Sunday, August 26, 2012

Green Tea Scam

So, as you know, I have been taking a partial hiatus from my morning coffee over the last couple of weeks.  I have been very vigilant about my green tea in the morning time, and if I have been really good (woken up way to early in the morning) I may indulge in a coffee later in the day.  Not everyday, but some days are just screaming out coffee to me....screaming being the operative word.

Well, aside from the total lack of excitement and eagerness about waking up and smelling the fresh hot mug of steaming............tea, I have noticed that, in the end, the mornings are still looking pretty similar to my caffeinated mornings.  Getting dressed battles, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, leaving the house, getting into the car, walking the dogs, sibling rivalry...battles, battles, battles.................still there.  My reaction, though fairly similar, may be a bit less intense, even a tad more understanding?

Okay okay, I admit, there is more talking it out and less scream fest, patience draining, heart pounding, control loosing, pure banging your head against wall madness.  Green tea is helping.  I really hate to admit it, I love coffee in the morning, it is really the only thing that make get out of bed.  Well that and two extremely persistant boys

So to test an additional theory, I forced Colin to get upwith the boys the other morning and spent that quality time reading in bed.  With the door closed.  Luxuriating to the sounds of, Quiet. Nice. Playtime.  What the fuck?

Turns out, no green tea on earth is going to make these mama's boys any less needy of my attention. Regardless of the amount of time they actually get to spend with me (24/7).  This is not something that is an issue for the big man.  He does not suffer from four little hands pulling at clothing, vying for attention, pushing and pulling at the other one to get more room on the lap.  They play so DIFFERENT when he is the parental sole figure.

This can only mean one thing,

He must now be the morning person from here on in.  Now to tell him this.......

Sunday, August 12, 2012

No Coffee for you for a WEEK

The Ro-Dog and myself have been having a few mornings/afternoons/evenings filled with ........ahem.........differences in opinion.

Some mornings I can feel my heart pumping hard in my chest.  My breath catches.  Out of control, out of patience, out of ideas.

When we reach the point where I am yelling and he is laughing maniacally.  When threats, coercion and outright expropriation of all things fun continues to fail.  When I have locked myself up in the bathroom desperately wondering how I will manage the teenage years, a time when he will be a foot taller and hormones are shooting out of his pores, he retaliates.

Screaming as loud as his little four year old lungs can handle, Ro-Dog offers a little browbeating himself.  Taking the only thing that he can think of that I expressly love on a regular basis, he lets me know in no uncertain terms, that I will not be allowed to consume coffee for a whole week.

Normally this results in me stifling my laughter and then finally calming the eff down and figuring out where to go from here, but it always resonates something in me.  Is my madness somehow associated with the high dosage of delicious, milky, sweet nectar of the gods.  Do I feel out of control, because really I am after a LARGE cuppa?

I have recently watched a very short, but mighty inspiring TED talk on the idea of a 30 day challenge. The premise of this is to take on a challenge and stick with it for 30 days, may it be something to forgo, or something to try out for the first time.   Now I have been racking my brain to find a good 30 day challenge for the big man and I to do together in a lame attempt to create some closeness, intimacy, even a little bonding, something we are in desperate need of these days.  But in the end, I wanted to just see if I could test myself first, baby steps. 

So, for thirty days, starting yesterday, I will drink a tall mug of green tea as my first beverage of the day.  Not a total elimination of coffee altogether, just removing it as the first thing I drink in the morning.  So far, I feel pretty good, in fact I haven't had any coffee over the last couple of days.  By no means have I stopped getting angry, but it is less seething and deep breathing, and more........dislike of certain actions.

This could be the beginning of some serious life altering 30 day challenges, may the lack of coffee offer me the inspiration and motivation that had started to slowly trickle through my expanded fingers a scant 5 years ago.................