National Coffee Day

Okay, peeps.

Let’s talk about ups and downs and the coping/go-juice we all love, in honor of…National Coffee Day (today)!

(Yup. It’s apparently a thing.)

Now. My own deep thoughts, insights and preferences regarding this beverage that many humans the world over love and NEED:

First: I’ve never been a morning coffee drinker. Ever. (Well, except for the occasional brunch out.) I’ve always been an after-lunch/early-afternoon gal, for a pick-me-up. And I reaaaaally need that pick-me-up most days (of late).

Second: I am an equal-opportunity coffee drinker. Hot, cold, iced, frozen, sweet, black, flavored, plain, holiday. I’ll take any and all and love each cup for its uniqueness. That said, these days, I’m mostly a latte girl with oat milk. And more often than not, it’s a caramel or brown sugar cup o’ goodness.

Third: despite my massive love for coffee, I am a LIGHT. WEIGHT. Perhaps because I have an uber-sensitive heart (that sounds funny, but I intend this to be very literal; my heart easily falls into some arrhythmia trills or manufactures a clenching sensation [never fear, I do go to a cardiologist for checkups and my next scheduled one is actually in two weeks, ha]). 

So…the moral of this story is that, despite my massive coffee love, I can never drink more than about a third of a cup at a time (so sad), or I’ll face major ramifications. Deep sigh. This often leads people to falsely think I’m either wasteful or unhappy with my brew, but that is just not. The. Case. I’d consume it intravenously if I could.

Now. Perhaps a related topic for this here random post is the fact that the recent weeks with my babies have been tough, and I’ve needed the coffee more than ever for a variety of reasons.

First, because I’m just not getting enough sleep. I’m golden on about 7 hours, but lately, I’ve been averaging about 5.5 or 6, and it’s just not cutting it. Must. Get. More. Sleep. A seemingly-easy task that just isn’t (at least for me).

And second, my kiddos are still going through some of the school-year acclimation pains that make our afternoons quite difficult on more days than I’d prefer. We’re still just a few weeks in to our extra-curriculars and the decent chunk of homework they each have for the evening, and it just makes for long days and cranky babies. Oye.

I know from experience that we always seems to hit our stride in October, right as we’re wrapping up the first nine weeks of school, so I know we’ll get to some smoother sailing. And I also know I’m by no means the first parent—nor the last, by a long shot—to deal with tough school year attitudes, so there’s some comfort in knowing I’m not alone, ha.

And there’s also comfort in…baking. ;)

Like these gorgeous pumpkin brownies I stress-baked Monday night when it had been A DAY and I just needed to work out some of my frustrations and icky mojo. (Please note the below pic is from the recipe and not my final product, which was slightly less swirly-attractive, ha.)



And now, for one last tie-in on this random coffee/cranky kiddos/stress baking post…I can share a MASSIVE bit of HALLELUJAH news:

7.5 months after our winter storm disaster and home restoration, we FINALLY HAVE AN OVEN (and microwave!) AGAIN!!!



It was delivered a couple of days ago and installed yesterday, and I have yet to find a moment to even turn it on and start to figure it out, but I am SO STINKING HAPPY to have it—and to not have any ugly hole in the wall—that I have no words except PRAISE THE HEAVENS.



I refuse to waste its inaugural bake on something lame like the kiddos’ fish sticks, so I’m hoping to set aside a moment this weekend to bake something fabulous in honor of it finally joining our household.

After a storm-filled night last night with three kiddos making their way, scared, to the master bedroom, I am more than a little sleepy. So here’s an enthusiastic GOODNIGHT from our neck of the woods, and a peace out, peeps.

More mañana.

Over and out.