Blessings: Coffee & Caffeine (Days 34 and 35)
Verse to ponder: Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Ecclesiastes 9:7
Growing up, the aroma of coffee filled the downstairs and wafted to my bedroom upstairs (or wherever my bedroom was in whatever house we lived in) every morning. I came to love the smell, and I attempted to drink the beverage multiple times. Every time I tried, it was horrible. I tried with sugar. I tried with cream. I tried it with flavors. Blech.
Then one time, I was on a business trip in a hotel that didn’t offer complimentary breakfast (the fact that hotels like this still exist confounds me). I was starving when I woke up, and the only thing in the room was coffee. So, I bucked up and just made it with sugar. It was actually good – well, it was decent! Maybe I’d waited long enough for my taste buds to grow up. Maybe it was just the right day to try it.
After that, I started experimenting with coffee. Aaron was making coffee daily, and I was smelling it. I wanted to be a grown up, too. I discovered that I like black with sugar. Or, I could accept vanilla or Almond Joy creamer. Anything else was a big, fat, “No.”
Decaf was my choice. I generally steer clear of caffeine because I’m pregnant or nursing. And I’ve always railed against my parents and husband for being addicted to coffee. Like, I have always lectured them on the need to give it up or prove they could go on without it. They always guffaw and suggest that they could if they wanted to but they just don’t want to.
Until this pregnancy, I have never really understood how people could truly need coffee so badly. Having never really relied on the benefits and energy-boosting of caffeine, I’ve just always been perplexed.
But this pregnancy? It has lowered me to my knees.
I have never experienced this level of exhaustion before. Blood work showed that there was nothing chemical going on for me. So, ultimately, I’m tired because I have 3 kids, am pregnant, am no spring chicken, and work a lot.
Ugh. (Enough said, right?)
I have turned to coffee. One day, I had the bright idea to have a cup (it just sounded good) around noon. When the boys went down for their naps, I was zinging around on the computer getting stuff done! It was outstanding.
Since then, I’ve found that if I’m falling asleep on the way to pick the Animal up from preschool, coffee is the best remedy.
I’ve also discovered that not all coffee is the same. I mean, there is some seriously nasty coffee out there, folks.
If coffee isn’t available, I’ve even broken my self-made pregnancy rule and had a sweet tea (I live in the south, y’all) or *gasp* an occasional soda. I decided my sanity must be maintained. And even that is asking a lot.
Are you a coffee drinker? How do you take yours?
I love my coffee and I’ve been drinking it for so long I can’t even remember when I started.
Once a year, in our religion, we have a day of fasting. Do I miss the food? Nope. The coffee? Desperately!