Remember that one time my oldest son graduated from high school and moved all the way to the other side of town to the college dorm? 

I am one spoiled mama, that’s what I am. While Asa is super busy (16 mostly upper-level credit hours plus work study) and super involved (soccer, choir, club, and everything else fun he can squeeze in) and is barely getting any sleep – every once in a while we do get to see his face. I love those moments. 

We get to see Asa at church most Sundays. We go to his home soccer games and the away games that are close-by. He comes home to do laundry every week or so. I feed him whenever a meal at home can be worked into his schedule. Sometimes he referees one of his brother’s soccer games. See? I am super spoiled. I know many moms who said goodbye in August and won’t see their son or daughter again until Thanksgiving or beyond. I’m blessed to see my boy here and there. 

We’re adjusting to life with just three boys at home. We’ve re-vamped the chore list and shuffled around beds in the boys’ bedroom and even figured out how to play games and watch movies without Asa being here. <— that part was so weird and hard at first. “We can’t watch that because not everyone is here!” had to be replaced with a sniff from Mom and an “I guess we’ll watch that without Asa.” Who knew that would be a tough adjustment? (It’s a “We love our family time” thing. That’s when we miss him most. That and when it’s his turn to take out the trash.)  ;)

Do you remember what it’s like to be a college student? We all stayed up way too late most nights and still got up for early morning classes. Somehow we survived. Now that I’m 42, my body is like, “It’s almost 9:45 and I might pass out if I don’t go to bed soon.” But 9:45 pm is still mid-afternoon for college students. That’s the time they have meetings, write papers, and hang out with friends. Night life in the dorm begins at midnight. But still there are 8:00 am classes. This is what motivates a college kid to begin drinking coffee, am I right?

So guess who likes coffee now? 

It happened like this: 

Asa’s girl, Brittany — Yes, Asa has a girl. Has had for over a year. I’ve respected her/their privacy by not going on and on about her here, but then I asked and she said it was okay so there you go — Anyway…Brittany has liked coffee shop coffee for quite some time. Asa teased her about it until the morning after the twelfth night in a row he hadn’t gotten enough sleep. That’s when he said, “I sure could go for some coffee” and she fell out of her chair. (See, this is why people shouldn’t give me permission to write about them on my blog.) 

She didn’t fall. She just hopped up and ran to our local coffee shop.

Long story short(ish) – now they both love fru-fru coffee but aren’t enjoying paying high prices or drinking oodles of sugar. They have loved my Frappes when I’ve served them, so recently when they were here, I said, “Anytime you want coffee, text me. My coffee will cost you nothing and it’s not full of sugar (plus then I’ll get to see you both which will make my day so please want coffee often and text me daily).” 

Lookie there. Frappes in to-go cups. 

I will stop here and tell you the specifics of my favorite way to make a delicious Frappe, because everyone needs to know this.

How To Make an Amazing (Much Healthier) Frappe

1. Grind some of the best coffee beans in the world. (I discovered these beans from Guatamala and I can’t stop loving how good the coffee is.)

2. Brew coffee as normal or make some via the cold brew method. By default, I usually brew coffee to drink in the morning, then cool and refrigerate leftovers to use in Frappes.

3. Make coffee ice cubes. 

4. Make Chocolate Frappe as directed here. Or this: Put cold coffee, a few coffee ice cubes, some cream, and a few squeezes of this amazing stevia sweetened chocolate syrup into a blender. (Note, that stuff is not cheap, but is still much less expensive and absolutely healthier than coffee shop coffee, so I grab some when I have Amazon or Vitacost credit.)

5. Blend until frothy and serve. 

Starbucks is jealous of how delicious this is. Asa, Brittany, Matt, Justus, and Elias all love this drink. I’m still in the “plain coffee with cream” camp because it is so delicious as-is. It is so much fun to drink coffee with my people! (Malachi will come around, and for now will stick with hot chocolate.) 

The above combination of ingredients also tastes delicious as a hot drink (minus the ice cubes, I hope that was obvious). This is why I grabbed to-go coffee cups with lids because it is getting chilly outside and cold frappes for the college students probably won’t cut it much longer.

So there you go. I will always have coffee on hand so that I’m ready to say “Yep!” whenever I get a “Can we come get coffee?” text. For the record, I will also always have food to warm up (do not ever question this), fresh fruit, boxes of kleenex, an assortment of natural remedies, and if ever there is a request that I cannot immediately fulfill, I will put it on my Walmart list because I can’t even help it.

I’d love to hear what all of you are thankful for this Gratituesday!