Posted on April 3, 2012 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

C is for Crave: Top 5 Things I Crave

crave/krāv/  Verb:  Feel a powerful desire for (something): “give the infants the human touch they crave”.

Okay so I am starting to think I should probably stick to a top 5 style of posts this month for multiple reasons. One, they are easier, two they are fun and three I guess doing it this way will allow you all to get to know me better, right? Right.

I’m not promising a top 5 post all month, but today I am. I know, lame. Leave it.

So I went for the Top 5 things I Crave, they might surprise you, but then maybe not.

#1 – Coffee. We’ll go with the easiest, most obvious one. Really caffeine, because I do drink Diet Dr. Pepper too, but coffee might just be my lifeline. I tried to give it up last year for a couple of weeks – worst couple of weeks of my life. I was so unproductive, I couldn’t even think. My kids said I sort of resembled a mute cat. I was so tired I was always lying around do nothing or napping and when I did open my mouth to say something nothing intelligible ever came out. I’m glad that’s over. Coffee is a must.

Don’t mess me when I have not had any. You’ve been warned.

 #2 – Writing Time. Yes, I crave it. But not just any ordinary writing time. It doesn’t count when its for the blog, or its on twitter or whatever. I’m talking the time when I can just get words out of my head. Time that is uninterrupted by “Mom, can we keep a tarantula for 3 months”  (yes, I was already asked this today – the answer was No. ) “Mom, I’m hungry.” (They are teenagers, they really CAN get their own food.) and my favorite “Mom, guess what happened at school today.” (which translates into, let me tell you a story about someone you don’t know that did something more than likely really stupid, that you don’t care about.) *sigh *

#3 – Nature/Outdoors – Winter months are brutal on me. I crave being outdoors. I need to be outside – Spring and Fall are my favorite times of year, the colors that both offer are extremely calming and relaxing for me. I often take my laptop out to my patio to blog or to write and many a night at 10pm I am writing still on my patio with a firepit going beside me. I would rather be outside than locked indoors. When I got injured back in December it was a long road to recovery and I am just now able to spend larger times outside. So I definitely crave being outside. Which brings me to my next craving…

#4 – Inspiration – Any creative person should crave inspiration. Any writer, definitely craves inspiration and I am no exception to that rule. I am constantly on the look out for photography, signs, conversations, people and anything else I can use as inspiration to my writing. I get inspiration from some strange places, and there have been some rather strange conversations I have witnessed that I have been able to tweak and use in my stories. Inspiration is one of those things that if I didn’t have it, I am not really sure I’d actually write. I especially crave inspiration when it comes to blogging. Don’t you?

#5 – Family Time. I know, I’m sitting here, up above in #2 telling you I crave time to write uninterrupted, etc. But here’s the deal, I am a mom first and foremost and if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be where I am. I miss them when they are gone, I  hate every morning when they leave for school, okay well most mornings, some mornings I’m literally kissing the bus driver as he whisks them away… but that’s not the point. I have to have family time everyday and if I don’t, I definitely get all out of sorts, it’s a craving.

Isn’t a craving kind of like an addiction? Because if it was, I think I’m addicted to many more things – my laptop is one of them.

What do you crave most?