I should’ve known that this past week was a bad time to kick my one-cup-of-coffee-a-day habit. Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve done it. I’ve kicked my caffeine habit permanently about ten times now. But like my toddler and the stairs, I just keep going back.

Who meets up for herbal tea? Social occasions call for a cup of coffee with caramel chocolate creamer. I just can’t resist. If I drink water, they’ll make me sit at the kids’ table.

Greg thinks it’s real funny that one cup of caffeine can have such a grip on me. If I miss a morning, I have headaches, nausea, and fatigue. I’m down for the count. Once the irritability sets in though, he stops laughing and fires up the brew. He’s a believer in its effects.

I believe in it, too, and that’s why I should’ve known. I weaned down to a half a cup before it was time for Greg to leave on another trip. (This time he went to Missouri, but he came back empty-handed.) The first morning after he left, I woke up to a headache, a fussy baby, rain that wouldn’t stop, and a dog who threw up on the carpet. These were all signs: It was going to be a bad week.

It was a long week, and bless the Lord, it’s over.

Sometimes you just have to get through it. Sometimes you have to take control—changing some things around to make it work. And sometimes you have to change who you are in order to rise to the situation.

In my case—caffeine notwithstanding—it was all three of these things. Morning sickness returned. Though it wasn’t the hyperemesis that I suffered through the first trimester, it is hard. This is the stuff of life that you just get through.

Secondly, some of my naughty children need more structure. I’ve been lax with the summer routine, and so Greg sent me out alone this morning to create another schedule and order our lives better. Our family happens to thrive on routine—a home with preschoolers usually does.

Laundry Kid

And thirdly, God has sent me here for this task. The qualities that we often lack to continue this journey—patience, charity, long-suffering—are fruits of the spirit that are necessary for godly lives no matter the task God calls us to. It is no use blaming it on the children. Get wisdom, be humble, and be quiet enough to hear Him.

By the time Greg got home, I was weaned. No more coffee. Greg was sure glad to be out of the state for this episode. He said so. But I’m sure glad he’s back.