as she wouldn't have listened to me anyway because she "knows better". LOL And later today I plan to choose to sew something happy!!

Barbara said...

Oh boy, I can relate. I was an over-thinker until my daughter started calling me on it. Now things don’t matter so much, and life for me is more peaceful. ☺️

Divers and Sundry said...

Oh, yes, the cup/mug is chosen each time :) I even have ones I get out for each season. I got the Autumn mugs out today :)

I am a southerner and grew up with sweet tea being the usual drink. Happy T Tuesday!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Oh LeeAnna, I adore your chooseday choices you ponder over. You can't rewind the day, but you can learn from your choices. Some you will be pleased with, some you will wish for a different path.

But regardless, there's always a jug of tea in the fridge waiting for you to decide if you want to drink it from a goblet, a glass, or a mug. Thanks so very much for this insightful way at looking at what decisions and choices we make each day and for doing so today for T Tuesday.

sewyouquilt2 said...

I chose to try pumpkin spice cheerios for breakfast, and when at work with the printer/copier/fax waiting for repair. The computer also went down leaving me to hand write truck tickets. I chose to go with the flow and joke with the truck drivers about it, offering them a wrapped candy while they waited for me. We all paused a little from the daily grind and it wasnt so bad.

My name is Erika. said...

I always pick my mug. I do like one that fits my drink and my mood. And your brother-in-law makes a lot of sense. Picking a mug is a good way to make an early in the day decision and get you started on the right road. Hope it was a happy T day. Hugs-Erika

Kate Yetter said...

An interesting thing to ponder. Decisions are so important as each decision has a consequence. I struggle with making decisions and wish they came easier to me.
Happy Tea Day,
Kate

MissPat said...

I use the same coffee mug everyday, even though there's a whole shelf full in the cupboard many with iris and other flowers. I make my ice tea with raspberry, peach, and green tea bags, but I brew it extra strength, then mix that with an equal amount of water. But if there's a decision to be made about a new item to buy, I dither forever. It took me 3 years to choose a new low end sewing machine to use as a travel machine and, of course, I don't really like it that much. I'm all for the simpler life right now because it means I don't have to make decisions. What a wimp, right?
Pat

LA Paylor said...

not a wimp, just exhausted like me.

Angie said...

LA - a wonderful post. Loved what you wrote about hindsight. Somewhere around here I have a quote about "madness" - it isn't looking forward that tends to drive men mad, but regret for things in the past!

Today I spent a lot of time in the garden, plotting what seeds I will plant in the fall and the spring. Pure joy!

The Colorful Fabriholic said...

Great post - So true about the number of choices, large and small, we must make each day. I've found ways to simplify during these Covid times. 1) from all our many, many souvenir coffee cups, DH and I have each chosen one as "our" cup, so if we get sick and need to quarantine, the other won't accidentally use ours. Same with beverage glasses. 2) I make a menu plan for the week and shop for groceries accordingly. No need to think each day about what's for dinner. I wish I'd started doing this years ago!

The Joyful Quilter said...

:o))
"Iced" tea. YUM!! I was shocked when I discovered that some drink it WITHOUT ice. Even more shocked to find that you couldn't get brewed iced tea in New Jersey... where most places serve instant. YUCK!!

CJ Kennedy said...

Interesting topic. Some choices you don't really think about. A mug for tea is any mug that happens to be clean at the time if the favorite mug is in the sink. 😺 Happy T Day

Anne (cornucopia) said...

I like your points about choices. This week I've had regrets about some of my life choices swirling through my mind, so your post gave me a little perspective. Happy Belated T-Day!

pearshapedcrafting said...

So many of our usual ways of choosing are not an option this year but we do still have choices, they are just temporarily different! At the start of lockdown we couldn't choose where we ordered our online groceries, we can now choose where we shop and whether we want to continue with ordering on line (we do, for now) We can choose to go out for walks, as long as we feel safe(mostly we do), best of all we can choose what we do at home - no one coming in so if the carpet has sewing threads on it no need to rush to vacuum, tomorrow will do, we can read, chat, watch a film on TV, craft, paint - an endless list of choices! I really enjoyed reading this post, Happy T day, Chrisx

Tails Around the Ranch said...

Living always requires choices, we can only hope we make good ones and change directions when we don't. That's real growth.

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

The cinnamon tea sounds delicious. I've been drinking regular tea but with a lot of fresh lemon squeezed in it. And I antagonize over decisions. I spend SO much time trying to figure out the perfect outcome. I guess it's part of our personality!