C is for... Coffee

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It shouldn't come as a surprise that the first thing that comes to my mind for the letter C is coffee!  Coffee helps power my mornings, and sometimes my afternoons too.  It's not at all uncommon for me to brew a pot of coffee in the evening.  Whenever I sit down to grade, to lesson plan, to blog... I am accompanied by my cup of coffee.

A love of coffee has become something of a family tradition and identity for us.  For me, it started when I was a teen and went out regularly with a small group of friends for coffee.  Yes, even as teenagers, we had a favorite local restaurant (Smitty's Restaurant) where we went to spend an evening drinking coffee and visiting.  Then when I went to college, we had another little group that regularly went out for coffee and conversation (and  sometimes cinnamon rolls too), and I eventually wound up marrying a guy from that core group.  So a lot of our dates involved going out for coffee - it's a night out, but not terribly expensive!

After we were married, visits to his family inevitably meant dropping by the family business during coffee break - which, as far as I could tell, often extended throughout the business day.  Someone would always bring coffees from Tim Hortons.  Once we had moved to the US, every visit home to Canada meant that we could enjoy Tim Hortons coffee as well.  (And in recent years, the wait to reach a Tim Hortons hasn't been as long, because they have come to the US too! Just not near us. Yet.  A couple months ago, I was beyond thrilled to win a sweepstakes on the Tim Hortons Facebook page, and the prize was several hundred dollars worth of Tim Hortons gift cards!)

Not surprisingly, our kids picked up on the high regard we had for a good cup of coffee, especially if it came from Tim Horton's, and Harrison started lobbying to be allowed to drink coffee when he was 11 years old.  Or maybe earlier.  Anyway, we decided that we would make our kids wait until they were 13 to drink coffee, but that meant that we spent an entire year hearing about it from Harrison, who was certain I had originally said that 12 was the magic birthday.  We stuck to our guns, and held out till he turned 13.  One of my friends (who doesn't really drink coffee) gave him a gift card to Starbucks that she figured she wouldn't use anyway, and on (or very near to) his birthday, I took Harrison to the local Starbucks so he could have his inaugural cup of coffee.  He still loves coffee.

Since then, it has become sort of a joke in our family that instead of a bar mitzvah, we give our kids their first cup of coffee.  Spencer didn't say much leading up to his thirteenth birthday, but he sure enjoyed that first cup of coffee, and has been enjoying coffee ever since.  Landon could hardly wait until his thirteenth birthday so he could have his first cup of coffee, and he, too, has been a devoted coffee-drinker since then.  Kennady hasn't started chomping at the bit for her turn, but she knows the rules, and will probably wait until that magical day is closer before expressing her excitement.  She does make and serve some great coffee though.  I trained her in running the coffeemaker, and serving coffee a couple years ago when my family was visiting, and she has long been dreaming of owning her own coffeeshop and bakery.

Landon's 13th birthday picture!

The focal point of my dining room is now my coffee bar -

And on my wish list for Christmas and birthday gifts every year is Tim Horton's coffee, and collectible Tim Horton's coffee mugs.

The name of my blog is Homeschool Coffee Break.  Yeah, I love coffee.

I could have also written about Canada - my home country - because, believe it or not, being Canadian was a factor in our decision to homeschool!  But I will save that for another time.

How do you feel about coffee? Leave a comment and let me know!

Blogging through the Alphabet is a weekly link-up hosted by "Ben and Me". Please visit to join in and to see what thoughts this week's letter has prompted for other bloggers.

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This post was added to the Throwback Thursday Blog-Style link-up hosted by Tots and Me... Growing Up Together! on March 10, 2016.

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