As a stay at home mom, I sometimes struggle with activities to keep the kids busy. Busy = no new crayon murals on the walls; no “power drinks” made out of olive oil, coriander, salt, pepper, parsley, and rosemary, (all of my rosemary) that I’m forced to taste against my will; no food sprinkled over the floor, no lost TV remotes, and very little whining. My children suffer from this childhood phenomenon called “Whine At Homeus But Not In Publicus”. They also suffer from Home Deafness wherein they must scream at the top of their ever-loving lungs as soon as they cross the threshold into our home. As soon as they leave the confines of our townhouse, they speak no louder than butterfly wings fluttering, making it nearly impossible to hear their silent requests for the restroom whilst driving down the road. This usually leads to wet car seats and a cursing mommy.

Being outside of the house is mostly heavenly.

Unless, of course, you’re out at a hair salon with your new friend having your hair henna’d and your son proceeds to puke all over the place. Including in your new friend’s hands. Embarrassing much? It only gets more embarrassing when you make the executive decision to leave the salon after the henna has been applied so that you can rinse at home. You inevitably leave looking like this:

There’s no shame here! I’ll drive around Raleigh with Henna in my hair – I don’t care!

When we’re home, however; I want to pull my hair directly out of my head. I often envision banging my head against the table, I spend my hours wondering how on earth I have any vocal chords at all, whether or not my daughter is deaf, and trying to remind myself that I do, in fact have a more extensive vocabulary than, “STOP! NO! DROP THAT! PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON! STOP TOUCHING YOURSELF! DO. NOT. DRAW. ON. THE WAAAAALLLLLLLLSSSSS! JUST EAT FOR GOODNESS SAKE! SLEEEEEEEEEP! PICK UP YOUR TOYS!”

I do. I swear, I do have a more expansive vocab. I just lose it between the hours of 6:30am and 8:30pm.

I struggle to find a balance between socialized & happy, and home & crazy. I used to be annoyingly social. What am I saying? I’m still annoyingly social. I just want to be social sans children. My idea of a good time is not hanging out at the mall soft play discussing my child’s runny nose, constipation, potty training struggles, or how much I’m going to miss the little ankle biters at my upcoming conferences.

Plus, we’ve got our whole schedule thing to work around, and being social with kids is just way too much hassle.

Unless you’re lucky enough to have a family with 3 little girls living right next door. It’s even better when their mom is awesome and drinks coffee and wine with you on a regular basis, thereby aiding you in maintaining some shred of sanity.

After my morning work out, I headed to Walmart to pick up some coffee and fruit for some “Eat a Rainbow Skewers” I’m making with the kids tomorrow. While there, I made a little detour to the Starbucks “Delicious Pairings” section, and bought a package of chocolate chip cookies for the kids and mommies to eat during their play date. The treats I encountered there were mouthwateringly delicious. Lemon tarts? I’m drooling. Must find a way to Paleoize them.

The lemon tarts sounded amazing, but I bought Starbucks’ Verona blend which is a heavier blend. Eating lemon tarts with Verona would be like drinking Sauvigon Blanc with a T-Bone. I grabbed something a little more hearty to go with the dark chocolatey and caramelized sugar notes that belong to Verona.

Coffee is like wine to me. I love drinking it black and sniffing the different notes before I sip. Each sip sends my taste buds dancing in a swirl of ecstasy. Some blends and brands are easier to drink than others, but I really love the Verona blend. I generally add a little bit of coconut milk, a drop of vanilla, and a shake of cinnamon. It’s my very own little Summer Latte. Delish.

Then sometimes, I’m feeling a little naughty, and I want some sort of delicious baked good to accompany my cafe’. It’s been “that time of the month” for 10 days now – leave me the heck alone. I do what I want.

The Muffin and The Stinky missed an Easter Egg Hunt this year, so I brought the hunt to our house. The Nerd hid some plastic eggs outside and we invited our friends over to indulge in some treats and an egg hunt.

They had a blast finding the eggs, and even more fun eating the candy inside afterwards.  It was a nice, warm but crisp day here in Raleigh today, with another similar day on the horizon tomorrow. It’s a nice break from the cold weather we’ve had all winter. Yes, I love cold weather, but cold without snow is just cold. I’m ready to wear a dress again and have a reason to shave my legs. Or visit the spa for undercarriage attention, courtesy Amy.

I mean, forget all that. Truly, I just want it to be warm enough to shove the kids out the door to play, but cool enough that I don’t feel as though I’m taking an unexpected trip to the center of the Earth.

The Neigborfriend and I drank our Caffe Verona daintily, um . . . greedily . . . because we are effing exhausted, while the kids searched high and low for little plastic Easter eggs.

It was the perfect play date. There was only one other adult there for me to commiserate with, our kids ran some energy out, and we indulged ourselves with chocolate chip cookies and the smooth, chocolatey Caffe Verona blend.

What makes your play dates perfect?

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #cbias #SocialFabric As always, all thoughts and opinions are my very own and were not influenced in any way.