My teenage stepdaughter and I recently discovered something we have in common besides two X chromosomes.  Pretty cool, eh?

Recently I started a new job.  The company provides employees and contractors with reasons not to leave the office, such as a large bowl of fruit in the break room, and a wide assortment of tea.

This led to my re-discovery of Good Earth Sweet & Spicy herbal tea.  After a few days, I went out and bought some boxes so I wouldn’t feel like a tea piranha waiting for the next box to appear, and could chug it down without guilt.

My stepdaughter has a thing for Celestial Seasonings Sweet tea, probably due to its associations with Christmas and snow, from a time when she lived with her mom.  The only problem with it is the caffeine content.  You know how teenagers are – and on caffeine they’re even more so, thanks to those
dratted hormones.  (Parents, if you can keep your kids away from Monster and Red Bull, it’s very likely that you’ll all be happier!)  We had to limit her to weekend mornings; now she frequently forgets she has it and the box is collecting dust.

After my Sweet & Spicy no-caffeine purchase, on an inspiration, I gave her a bag and urged her to try it as an alternative to more caloric drinks, in the hopes of getting her to hydrate herself better.  The tea has no sugar, but lives up to its name, I said.  She wasn’t enthusiastic until she opened the envelope and inhaled its cinnamon-orange fragrance, at which point her eyes bulged and she could hardly wait for the water to boil.

She chugged it.

A day or so later, I revealed to her that each serving has only three calories, and bought her a box of her own.  She was so enamored of it that she took a few packets to her mom on a summer visit.

One part that makes it fun is that the tab on each tea bag displays a quote.  For some reason, the first few tea bags we each opened contained quotes that were extremely applicable to something happening in our lives at that time, and the quotes themselves are more interesting than those in fortune cookies.  For example, my stepdaughter is recovering from math anxiety and has just started a geometry class.  Just about the time school started, she opened one with a quote from mathematician Johann von Neumann: “In
mathematics you don’t understand things.  You just get used to them.”

How perfect is that?  Now if only we could agree on her phone usage.