Today was a run 50 errands all over northwest Arkansas on a tight schedule kind of day. One errand led us to Savoy Tea Co. I needed to get some dried elderberry & echinacea stuff (flowers or berries or something) to make a tea to treat a stalwart cold.
I warned Eva that we weren't getting any treats, just the dried stuff, and then we had to hurry off for her doctor appointment. But once we got there, Eva really wanted to stay and have a tea party. She looked around wistfully and chirped "tea?" like a little bird.
I ignored her pleas, grabbed my goods, paid, and on our way out, Eva distinctly and loudly said, "I want $h*t! I want $h*t, please."
It took me a second to realize she was saying that she wanted to SIT, not the other thing. As in, sit down, rest a bit and have a cuppa. To make sure the tea ladies didn't think we condone infantile swearing at our house, I said, "Oh, you want to SIT down? Sorry, not today, we have to be adults and take care of errands." We were on a tight schedule, you see.
I made it about 10 feet out of that store when I turned right back around and we made our second entrance into Savoy only this time we had ourselves a little tea date.
Walking out of that store triggered a sweet childhood memory when my mom, my Aunt Darla (my other mother), and I were driving home from somewhere. There might have been a cousin with us. I can't remember. Anyway, on this particular road near the Ouachita Mountains, there happened to be Tickle Belly Hill. Maybe other people called it that too, I don't know. It was Tickle Belly Hill though. If you speed when you drive over it, you lose your tummy, like when you're on a little roller coaster. My mom duly sped up and we lost our tummies on Tickle Belly Hill. But seeing as children are never satisfied with just a little fun, I asked my mom if we could go over it again.
Ya'll, my practical, no-nonsense momma pulled a U-ie, and we went over that dang hill again and again and again. Each time she broke a traffic law, my heart sang. That practical momma burned time and gas just for fun. Hallelujah.
Anyway. That's why we had a tea party.
