the greatest stuff on the earth

So an update on project "less java, more water" as Jenny Parker Harris lovingly called it. I'm failing, but only a little. I did buy coffee on Tuesday & Wednesday as Tuesday I was meeting for coffee & on Wednesday I was supposed to meet for coffee but we switched to the park so I felt entitled to get some on the way:).

Yesterday my intention was truly to make coffee at 5:00am (I'll explain why in the world I was up that early in a sec) for Lauren and I but we were out of our normal Starbucks coffee and we resorted to trying to make some old Folgers we found. I'm not sure if it was just the subpar coffee beans or the fact that the canister was probably sixteen years old, but we both wanted to barf so we made a quick trip to bucks instead. That morning I promptly wrote "coffee" on the grocery list, but we didn't get any yesterday so this morning at 6:00am, I had to make another quick run.

STILL - even though I've bought coffee for the past four mornings, I'm on the road to getting better. I promise. Right now there is a 1.5liter bottle of water beside me that I'm going to finish before the kids morning nap.

Now - the reason for being up at 5am, you ask? My sweet Gloriana has decided to sleep thru the night! For the past two nights, she's slept from nine until 5:15 or so and I could not be more thrilled. Rather than going back to sleep, I've gotten up with her and I SWEAR I've been more productive from 5:15-8:00 yesterday and today than I have been in three months total. Thanks Jesus & glory. In a grand sweep of irony, Lauren has been up that early because her new puppy Beulah (who deserves a future post of her own) doesn't quite sleep through the night without going potty. So both mornings when I've woken up celebrating Glory's sleep, Lo has been awake to dance with me.

So I'll leave you with this. Lauren, Nick, and I are really into defunking the house now that no girls are here and slowly but surely - it is getting hospital-clean. Yesterday Lauren and I attacked the kitchen and as we were unclogging the sink, we noticed a HUGE difference in the whiteness of the sink after the water (that was filled with coffee grounds) went down. I did some research and read that coffee grounds are GREAT for cleaning off stains so in honor of the best stuff on earth, here are 21 ways to use your leftover coffee grounds - we've already made a little pile for ours!

(pictures - Elias after his latest growth spurt, the coffee ground clean line on our sink, our coffee ground collection bowl)