I am not addicted to Starbucks

After the birth of my 4th child, I discovered coffee.

I knew it existed before, and I had even been a regular partaker of it's goodness, but once I was officially in charge of 4 little people all day every day, I began to seek out the caffienated goodness of coffee on a whole new level. What I learned is that drinking coffee goes something like this for me: I take a sip or two, and suddenly, I am riding the caffiene train all the way to Happy Town. And in Happy Town, I take on the identity of Goofy Mom, She Who Is Compelled To Sing Loudly To All The Songs On The Radio Or In Her Head, Even The Ones She Doesn't Particularly Like, And Even The Ones She Just Makes Up Instantaneously, and this new identity is FUN! and she and her children are a laugh riot a minute! It's the funnest, dancingest thing EVER!

But the problem with riding the caffiene train is that there are no exits, and the ride ends in an abrupt CRASH!!!! That takes Goofy Mom and plunges her into the depths of utter and complete weariness. Then she becomes Old Lady Mom, Oh She Of Tremendous Exhaustion, Who Only Wonders How Many Hours Are Left In The Day.

Y'all, it wasn't a very good trade off. Fortunately, there is a perfect solution, and it comes in the form of a can. I find that drinking Enviga Tea gives me a boost of energy that is subtle; it's just a merry-go-round ride the whole day. Merry-go-rounds go in circles over and over, so there are no sudden crashes and plunging and identity shifting. Phew.

I could never give up coffee for good, though. Now I just drink coffee on weekends, and I make my coffee work for me. Yes, that's right, I drink it on Saturday mornings, when I find that coffee+ Mix 106.5 is the perfect combination for a Saturday morning run. (The trick is to also drink WATER so that you don't get dehydrated and therefore nauseated while running, and also to prevent pimple breakouts...but maybe that only happens to ME...)

And then Francesca told me that Starbucks now serves Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Y'all, if a mom needs caffiene to get through the day, she needs sugary sweetness and red food coloring even more.

I had to try it out. So this morning, if you were looking for me, you would not have found me on the treadmill. No, you would have found me in the Starbucks drive through...impatiently waiting for the person in line ahead of me.*

I discovered that the coffee drink was still fantastic, and the cupcakes were moist and delicious, with a surprising burst of chocolate in the center. They were not as good as my own homemade version of Red Velvet Cake, but they will do, in a pinch, since my cake takes too much time and effort to make very often. (For which my pancreas is THANKFUL.)

Today's Breakfast of Champions:

"Don't judge me, don't you judge me..."** (Snaps to you if you can figure out this particular drink.)

*P.S. That person in front of me, who I was impatient with? That one? Well, it turned out that she was taking so long because She decided to pay my bill. Thank you, stranger. I now have guilt about being impatient towards you. I'll be sure to "pay it forward."

**Quote by Kelly Ripa, of course.