When we undertook our kitchen renovation last spring to make more room in our city condo for our now five eaters, we also purchased some new appliances, including a new over-the-stove microwave. This simple appliance was actually the most difficult to purchase, mainly because I wanted the most basic model possible. No basic models were available in the store, and in the catalogue, the salesperson kept showing me models with lots of bells-and-whistles, like convection capabilities and the like.
Really, all I need my microwave to do is reheat my coffee. In fact, if there is a microwave option with just one button, "mom's coffee," that would be the perfect model for me. I rarely use my microwave for anything but coffee reheating-- but that service is paramount.
I pour that early morning cup of coffee when I and my littles are barely awake and, if I'm very lucky, I get to enjoy that first, steaming, decadent sip before I am quickly called away to wipe bums, change diapers, pour milks, find socks, prepare breakfast, clean dishes, referee arguments, and complete a host of other mothering tasks that fill the morning's first minutes as my coffee grows cold.
There will come a time, so quickly really, when I will once again enjoy piping hot sips of my morning coffee, without interruption, without calls from my little ones, without the hum of my microwave. I wonder, then, how dearly I will miss my cold coffee.
