Confession

First I'd like to share a recent family picture. Here's my 'crew':

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Now for the confession part......

On Saturday I had a coffee.....with cream.

Let me justify--err, explain! You see, it was my birthday and my husband took me out for a really nice dinner at my favorite restaurant. We had a lovely time talking and enjoying each other while the children spent time with their favorite babysitter.

Our son Alec began having trouble with his blood sugars (he has type 1 diabetes), and we had a few calls throughout our dinner from the concerned babysitter. His sugars were not rising like we wanted them to, even though he was receiving a huge carbohydrate load.

We decided to pick him up and take him with us for our 'dessert' part of the birthday outing. We stopped at a local Tim Hortons (donut shop)....and their black coffee tasted less than desirable (cream covers a lot of nastiness...just thought you'd like to know). Anyway, I decided because it was my special day, I would treat myself to a single shot of cream in my coffee.


I went ahead and took a sip of the very thing I've been avoiding for two weeks....and it was not good! Oh my! Cream now tastes really thick and takes the 'coffee' taste away from the drink. I decided not to finish the cup.

Could I really be starting to like black coffee? Is that even possible?

There you have it. I'm not perfect (shock!) and can never stick to any routine for longer than a couple weeks.

Alec continued to have difficulties with his blood sugars that evening, and it's becoming apparent that he's coming down with some kind of cold or flu. I just hope that it's a short lived ailment. I'll stick to black coffee for the time being...but only if it's strong coffee.

Day five

I thought I would update on my progress with drinking black coffee.

I'm not having fun. Still creamer-less, but getting really picky about which kind of coffee I can tolerate black.

I can't stand Nabob medium roast (there's a weird sour aftertaste), so I went to Nabob Columbian. It worked for awhile, nice full body taste and no bitter aftertaste. This morning it didn't agree with me.

So, I'm now drinking Cafe Crema....a 'Tassimo' flavour. It doesn't have cream in it, but it has a bit of froth at the top to trick me into thinking it's cream. (am I sounding delusional about this yet?)

I had a friend tell me today that I'm not allowed to complain....because I chose this path to take. It's okay, I still love her--sort of.

Jeans still small.

Any coffee drinkers out there?

I was never really a coffee drinker until after I had my third child. I think birthing 3 children in 3 years warrants a stimulant beverage just to make it through the day (or at least to begin a day)!

I did cut out caffeine for my fourth pregnancy, but still drank the odd decaf coffee now and then. Once I had finished weaning my last baby, I reintroduced the real deal in my morning routine.

My coffee drinking habits have changed over the years as I've added more socializing to my schedule. What started out as a one-cup-a-day habit, has turned into a minimum 3-cup-a-day routine. I never miss my morning cup, and usually have my second and third cups mid-afternoon. Drinking coffee after 6:00 pm means that I don't usually fall asleep until early morning, so I try to avoid all caffeine in the evenings.

I adore coffee creamers. (Some may call it an addiction, but I'm in denial--shhh!) My Mother enjoys the French Vanilla (fat free) creamer, and I started out liking it too....but my all-time favorite is the Hazelnut flavour (full-fat) cream! YUMMMY!

Oh dear, my mouth is salivating now.

Within a month after finding my favourite cream, I noticed a strange occurrence. My jeans started to shrink! Who would've thunk it? This was not a good scenario, as I really didn't have the funds to replace all my jeans at the time. I made the tough decision to stop buying my cream during the year, but I would allow myself one container for Christmas and one for my birthday. Although it was hard to do, I knew it was best for my budget (and my waist!).

I went to half and half cream. I just couldn't do the 'milk' substitute most of my friends drink-didn't seem natural or enjoyable.

Well, I fell of the proverbial band wagon a few months back and got into the routine of stocking up on my favourite creamers (including a new one, Caramel Vanilla--also VERY good!). I didn't notice a change right away, but the last few weeks have confirmed what I was afraid of: my jeans have shrunk again (companies really should look into a 'non-shrinking' jeans sometime!).

So, knowing the difficult road ahead of me, I decided to try a new approach. I'm going to kick my habit of creamers all together. I'm going black, baby! I hear there's no going back.....(okay, lame attempt at some humour, but you laughed, right?)

That's right, no creamers and no sugar in my coffee anymore. I am now on day two of my program and I think I'm alright. This little experiment will either turn me off completely to coffee, or I will acquire a taste that should be easier on my waistline.

I'll update on my progress (or failure) from time to time.

How do you drink your coffee?

A picture is worth a thousand words...or pouts.

Okay, so enough of the 'deep' thoughts, and onto some current random happenings.


My husband and I decided to go out shopping today with all four kids. (please don't tell me to refer to them as children, because sometimes I'm convinced they are baby goats!) We were careful to go over the riot act with them (I should probably write it down one day, you'd get a kick out of the details!), and reminded them that when we passed the toy isle, "looking is with your eyes only."


I had in mind to pick up a large canvas print, as our basement wall needed something to make the room looked 'lived in'. All prints were on sale at our local Superstore (Canadian chain), and I found one that was 50% off! I proudly showed my husband the awesome deal and told him how perfect it would look on our empty wall downstairs. When I looked up, his face did not display the 'Sarah, you have such an eye for art...what a wonderful selection for our home' look that I was expecting. Instead, I was given the "you dragged me all the way out here for that?!?" look.

I tried to clarify the look, in case I read it wrong--nope, he confirmed he was not enthusiastic about the print.


I wanted to submit to him, like a 'good' Christian wife would. You know, by placing the print back on the shelf smiling, then say, "Okay, dear. We'll find another one, I have patience."


*sigh*

Yes, it was a loud sigh. Followed by a pout. I dragged my feet a bit (okay, a lot) as we continued to look down the grocery isles for hors d'oeuvres (oh my goodness, I just admitted that I act like a two year old!).


I know God was telling me to pick my battles, but the urge to act like a kid (yes, a baby goat) was stronger at the time. As my husband turned down the isle to find Jalepeno poppers, he asked, "Is this the right way to turn, or is it down the next one?"


"This is the right one," I replied in the most pathetic, defeated voice I could muster (there may have even been a 'bleating goat' in the background).


This is the moment that my husband proved again why I love him so dearly--he cracked up laughing! I couldn't help but giggle too. We both knew I was overreacting and not handling my disappointment well over a silly picture. He gave me a big hug, and told me to buy my picture. There was even a promise to hang it that day!



Yes, I felt very sheepish--or, should I say "goat-ish".