My Daily Cup (or Two) of Coffee Has Gone from a Routine to an Experience...How About You? #CoffeeRoutine #Pmedia #ad

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® , The J.M.Smucker Company, White Wave, and Truvia Natural Sweetener, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #CoffeeRoutine http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV.

I was never a morning person...that was until I welcomed my girls and found the need to get up earlier than them to get things ready for the day, get a hot shower in and find a few quiet minutes to make a cup of coffee and flip through a magazine or the morning paper.  

It is funny how "me time" becomes a commodity once you have kids.  I would never had put making "me time" a priority on my annual new year's resolutions lists, back when I didn't have children. But, like all parents come to realize, there is not enough time in the day to get everything done -- you just have to prioritize things better.  And, when you sit down and put together your daily to-do list, you really need to make a point to add "me time" to the list.  If you don't, you will find yourself forgetting to put yourself first, even just for a few minutes, and eventually find yourself burning out, or wondering what happened to your self identity.  

While I would never change having kids, as my girls are the best things that have ever happened to me, I find myself always working at finding quiet time for just myself, to recharge my batteries, relax and feel refreshed.  So, instead of hitting the snooze button in the AM few a few more minutes of sleep, I roll out of bed and brew up a hot cup of coffee and start my day.  This early AM time has become my "me time" and I look forward to it each and every day.  

How about you?  Do you struggle to find time in the day just for you?  Has your coffee routine become an experience of sorts now that you have kids?  This has become a topic my girlfriends and I talk about a lot, as they too have found themselves looking at coffee as more than just a drink.  It truly is an experience, either as a way to kick off the morning before the kids come racing down the stairs and you have to jump into mom-on-the-go mode to get everyone out the door on time, or even as a way to wind down at the end of a crazy day.  

I have loved coffee ever since I was a teen.  But, over the years it has taken on many roles.  Back in college, I would use coffee to give me an energy boost during late night cram sessions or to keep me awake in the AM to attend an early morning class.  Then, when I joined the workforce coffee was either consumed on the way to work, where it kept me sane in bumper to bumper early AM commuting traffic, or would be enjoyed a couple times a week during mid morning break time with my colleagues.  

It wasn't until the girls arrived that coffee took on yet another form.  It was used as a way to meet and make friends with other moms of little ones.  I would have play dates with local moms and their kids and the moms would sip on hot coffee while watching the kids play.  Coffee was used as a bonding tool, as we would talk about the different types of coffee we liked, how we took our coffee and how since kids we rarely consumed a hot cup of coffee in one sitting (we usually found our having to reheat it over and over again, as we consumed this one cup throughout the morning).

I never expected my coffee routine to change from just being considered a drink to becoming more of an experience.  Nowadays when I wake, I reach for a Dunkin' Donuts K-cup to pop in my Keurig machine.  Gone are the days that I can just hop in the car and grab a hot coffee at my nearest Dunkin' Donuts drive thru.  Then, to make my coffee feel more like an experience, I use my go-to flavored coffee creamer and coffee sweetener, to make my hot cup of coffee feel like it came from Dunkin' Donuts, even though I was brewing it up myself at home.  I am an International Delight cream and two Truvia Natural Sweetener packets girl...how about you?

Who knows...maybe as the girls get older I will find my coffee routine changing again.  But, in the meantime, I am enjoying being an early riser (never thought I would hear myself saying that) just to squeeze in 10-15 minutes of "me time" catching up on the news, reading a few pages in a book I have been meaning to get through, journaling or just putting my feet up and closing my eyes enjoying the few precious quiet moments before the girls wake. And, me-time would not be complete without my coffee with cream and 2 Truvia Natural Sweetener packets :-)  

If you are a fan of Truvia Natural Sweetener and creamer like me and shop at ShopRite, then you will want to take advantage of this deal...“Buy 2 participating coffee products and 1 participating creamer and get a free box of Truvia Natural Sweetener 40ct now thru 3/12, while supplies last.”  

A weekly trip to ShopRite is not complete without my daily coffee routine essentials :-)

What a great deal, right? I may just have to pick up more coffee and creamer and have a few girlfriends and their kids over, so that the kids can play and the mommies can catch up and enjoy a hot cup of coffee. Coffee+Friends=Happiness :-)