For The Love Of Coffee

Coffee. Every single morning, I wake up and, if I’ve slept for three hours or seven, I'm ready for coffee. But, not just any coffee. It looks something like this:

Fill the kettle with water to boil. Take the French press with yesterday’s grounds, fill it with water, walk out the back door and water the flowers and herbs with it. Back to the kitchen. I measure in four heaping scoops of coffee ground fine. They settle in the bottom of the clean glass.  In goes the boiling water rushing to meet the grounds. After three minutes, someone plunges. I’ve a blue mug a friend made me. George, a white one.  I pour -- three quarter inch from the top and finish it with cream. Dark brown turns mocha. Good morning world.

Coffee gives us ritual – well, yes it gives us caffeine, but there is a rhythm. I’m sure you know it. You’ve got your own. Fancy machines, a good ol paper filter coffee maker. A percolator. Yes, that is something. George’s parents make it this way and it is makes a mighty fine cup of coffee.

Coffee alone is different than coffee with George. It taste better when I'm drinking coffee with him. I like to hand him his coffee. It isn’t just a thing to do – It is a silent conversation slipped into his hand.

We’ve met another day. We’ve made it through another night with four children. Sleep or no sleep, we are here and we are ready to rock like it or not.

We’ve tried to figure the best way to get our coffee. George tried his hand a few times at “roasting” it in the iron skillet. Our house took on a deep deep burnt coffee smell for a few days. A friend introduced him to a new roasting technique. George went directly to Goodwill and Ace Hardware to collect the needed elements, took the kids outside and started drilling and screwing and concocting and, before I knew it, he was running to Wal-mart at 5:00 a.m. to get a grinder so we could grind the beans he’d roasted the night before. And I had the best cup of coffee I’ve had in my life.

That was a month ago. The children are completely capable of roasting our coffee on their own. They love it. They get to use a timer and a scale and a funnel and we ordered coffee bags so they can sell it. He taught Malik from 50 Large how to roast it. They’ve sold over 30 pounds of coffee!