Tales of Tea...

Today I saw this...

I had a little laugh about it, a bit of an "it's so true" moment and then a "that's my husband all over" moment! Our household is one of Tea's biggest advocates, and probably one of the reasons it is still one of the UKs biggest imports. I do not lie when I say that my husband probably drinks double figures cups of tea every day...

I, on the other hand, have been on a bit of a "tea" journey over the past couple of years, and my tea consumption has varied quite drastically. 18 months ago I was probably on around 8 a day (pre-breakfast with quiet time, arrival in school, break time, lunchtime, post school staff meeting, arrival at home, couple in evening) and I was fairly predictable (milk, no sugar).

Cue pregnancy, and I couldn't stand the stuff... the thought of a cup of tea initially made me want to vom, and then I got through the morning sickness phase and just was totally disinterested. Really, I should have caught on fairly early that I was pregnant. I, however, had no idea, and just put it down to the flu I'd had when everyone was asking at me why I'd suddenly dropped the 8 a day habit.

Suddenly, the wider world of fruit and herbal tea was opened up to me... and I fell in love... with fennel tea (sounds rank, and to be honest, I'm not such a huge fan of it now the baby's out... but I thought it was the best thing EVER)

So for nine months, I consumed fennel tea to my hearts content, and dabbled in a bit of fruity stuff...

Post-baby, I'm now in a whole different phase of "tea-drinking." It's called the mama-only-ever-gets-half-a-cup phase. It's the phase where you make yourself a cup of tea, longing for that moment when your whole body relaxes as you take that first gulp of hot, caffeinated luxury, and never get the gulp because you start making your daughter's porridge while the teas brewing and 2 hours later find a cup of over-stewed tea on your sideboard. If you're REALLY lucky, you might get a couple of gulps before some disaster crops up (baby has maneuvered self across room and is making a beeline for laptop cable/washing powder/mobile phone - its like they have some magnet in them for anything that screams DO NOT TOUCH!) and you go and solve said disaster, to which child objects, so you distract them with some other toy/book/non-dangerous artifact, and lo-and-behold, your tea is cold again!

The worst case is the wake-from-nap tea. This happened to me yesterday morning, and occurs at least three times a week. I had put Ava down for her nap, and immediately went into nap-time-superwoman-mode. This involves dashing around the house like a madwoman, juggling piles of washing under one arm, mobile phone in mouth, dirty nappies under other arm, ironing pile between knees as you attempt to waddle down the stairs without dropping any of said items. Once down, I literally zoomed through my to-do list... empty dishwasher, put on wash, nappies out to bin, clean bathroom, get through ironing pile, write to-do list... and then... that glorious moment - MY DAUGHTER IS STILL ASLEEP! Time for a nice hot cup of tea...

- Boil kettle (still sleeping)
- Put decaf (!) teabag in mug (still sleeping)
- Pour in water (still sleeping)
- Stir teabag and add milk (still sleeping)
- Remove teabag (still sleeping)
- Sit down on sofa (still sleeping)
- Lift cup to mouth - (Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Mamaaaaaaaa!)

See, at the end of the day, if the saying at the start of this post is true, us Mum's are in trouble...

because tea can't fix it if we can't drink it!!!

Dedicated to all other Mum's in the Mama-only-ever-gets-half-a-cup-(if-she's-lucky!) phase!