On the Brink of Summer

This time of year is so frustrating, for me and my kids. You can feel it...you can see it...you can taste it. Summer is right there, just out of our reach. The weather is warming up. The days are getting longer. You can get a snowcone on almost every corner. But, sadly, it really isn't quite summer yet. The kids still have school every weekday. I still have work...some weekdays. The pool isn't open. The lake isn't warm enough to go to. It just isn't summer.

But it is hard to still go to school and work because it seems so much like summer. Ever since spring break it just hasn't felt like spring anymore. So it is hard to get the kids to bed on time. We just want to play outside all evening. And it is hard to get them to do their homework. Come on summer! Get here!!!

Luckily for me, I only have 3 more weeks of school (although really, I have a lot to do the weeks after the semester ends, but that doesn't count). And the kids only have a little over 6 weeks left.

And we just can't wait!!!

The Evolution of a Coffee Drinker

Mmmm...Good coffee. That is a phrase that gets uttered here in this house often. There is nothing I want more first thing in the morning that a good cup of Joe. And it is always better when Toby makes it :)

But I haven't always like coffee. In fact, I initially thought it was disgusting. I have evolved, however, into a coffee drinker, so much so that I usually have many cups a day.

My evolution began when I was a freshman in college and some friends invited me to the coffee house their right off campus. At first, I told them no because I am not a coffee drinker, but someone assured me that there would be something there for me. And he was right...I ordered a mocha, and that was my first step as a coffee drinker...my gateway drug into the Java world.

For many years, mocha is the only coffee I would drink. Toby would always try to convince me to drink regular coffee, but I refused. Fast forward ten years, when I was a night-shift nurse. Coffee became a necessity, and even though the hospital where I worked had a coffee bar, it wasn't open at 3am, so I began drinking regular coffee. Of course, I had to doctor it up. Big time. Lots of cream and sugar.

Then, I began teaching nursing, and was no longer working nights. But clinical mornings meant getting up around 5:30. And Starbuck's was right on my way to the hospital, so I began drinking mochas again. However, 2-4 frilly drinks from Starbuck's began adding up, and sometimes, I just didn't have time to wait in that horribly slow line. So, I began drinking regular coffee that Toby would make for me.

And now, I drink 2-3 cups almost every morning. And if Toby isn't here, I even make it myself. I do still have to add cream and sugar, but hardly ever go to Starbuck's anymore (although a Starbuck's mocha remains my absolute favorite coffee drink...a mocha anywhere else isn't nearly as good). Perhaps one of these days, we'll be out of cream or sugar, and I'll be jonesing for that java-fix and may just be desperate enough to drink it without cream, or without sugar. And maybe, just maybe, my evolution will be complete and I will drink my coffee like my dad...black...no cream, no sugar. Maybe...