Measuring Our Day
What a day! Perhaps we’re a bit odd, but we measure our days in mochas. When it’s been a particularly harrowing day, IZ and I tend to look at each other and say, “It’s a two mocha day!” We start our morning together with one of his great Mexican Mochas and if the day spirals into chaos, we reconnoiter in the afternoon in an attempt to slow our day down just a bit. It doesn’t always work, but the effort is valiant. Besides, we enjoy the company. Reason enough, in my world!
Our scale could be worse, I suppose. I’m Southern, and I’m pretty sure most of my ancestors measured their days in moonshine and cigarettes. I’m not far behind though, because on a day like today, the mocha number might easily reach double digits. It’s just been that kind of day.
My mind feels a little like what our dinner table looks like! I’m scattered and jumpy and yes, that’s probably the caffeine talking. I’m just not a fan of pressing deadlines, either. We are at the end of the school year with Boy Wonder and of course cramming is in order. Must. Finish. Now. It wouldn’t be school without a cram session at year end. Would it?
This would be the scene of our crime, one last push to finish the State Report. Boy Wonder works much like his mother, in the midst of chaos. The paper on the ground is our research, dropped on the floor during our last minute fact checking spree. Don’t worry, it will all be recycled as packing material for Thrifty Goodness. I suspect that some other 5th grader is doing a report on Washington, since our library was picked clean for references. The lack of printed material meant we were compelled to use mostly web sources. While most of it we were able to read through and incorporate without printing, there were a few subjects that needed a print job to absorb! Anyhow, the pile looks far worse than it is.
As I released the boy out to play at 2:30, IZ thumbed through the masterpiece and then said those magic words, “This is a two mocha day, isn’t it?” This is the upside of working at home; you get to take breaks with your sweetie at will. And then the phone rang. Which would be the downside of working from home. Sometimes the phone preempts the best of plans.
Listening to him field phone calls it was clear that I’m not the only person juggling disasters in the making. Every phone call he fielded ended with his assuring the person on the other line that he would call someone else and straighten up the mess. Our two mocha day was quickly becoming a three mocha day—and we hadn’t even sat down to drink a second.
You will note that my coffee cup is missing something. I have a tiny collection of red transfer ware cups but they are missing saucers. I do know better, I honestly do, but I just adore drinking coffee out of these cups. I swear to you, coffee tastes better out of this cup! Any regular reader of this blog will also note that the beverage in my cup is not one of IZ’s famous mochas. Sadly, the stream of phone calls never let him go, so I did what any compassionate spouse would do: I baked!
Scones, I tell you, they’re the answer to all that ails you. Especially if they’re paired with piping hot coffee. I don’t make mochas anymore, having passed off that job to IZ years ago (he’s particular about measurements and I’m, uh, not so particular). But I do make coffee. Mercifully, the phone stopped ringing long enough for us to sit down and measure our day. It could be worse, this life we live. Even if it is a two mocha day.
Recipe on the flip.
