Cup of Coffee with Katie

(Click here if you want the background music) So Celiac Awareness Month is now 2/3 finished and I have yet to do much in the way of awareness. If only there could just be a few more hours in the day. Regardless, there is an important reality of celiac I've been meaning to address for awhile now...so I suppose today is as good a day as any. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder. Yes, you probably already knew that. However, what you may not know is that if you have an autoimmune condition and it remains untreated, they often act like dominos...and before you know it you have plenty of them. I mean it makes sense when you think about it: if my immune system is going haywire, why would it just isolate itself to one body system?? Clearly my body learned the "sharing is caring" lesson a little too well when I was a kid. So rewind 3 years: it's spring of 2011. I was in the heart of my "we don't know what's wrong with you" dark days. I had been to ev...

Spring has finally (and I mean FINALLY) sprung here in Baltimore. This means many things: ant colony invasion in the kitchen, pollen covering the car each morning, birds chirping, sun shining...and strawberries will soon be in full bloom. Granted, in other places throughout the country I think they already are because the prices have returned to a reasonable amount over the past two weeks. Plus during my near-weekly visit to the Baltimore Farmers' Market, I've noticed that there are 2 vendors selling a small amount of freshly-picked berries, so even here on the cold east coast, some of the strawberries must be staying strong. My favorite local "pick-your-own" farm hasn't reopened so I guess they're not in full bloom yet...but the time is so close I can taste it. Seriously, if you've never picked your own strawberries, you need to do it at least once. Not only do they taste completely different than store berries, it's a great way to spend an afternoo...

A few hours ago, we said good-bye to April and hello to May, which is important for a variety of reasons. First, it means the relentless rain should cease and bring us those promised "May flowers"...and in light of just how many April "showers" we've had, it better be an abundance of blooming spring flowers. Second, in the world of teaching, May means the light is at the end of the tunnel. Summer is just a calendar page away...which of course brings with it immeasurable excitement alongside downright panic at the sheer amount of material left to cover/work to do before that page flips; however, today I choose to focus on the good. And third, it means Celiac Awareness Month is upon us. Now I know these days it seems like every cause under the sun has its own day, week, month, or even year and thus it's easy to disregard such a distinction. And yes, it means very little change in my day-to-day life so it can easily slip right past. However, given the impact su...