Lisa Zahn

First, that I shouldn't drink too much of it if I don't want to spend my entire summer in the bathroom. Second, that I should make it myself!  It is so painfully simple to make, so incredibly cheap, and the at-home version almost always turns out perfectly.  And you can't depend on that at Caribou or Starbucks.  Seriously, I hate watered down iced tea. Cost breakdown for the bulk ingredients: 100 bags of Lipton tea: $2.99 usually 4 pound bag of sugar: $4 maximum (I honestly don't know because I  last bought sugar at Costco, organic for I think $1 a pound, a long time ago!  Most likely this is a very high price for regular sugar, but I'll go with it.) Cost for one gallon of homemade iced tea: 12 bags of tea at $.03 each: $.36 1/2 cup of sugar at max price of $1/pound: $.25 water: free Total cost for one gallon of homemade iced tea: $.61 Total cost for a 16 ounce glass of homemade iced tea: $.08!!! Cost of a 16 ounce iced black tea at Caribou: ...

...and when I post on Facebook, I have a much better chance that one or more of my 200-plus friends will comment.  I love that.  I like getting a conversation going. So, that's also a big part of why I blog less and Facebook-post more ( as I wrote about the other day ).  Facebook is like blogging on speed.  I like the limitations of those little boxes because they force me to edit so carefully.  And I love the dialogue that at least sometimes occurs on Facebook. Back in my blogging "heyday", when I would say blogging was more popular and not as divided into mega-blogging mommies who are making a living off of blogging and get most of the readership--and the rest of us more normal folks--there were many more comments on my blog.  In fact, bloggers live/lived by an unwritten code of ethics that states, "don't just lurk, comment already!"  In order to get readers to our blogs, we commented on other people's blogs.  Or even if we didn't care so mu...

...or read the news.  Or look at blogs.  Or pin on Pinterest .  I notice that if I start my day with other people's news--which is what I'm generally drawn to do--I don't do my own thing as much.  Before the internet, I would turn on the Today Show.  Off the internet, I also read magazines and currently have a stack of about 10 books on or near my nightstand. I've always been an obsessive reader and a curious watcher of news. People tell me all the time I should write more.  I tell myself all the time, I wish I wrote more.  And part of me does, indeed, wish that. But I've long been better at input than output. I adore studying and learning new things.  A few years ago I took an entire year of herbal medicine classes.  Then I took another six month course on herbs.  I also took some weekend classes.  I loved every minute of it.  We spent time walking about in fields and on city sidewalks, identifying and learning about a...

It's that (spring) time of year when life gets really busy!  I'm working in the garden, attending either my daughter's or husband's or someone else's musical concerts on at least a weekly basis, and trying to keep up with regular life too. Last weekend I went on a retreat with the 9th grade confirmation students at church.  It was wonderful!  The retreat was called "culturing compassion" and led by our Pastor Dee Pederson and a member of our community, Kevin LaNave, who was formerly a youth minister and now told me has a business leading retreats, service projects, and other things of that nature.  His business is called the Center for Service Learning and Social Change, and you can visit it here .  He did a great job getting the kids interested and keeping them there with games, activities and conversations. "Culturing Compassion" was most specifically about poverty and Jesus' message to care for the poor. One of the things we did on Sat...