Do you know what the perfect time of day is?  I can tell you.

It's 6:47 in the morning on a Monday when you have the day off for Labor day and you creep out of your bedroom and leave your boyfriend sleeping behind you and the apartment is basked in this luminous, just-for-you, morning sheen.  (<- not to get off topic, but it's also ANY time of day that you let me get away with run-on sentences because you love me)

I normally don't see the glow in the mornings because I'm rushing around trying to get everything ready for the day.  Shower. Get dressed. Make & eat breakfast. Pack lunch.  Make coffee.  Set out Frankie's snacks.  Run out the door.  That's what a typical, wake up at 6am work morning looks like for me.

But yesterday, I woke up at 6:26 and laid in bed checking my emails until I decided to get up and do some work.  I moseyed out and closed the door behind me and was struck with this overwhelming appreciation for the beauty of a quiet morning.

The GLOW.  you guys!! THE GLOW.  it's so pretty. the apartment gets illuminated by this yellow-orange-ish light that makes me feel like i'm in a sepia picture.  it's lovely.  it's sleepy and pretty and it feels like morning.  

it also sort of feels like fall?  is that a thing?  I don't know why, but it distinctly felt like fall had begun yesterday morning.  Maybe it's because on my runs i can already see the trees losing leaves and turning brown?  I'm no longer fighting it, by the way, i'm totally embracing it and debating if dairy should be my first whole30 reintroduction – because, PSL.  let's just be real about it.

BACK TO THE GLOW.  It felt right to just make myself a cup of coffee and curl up on the couch and talk to you guys.  it felt like something for me.  me-time.  in college I used to have designated time with my friends – Andrew & Ash time, Ash & Kyle time, etc.  now that i'm older (EW! do i have to be?) i think a lot about ME TIME and making sure i give that to myself.  i deserve it.  and so do you!  

i've never been one of those people who has to do things or has to be around people.  my mom always says she used to feel bad because I was so introverted.  I was perfectly happy reading a book in my room by myself.  I never played sports, i didn't do ANY extracurricular activities until I started thinking about college applications.  i loved just getting lost in my own world of fiction and characters.  

I broke out of my shell in college and learned to love being around people.  but i still have that piece of me that likes to retreat to myself and drink coffee in peace at 7 in the morning by myself.

But my tastes for coffee have definitely changed.  RI is known for our extra-extra dunkin orders (that's extra cream and extra sugar for you non-new englanders).  I had no clue how unhealthy it was when I was ordering them as a teenager (and even in my early 20's!).  I think i've told you about how i've been weaning myself off that this year.  By the time whole30 started I was drinking my coffee with just a little cream.

Now i'm taking it with a splash of homemade almond milk.  and i almost prefer it that way?  which sounds crazy, even to me.  something about homemade almond milk speaks to my soul.  i mean, yes, there's the fact that it's whole30 compliant. and yes, it smells heavenly (almost like french toast!).  but I think i love the fact that it's simple.  I know everything that's in it.  it's REAL.

But it's also delicious so don't forget that.  

we've been going through coffee like no-body's business over here.  even frankie's taking his coffee with this stuff.  I'll make a batch and he comes in to smell it because as he proclaims (every. time.) “it smells SO GOOD.”  and it does.  the vanilla/cinnamon version smells like french toast, and when i get a whiff of it from my coffee I have to second guess myself every time “this is whole30 compliant? did i really not add any sugar?”  

The answer is no.  This stuff is naturally sweetened with one date, but I've made it without the date and honestly didn't really taste a difference.  And i can tell you Frankie didn't notice a difference without it either cause he didn't say anything.  

We've generally been going through two batches per week of both coffee and almond milk.  One batch uses 1/2 cup of almonds and yields a cup and half of almond milk.  I've been saving the almond “meal or flour” that's leftover and freezing it – i haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet.  oh and if you're wondering how i've been making our coffee: check out my post on cold brew to learn about the process – but i've been doing 1 cup of coarsely ground beans/6 cups of water <- that seems to be the golden ratio for us.  

I have two versions listed here.  One is the vanilla cinnamon that smells like french toast and sunday morning.  The other is a pumpkin pie spice.  If we're being honest, i'm working on a better pumpkin flavored almond milk that uses real pumpkin.  if it comes out any better than this, I'll share it with you – but this is good for a quick and easy fall pumpkin fix.  You could also add in some pumpkin extract, but then it's not Whole30 compliant!

do yourself a favor and sit down with a nice cup of joe and appreciate your morning.  you'll be glad you did.

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doesn't that just SCREAM lazy sunday morning?  swooooon.

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