My Grampa Page's coffee mug. Funny how seemingly insignificant objects, a coffee mug, can stir deep memories and emotions.
I love coffee. I love the smell and the taste. I love the memories that coffee stirs up for me. (This reminds me to give you a heads up about my new book, be looking for it later this fall. (If I get my butt in gear and finish it!) I have used coffee in the title as it stirs up much fun and memories for me. I hope it will for you, as well!)
Coffee Memories:
- My Dad's coffee mug (for many years it was just like Grampa Page's mug above!) sat right next to the stove, geared up and ready for AM coffee. The mug may have changed but its station in life has not.
- My Gramma Page was a coffee-a-holic. This is a love statement; a statement of awe. She could drink a cup, at midnight, and go right to bed. Me... I would be up until the next midnight bells were rung!
I have never had a coffee drinking habit. Coffee is a rough road for me, hence our calamitous love affair. I love coffee, coffee does not love me. Caffeine sensitivity is a tough ride. One cup of regular coffee can send me down a path of jitters, racing heart, and a crazy head for hours. The effects will finally wear off, with much relief on my part, only to rebound hours later and send me on another caffeine jolt. Good thing I never aspired to be a drug addict, something tells me I would not fare well! I inherited this drug sensitive gene from my Mom. She also does not fare well with a cup of coffee!
Maybe a year or so ago, I thought it would be fun to have a coffee in the AM ritual. Something soothing, warm, and yummy that I could enjoy in the peaceful AM quiet of my home before the daily chaos ensued. This liquid crack stuff is addicting! It is very easy to slide into a coffee habit as the body, mind, and spirit ask for more, every AM. I even purchased a hand grinder, from Sweet Maria's, to do this coffee thing right!
I tried decaf coffee to avoid the jitter craze. Decaf is very questionable to me; like refined white flour and white sugar...a whole food substance that has had part removed cannot be a good thing, in my eyes. Then there is the issue of: "How did they (whoever they are, these caffeine drug lords) remove the caffeine?" Was it chemically extracted or water bath extracted? The story goes that if it is organic coffee, it has been water bath extracted. Phew, no chemicals here, right? (I have read many different accounts of how this whole decaf process happens in beans.) Decaf was not for me, too many questionable practices and potential chemicals.
In come low caffeine varieties of coffee. It is amazing the amount of information there is to learn about something as humble as coffee beans! So, of course, I try these coffee beans as I am determined to have a coffee habit that does not make me crazy. The Potsdam Food Coop carries a low caffeine whole bean, organic, and roasted by St. Lawrence Valley Roasters. Of course, this liquid drug still makes my head and body reel with hyper-energy.
So here I am, one year later, and this is what I notice: I wake up groggy, cloudy headed, and feeling like I need that AM coffee to get going, to dispel the cobwebs from my head (AND wishing someone would deliver coffee to my bed!). This is a big problem for me as I have always been a: wake up spunky, feet hit the floor immediately (I am not happy lying in bed stretching and yawning, I like to move!), and get moving kind 'a gal.
My plan: I will wean myself at the end of the summer, after Labor Day (But hey, summer does not end until Autumn Equinox. I can squeak in a couple more weeks...) Seriously, here is where I sit in the AM, would you want to stop this habit just yet? I know, I know, I can sit here without my locally roasted, low caf coffee... but not yet. After Equinox! : )
Why you ask? I really do not like how I wake up in the morning. I do so prefer the spunky in the AM me. This weaning test is to see: Is coffee the culprit in my new AM feelings OR is it my age? Time will tell... let September be my reckoning time.
For now, coffee and I will ramble on in our calamitous love affair. Paula
PS April 19th, 2015 Update about and awesome coffee substitute that actually tastes like coffee!, click here: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2015/4/19/coffee-and-my-calamitous-affair-revisited
My AM coffee "space"
Me, in my AM coffee space
PS Update on My Healing Yard.... This information came from Susun S. Weed's Wise Woman Herbal Ezine for You, July 22 - 2014
Wild Carrot Contraceptive
- Harvest fully matured brown seeds.
- Store in a brown paper bag.
- Use one tablespoonful of the seeds, mixed into food daily, for at least five days following fertilizing intercourse.
My note: I have always read it was 1 teaspoon of the seeds from ovulation OR potentially fertilizing intercourse to your next period flow. It would take many Queen Anne's Lace flower heads to make 1 teaspoon of seeds, even more for 1 tablespoon! Lots of collection needed to sustain this method of fertility control!
This is said to change the lining of the uterus, making it too slippery for a fertilized egg to attach.
Check out Robin Rose Bennett for her extensive work in wild carrot as a birth control ally.