Coffee Date

If I had you over for a coffee date, you’d be greeted by two girls that were eager for you to show up, but shy once you did. You would have to step to the right to avoid the small pile of laundry that’s sitting by the door- ready, for days now, to get thrown into the laundry machine by way of the garage door. 

I’d offer you water, tea or coffee, secretly hoping you would say “I’m fine right now” or accept the offer for water. Making someone else’s coffee seems risky and personal. Too strong? Too weak? Maybe she only drinks coffee from beans that have been harvested and shipped over night from Portland? Or Peru? 

If it’s a Monday/Wednesday/Friday, I would have kicked Kent out of the house for a few hours while we chatted. He would have happily tweeked his work schedule to accommodate us. 

If you ventured into my kitchen you’d find a package of five pounds of ground beef thawing in my sink and a slew of alphabet magnets on the ground. It’s a mind field, watch your step! 

If you haven’t, unlike everyone else and their mom, asked about my plans for preschool, I’d try to confidently tell you that I’m keeping Caris home this year and am looking forward to doing some basic “school” stuff with her. It’s taken me months to work up the courage to tell people, after receiving enough comments about socialization, my sanity, etc., and I bet you can tell. 

You’d see my younger daughter walking(!!) and you’d probably hear her new favorite word, “no” many times. She might disappear for a few minutes and reappear sucking her paci and carrying her Lovey. She’d have a look of pride since she worked carefully and quickly to wrangle them both out of her crib. I’d decide that it wasn’t worth the fight, with company over, to take them from her. 

We’d talk about the wackiness of summer—with being a youth pastor’s family and all— about how much we love our pool and our lofty, far off plans for the fall. 

We wouldn’t get a chance to talk long before we had to break for potty help, a snack, a game (Frozen Uno anyone?) or a sibling spat. 

Until next time!