Good Morning, Sis!

Sorry-not-sorry for the "rough start" photo....

Missing you, thinking of you,

picturing you with Julie in that "Better Place" - and how you two probably don't even need coffee up there. Do you even "start" your day, or are you awake and lively 24/7 in heaven?

Coffee Heaven

Just saw two books up for grabs via BookSirens, both on how to start your own coffee shop. You would have been so good at it Lori. I used to entertain visions of buying this old white house in the town two miles away, and having you live upstairs while running a coffee house downstairs. Someone else did that, but the shop went belly up, and ten years later, that house still stands, her sign still hangs by the door, and nobody lives or moves or drinks coffee in that old place. Kinda haunting. Then again, a lot of things seem haunting, to me.

Those book titles reminded me of a coffee shop I visited somewhere (zero recall when and where!), and all these shelves on the walls were lined with the biggest collection of coffee mugs I've ever seen, and customers could pick whichever one they wanted their coffee to be served in that day.

We could start a whole new thread on coffee mugs in our cupboards.
Kinda like "Been there, done that, Bought the T-shirt."
Why not "Bought the Coffee Mug!"

So I happened to check in at Hive (how long it's been; how far behind I've fallen), and "Best Start" seemed like an invitation to remember all the mornings our our childhood (teen years), starting our day with morning coffee in those awful old chipped mugs in our mom's cupboard. What an odd assortment. Our sister Kelly the school teacher probably gets a dozen mugs a year as token gifts. Over the years, how many oddball coffee mugs with cute sayings have we accumulated? My favorite mug featured a Farside cartoon, "The horrors of morning face." Like all my other favorites over the years, it got chipped or cracked or shattered.

Only yesterday, I saw this,

The horse was $4 at an antique store, nothing I "needed" but totally wanted (and yes, a grandchild broke its tail!) and I include it here because it was on my countertop and I love my clutter.

I wanted to buy that mug for you, not because anyone-- anywhere--needs another coffee mug (!), but because it makes me think of you.

And it was half price. $3 at Hobby Lobby.

"When life gives you scraps, make a quilt."

You sewed a lot of quilts, Lori, and life dumped a lot of scraps on you, and you should have gotten more than 63 years, and Julie should have made it to her 19th birthday, but she didn't, and here we are, we who are still living and breathing and starting our days with coffee, piecing scraps and memories into some kind of quilt to wrap ourselves in. You'd crack a joke, like you always did, and I'm sitting here now with my empty coffee mug wondering what you'd say to me today.

I miss you so much Lori.

Come to find out, this $3 mug sells for $18 on ebay, so I am vindicated for blowing three dollars on another dang breakable ceramic thing in my kitchen.

Now, to discard some of the boring old mugs in the cupboard that came with a set of Corelle to make room for More Mugs We Never Needed.

And now, back to the daily prompt, the Five-Minute Freewrite!

The #BestStart to my day

would be another morning at the farm, in our mom's kitchen, with dad scowling at the pancake griddle awaiting his stack, and you with your noisy throat-clearing and your raspy voice, or better yet, going farther back in time, with Julie still living at home, fighting over who gets the next pancake, and Linda (from age five on!) sipping coffee from that little teacup, stunting her growth, we'd tell her, but it was Julie who never reached five feet, and she didn't start the coffee habit until she'd stopped growing any taller. So.

Bring on the coffee!

In a teacup, in a mug, all alone or with someone you love, bring it on!

Day 1598: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: best start