Fueled by faith and caffeine(?)

I'll admit it, anyone who knows me, friends, family, maybe even the local Starbucks barista is familiar with the idea that I'm NOT a morning person. Maybe more of a mid-morning person.I need something to get my day jump-started. Some might exercise, not me, maybe later in the day. My way to get going is to drink a cup of coffee. If my Keurig doesn't work on a particular day I go to my next source of caffeine. The pantry. It's usually stocked with enough Diet Coke and/or Diet Dr. Pepper for the next century thanks to my husband, "the coupon king." I say this with love in my heart because when we go to the local Kroger people will look at his big book of coupons with a mixture of awe and dare I say envy.

Anyway back to glorious caffeine. I think it all started when I was a child and one of my late father's sisters would give my sister and me a cup full of  "coffee milk," half whole milk and half coffee. Knowing my aunt it had about 3 tablespoons of sugar added to it for sweetness, one sniff and I was a goner. It was love at first taste. Every time we'd visit we'd ask our aunt for more, unless one of our parents saw, and then it was a "no-go."

It's also a fond memory from my mother's side of the family as well. When we'd visit my late grandparents in Mississippi the smell of coal-black coffee would wake me up from my deep sleep and lure me into the kitchen. The bitter smell of coffee co-mingled with the yeasty tang of biscuits rising in the oven signaled a delicious breakfast was almost ready. We'd sit around the big oval table and talk about inconsequential things, just happy to be together. Adults with mugs of coffee and we kids with milk. During each visit my grandfather would give us money to go to the local store and get as he called it "a little Pepsi." Me and my sister and occasionally our cousins, would ride with a family member to the corner store down the road and get a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi and some candy. We were in 7th heaven.    

It's funny how a memory can be tied to something as pedestrian as a cup of coffee or a carbonated beverage. Needless to say I'm thankful to be fueled by faith and caffeine.