Life has been a handful lately.

I’m enjoying myself tremendously…yet at the same time, I feel like I’m being stretch out thin, especially when I look at my planner and my  “Things to Do” checklist.

During times like that, I will occasionally wonder if I should still be blogging. Like any other normal blogger, I sometimes wonder why I spend so much time and energy and emotion on a blog that doesn’t reap me any financial benefits.

And then, the reminders come.

I love blogging because I love writing, engaging and developing my thoughts, and interacting with different people.

And I also love the responses that I get. I’m sorry to sound mushy, but I really and truly do appreciate all my readers—that’s you—for your support, your loyalty, your friendship, your e-mails and letters of encouragement and appreciation.

Just a few days ago, I found a late Christmas card from one of my oldest readers, Jiaying.

It was squashed into the bottom of the mailbox, and it looked like it had been neglected from quite awhile. I’m not sure how long it has been squished down there, but I’m glad I one day randomly decided to peer down the long, narrow mailbox instead of just grabbing the (usually junk) mail shoved into the top edge of the mailbox.

It was an extremely sweet card. Jiaying (who’s an art student from Singapore) even drew me!

Ain’t that cute! Haha! And look! See the resemblance?

It was a small gesture of kindness and generosity that warmed my heart and made me chuckle out loud. I felt a bubble of appreciation rising inside me, and that lovely sensation of gratefulness is still lifting me high.

But hey, please don’t take this as a plea for more cards and drawings of me. All I really wanted to say is: Thank you. For just being wonderful. And for being there. During times when I really need someone to listen, and even times when I just feel like prattling on about something totally random and (haha) narcissistic.

Anyway. As a token of appreciation, I have another giveaway for you, my dear readers.

Celestial Seasonings has offered me to do a giveaway, this time for their Sleepytime Bear tea collection.

I’d fallen in love with Celestial Seasonings tea ever since the I tried them.

Now, they’ve got a new tea in store: the Sleepytime >Decaf Lemon Jasmine Green Tea.

Same as all the other Celestial Seasonings tea, this tea is made with 100% natural ingredients and flavors, with no artificial colors or preservatives.

This is one naturally decaffeinated, and features a smoothing blend of chamomile, spearmint and lemongrass. With a touch of lemon sparkle and sweet Jasmine tones, of course. I tried a couple, and then gave the rest to my caffeine-sensitive friend who happened to be sick. This friend of mine also has celiac disease, and fortunately, this tea is perfectly gluten-free, too.

There are some other new products as well, such as this Blood Orange Star Fruit Antioxidant Max tea

This one is my favorite!!!

Now, I have tried star fruit before. Numerous times, actually, since I did grow up in Southeast Asia. If the name sounds pretty and exotic to you and you’re tempted to spend a crazy amount of money to buy it—PLEASE DON’T!!!

Real star fruit is NOT worth the money. It doesn’t really even have a particular taste—all it is, is a star-shaped yellow fruit full of bland juices.

But apparently star fruit is lovely in tea. Because this tea knocked my socks off. Together with the blood orange, the mild, slightly tart, barely sweet taste of the star fruit really accentuates the intrigue of the green tea.

There’s two more flavors of this Antioxidant Max line, such as this Blackberry Pomegranate
The other flavor is Dragonfruit Melon.

Interesting flavors, eh? You’ll find their attributes highly interesting, too:

• 35% more flavonoid antioxidants than other flavored green teas (162 mg per serving)
• 20% RDI Vitamin C per serving
• 100% natural

And all that good stuff.

Honestly, I just care about two things in tea: 1) Taste and 2) Strength. And these teas have both. I stretch out my tea bags by steeping them at least two times. The second steep has a subtler flavor, but still lovely and tangible.

Another cool thing about Celestial Seasonings is their trademark natural fiber, tagless bags:

Because they don’t use strings, tags, staples or individual wrappers, more than 3.5 million pounds of waste are saved from entering landfills every year. Go treehuggers!

Anyway. Celestial Seasonings will give away a Sleepytime Bear gift basket that will contain the following goodies:

• Blackberry Pomegranate
• Blood Orange Star Fruit
• Dragon Fruit Melon
• Sleepytime Decaf Lemon Jasmine Green

To earn an entry, do one or all of the following:

• Answer this question in a comment: “When you’re tired and hungry, would you rather eat or sleep?”
  
• Tweet: “ @burp_excuzme wants you to sleep well by giving away free @SleepytimeBear teas: http://bit.ly/gLwQxp…” and then leave me another comment saying you tweeted.
• Follow or “like” me on Facebook!…and then comment again.
  
• Follow Sleepytime Bear on Facebook!…yes, then comment again (or I will not know!!)

And that’s it, folks. I’ll choose and announce the winner sometime this weekend. In the meantime, I hope you’re having a good sleep!

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Tagged as: tea