This Coffee Lover's Ultimate Wishlist

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I thought my love of coffee was pretty normal. At least I thought it was until my husband's cousin questioned why I would make coffee at night, during a heat wave.

I've just taken for granted that everyone loves coffee as much as me!

Since National Coffee day (my birthday) and the holidays are coming up. I thought I would save everyone the trouble of guessing what the coffee lover in their life would like.

7 Novel Quotes About Coffee

My love for coffee has been expressed so often on my blog, it should have its own spinoff blog.

Until that happens - here are seven brilliant quotes about coffee from writers.

Quotable A to Z: Q is for Quiver #AtoZChallenge

More quotes from A to Z

Instagram Again Saturday - Starbucks with Kids

I spent my twenties contemplating life in smoky coffee shops and I even worked at an Arabica for a week or two.

Now, I take the kids, to a smokeless Starbucks and contemplate things like - which pony is prettiest and finding minecraft villages.

I would not trade it for the world.

Instagram from last year -

Coffee date

A photo posted by Mary Johnson (@mryjhnsn) on Nov 11, 2013 at 7:23am PST

Instagram from this week -

Why Coffee is the 51st Shade of Grey

I have written oodles on my love of coffee from love letters to all and out declarations dedicated to that wonderfully strong concoction. Okay, maybe not oodles, maybe a few (plus a Wordless Wednesday this week) but when you love and appreciate something isn't it natural to express ones love for it?


The moment my eyes attempt to open, my mind races with what I need to do, what needs to be done and what I should be doing. Waiting for the coffee to brew, I stand watching it drip into my cup. Holding the cup and sipping it I can finally breathe. Not sure why I claim the morning as this ritual time because it can be at any time of day and I’d feel the same way. I am sure others feel this way about tea, wine or chocolate.

Coffee is like sex and pizza – even when it’s bad it is still good. Actually, coffee is better than sex because you can improve bad coffee with cream and sometimes, albeit rarely, sugar. Can’t improve a bad lover no matter how hard you try.

Friendships and love affairs start over cups of coffee. They also end this way too.  Of course if you are my sisters, people are judged harshly if you turn down coffee. Hell, I judge those who don’t drink it as well. The Husband had the good sense to accept coffee when offered and has been loved by my family ever since. Sure it was mostly sugar and milk but coffee nonetheless.


Coffee is socializing. No one says, “Let’s discuss this over a spaghetti dinner.” That doesn't even sound like it would be a good conversation. Imagine noodles slopping out of someone’s mouth as they told you your world would be changing.  Imagine red sauce dribbling down your chin as you declare your {insert emotion}.

Occasionally, my body and my love of coffee are at odds.  Sometimes, my stomach revolts at how much I may have had and in the absolute worse case scenario I had an aversion to it altogether.  I was pregnant then.  Baby girl did not like coffee in the womb unless it was drowned in sugar and cream and I abhor coffee made that way.


My kids love to make my coffee for me.  I have a Keurig Vue so its not like they have to measure or pour anything.  They are never in any real danger.  My oldest is the one that makes it on his own and the baby (who is now three)  insists on helping me when I make it.  The Husband finds this creepy that they would want to make it for me and bring it to me as I lounge in my dressing gown on the sofa.  He acts as if they will turn into one of those strange adults that give their mother a foot massage and calls them - mother.

Call it an addiction or obsession but it is just a much a part of my routine as breathing.

Wordless Wednesday: I've Become One of Those @Starbucks People

Read more about my sad Starbucks obsession here. I swear I use to be a local coffee shop kinda girl but Starbucks moved into it!

10 (coffee) Things That (coffee) Make Me (coffee) Smile

 But, the only thing that makes me truly happy is these smiling faces....

The Prompts:

1.) 10 Things to Smile About (inspired by Things I Can’t Say)

Starbucks from Mama Kat? Yes, Please!

If Mama Kat (or anyone for that matter) gave me $500 right now, what would I buy?

I could put it towards a bill or buy something the whole family could share but since this is a very unlikely scenario I am going to say - splurge on me and buy a Starbucks gift card.

Starbucks?  Yes, Starbucks.  Sure I would prefer local but, for $500 I would like to be able to buy coffee anywhere in the world and it seems that there is a Starbucks everywhere in the world.

Not that I am planning to go anywhere but that much money may last me awhile. 

I know that what they offer is potentially harmful.  One of their frozen concoctions meet the daily calorie requirements of most adults but it just tastes so darn yummy.

I do feel a little silly when I order my venti, quad, no foam, skim latte, but not silly enough to not order it.  That is my go to order after all.


And, sometimes the highlight of a hot summer day is a venti, unsweetened iced coffee.  Plain and simple.


But nothing and I mean nothing compares to that first pumpkin spice of fall.


Starbucks is a splurge for sure and our budget doesn't always allow for it but if I had $500...



Fine print: This is not a sponsored post... just fantasy.

The Prompt:
3.) If I gave you $500 today, but you could use it for only one purchase, what would you buy and why?

A Love Letter to the Object of My Affection

I’ve wanted to write this to you for such a long time and now that I am, I barely know where to begin.

I’m just sitting here looking at the keyboard, trying to work and I catch you from the corner of my eye. I can hardly type as it is; you’ve got me so distracted.


I love the way you look but more importantly, how you look at me. You make me feel wanted. And, I want you.


I want to get away with you and give you what you and I both need but there never seems to be enough time. And, when there is finally that moment, I worry - am I too late?


But then I look at you and you reassure me that I am not.


So, I take you in my hands and I fill you up.

Source: obaz.com via MryJhnsn on Pinterest

I love you, my dear coffee mug, I love you.

Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and come back.
The Prompts:
2.) Write a love letter to the object of your affection.

Word(less) Wednesday: @Keurig Coffee, @BloggerIdol and Me

That's me drinking the first cup and I may or may not be wearing a cleansing mask.

I was picked to do a Keurig® Vue® House Party!  Can't wait to share pics!  And, don't forget that I am a judge for Blogger Idol!  Auditions are open so go, go now and audition.  You are smart enough, you are good enough and gosh darn it you may just be the next Blogger Idol!

Ode to Coffee - #AtoZChallenge

In a pot on the stove or fresh from a pot, occasionally pressed but more often than not a single cup, my love for coffee is the longest love affair I've ever had to date.

I wake up with it on my mind, ready for it to help me start my day. I drink a cup while I make lunches and it follows me to the shower, waiting for me to emerge for just one more sip.

Some days my Joe will accompany me as I drop kids off were they need to be and help me manage my morning commute with its wonderful aroma. Oh how I do love the way it smells!

My first move at work (after I wake my computer up of course) is for my mug to fill. Keurig machines are every few feet and if I don't like the flavor near me, there are other flavors elsewhere.

Over ice, occasionally with milk or cream, I am a slave to its bold, satisfying taste, just don't insult me with sugar or artificial sweeteners, that's what cocoa is for and I drink coffee.

Holiday Flavor with Torani Flavored Syrups

By Linh Nguyen

I can proudly say that I spent the better part of my twenties in coffeehouses. 

This is before Starbucks came to town and coffeehouses were not filled with yuppie hipsters.  I took my first sip of café mocha in the same coffeehouse that would host my first non-school related photography show. 

I clearly remember many, many nights smoking and drinking coffee while discussing life, love and all those things that the newly emancipate youth discuss when left to their own devices. 

I also attended many a spoken word showcase at the same coffee shop that I would work at, for all of twenty minutes (okay, more like twenty days because I would leave my then live in boyfriend and no part time job was worth driving from the west side to the east side of Cleveland no matter how much I loved it).  And, at that same coffee house, I would have a one night stand lovely friendship with one of these spoken word artists.  Don’t even get me started at the number of love affairs that actually ended or never started at a coffeehouse table because they did not drink coffee or worse they drank *gasp* tea. Oh, yeah - technically, the Husband and I had a first date at a coffeehouse where I raced him to finish a piece of Sinful Chocolate cake (seven different types of chocolate). 

Oh, the memories…

Now that I am *cough* older, with kids and bills - hanging out at the coffeehouse is right up there with tying one on and going to a rave.  (Do they have those anymore?)  At least, I can make yummy coffee drinks at home with Torani.

Insomnia by any Other Name is Still Insomnia

I'm so exhausted I want to throw up.

My hands shake as I type because my body is fighting me today. Not even coffee helps, not today.

My bed calls to me but I can't seem to stay asleep.

I nap in fifteen minute intervals only to be woken by nothing in particular. Sometimes it is a random little hand searching for me in their sleep, occasionally it is the stirring of the body next to me but mostly it is nothing.

I don't think in my awaken state but instead see images playing on a loop in my mind. Over and over again, they flicker until I am too wired to even hope to sleep.

It is not fair, I think, as I listen to the breathing of those who are asleep.

The idea of sleep occupies the hours that I am suppose to be awake. My eye lids sag and the war that I have been unwillingly waging with them is nearing an end but even if I was to nod off, I would find no relief. My eyes inevitably open again to stare to see those near me sleeping peacefully.

I'm irrationally angry that they sleep so well and I do not.

Screw this, I'm getting coffee; maybe I will do the dishes and fold some laundry.

Productivity in the light of little sleep has at least some sort of justification when something is accomplished like the chores that went undone the day before this sleepless night.

I don't bother with all of the lights; just the one over the sink will do for these early morning obligations. It shines just enough to turn on the coffee pot and to see the dirt on the dishes. Turning on my iPod, I wait for a song to start, filling my mind with a melody before turning on the water. I hum as I clean, breathing in deep that delicious aroma of fresh coffee.

Moving with the music, the dishes are rinsed and drying in the rack, so I start on the next task and then the next; still moving with the music. Glancing at the clock, amazed at how time moves when you are not lying still, I start on making lunches for the day.

Peanut butter and grape jelly, the same thing every day. It has been the same since preschool and every single day of kindergarten, his lunch of choice follows him through his first grade year now.

Is that the baby, or maybe the first grader? I flash back to the other day when I was asked not to call him by the pet name I have used since he was born. Since when did he have a choice? I agreed but in my sleepy mind, I slip and call to him using his nickname – no answer. They are all still asleep.

I am still awake.

Another cup of coffee?






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This is the sixth installment of Just Write, an exercise in free writing your ordinary and extraordinary moments. {Please see the details here.}

I Have a Cuisinart? And, It Can Do What!?!?

Shortly after Baby Girl was born, the Husband took over most of the grocery shopping and even some of the cooking.

I am not entirely sure how it happened but I do know that the fridge and pantry have food and that is a good thing.

Sure, I have to remind him to buy fruit and veggies every so often, but, for the most part the arrangement works out great.

There are some things, however, I think no man should ever have to buy for me.  Ever.

Say what you will, but I feel very strongly about this subject and will not risk anyone, husband or not, buying the wrong thing and being disappointed.  I just can't handle it.  Some things are just that important.


So... When it comes to coffee and wine I will always buy them myself, especially if said shopper does not drink either.

I love my coffee.  I mean I really love my coffee.  It is something to look forward to when I am lying in the bed debating about showering or making lunches.  It is a treat in the middle of the day or the perfect way to end the evening.  I don't sleep anymore so it is a necessity, like breathing.

Inevitably, there came the day when he was going shopping and I was out of coffee.  So, I put it on the list.  Coffee, Starbucks, on sale.  I am not necessarily a die hard Starbucks fan but, the coffee will do, especially when on sale.  I am more of a Seattle's Best kinda a gal.  What I did not count on was a coupon in the paper for Seattle's Best and the Husband got me a bag!  Score!

Thrilled is how I felt for the ten seconds it took me to pick up the bag and realize... whole beans!

Whole freakin' beans?  I don't have a grinder!  What the flip!

As I was complaining, via tweets and selective tweets to Facebook, about the pretty red bag mocking me the wonderful and smart @MyGotFam suggested I "magic bullet" the beans.

Magic Bullet?  Who do you people think I am?  Coffee bean grinders and magic bullets are for other people and not me.

I responded that I might break out the the cheap knock off I have in a box somewhere in my cupboard and thought, "what the heck!"  And, I did.

This mini food processor had been sitting on my counter for months years collecting dust before we moved this summer and is now hanging out somewhere in my new cupboards.

This mini food processor has been pushed around, boxed up, un-boxed and almost re-gifted a half a dozen times since it was given to me about two years ago.

I never read the box.

Never gave it a second glance.

I have a pretty awesome food processor that sits proudly on my counter so why would I need that mini thing in a box that collects dust?

So, here is my chance to knock off the dust and put it to use.

I needed my coffee.

Would you believe hidden below all that dust was a freakin' Cuisinart®!

A Cuisinart!

The real deal

And, it grinds the heck out of those coffee beans which make a brilliant pot o' coffee.

The end.

Wordless Wednesday: Pop-Tarts and Coffee

You're the cream in my coffee
You're the salt in my stew
You'll always be my necessity
I'd be lost without you