Cinnamon-Streusel Coffee Cake

You might be asking yourself what does being married to a stuntman and coffee cake have in common?

This is not a trick question.

The answer is stress.

Yep, stress.

I know I’ve kept it pretty much about the food on Mountain Mama Cooks but my life is so much more.

The past few weeks have been a little overwhelming in the Epstein house. One of my sons got unexpectedly sick and spent a night in the hospital. It’s the first time, thankfully, I’ve had to deal with a really sick child. When he got sick the rest of my world stopped. I dropped everything else to take care of him. Hence, my absence from blogging. I’m happy to say he is going to be just fine. Kids are soooooo tough. Mountain Mama on the other hand? Well, I’m not as tough as I thought I was.

I’ve been a little really stressed out these past few weeks. And you know what? I think its my husbands job that puts me over the top. Sorry honey.

At this point, I’m about to really delve into it. If you don’t have the time or want to listen, feel free to skip past my woe is me post and get right to the recipe. I don’t mind a bit.

Before we really get started, let me just set a few things straight: I know every one deals with stress. And there are a million and one people with a whole lot more to worry about than me. I get it. I do try to keep a little perspective when I’m having a pity party for one. But you know what? Stress is stress. Hard times are hard times. It’s all relative. We all go through tough times and just because your “shtuff” might be harder than mine, doesn’t mean I’m not hurting. You know? Another thing that helps me when I’m stressed is to talk to someone. Or the entire web…… It always makes me feel better. I like taking the craziness out of my noggin and dumping sharing it with whomever will listen.

As some of you know, I’m married to a stuntman. Yes, a real live stuntman that hucks himself in front of moving cars, crashes motorcycles, jumps out of helicopters and does the occasional fire burn. All in the name of fun. And a paycheck.

People ask me all the time if I get scared knowing what he does for a living. But I don’t. Funny enough, getting lit on fire doesn’t stress me out. It’s the schedule. The traveling. That is what stresses me out. We live in Utah. It’s a choice we made when we got married. We don’t want to raise our kids in New York or California. Not judging, it just doesn’t work for us. The downside to that choice is that he travels a lot. Like gone for 6 months last year a lot. He’s been gone the majority of the past 2 months working on this, this, this, and this. It gets lonely.

The boys and I do travel with him sometimes but it’s not always feasible for us to go with. So when he packs his bags to go, I put on my big girl panties and prepare for life as a single mama.

And can I please just take a minute to give all the single parents out there a GIGANTIC shout out. Raising babies solo is down right hard.

Forget about the physical exhaustion that comes with chasing two kids around by yourself, the emotional exhaustion takes its toll after so long. Throw a sick kid into the mix and I’m nothing short of run down. The weight of parenthood really is meant for more than one set of shoulders.

But unless the movie business picks up drastically in Utah or I turn into the next Pioneer Woman, things aren’t going to change. My husband is going to continue to travel and I will continue to feel the pressure of taking care of two boys on my own.

So he travels a lot. It’s tough, yes, but it is what it is. Its taken me years to accept the traveling and chaotic lifestyle that comes with being married to a stuntman. I don’t always like it, in fact, there are times that I down right hate it but it’s not changing.

So what’s a girl to do?

For starters, be thankful for what I do have.

And make coffee cake.

When I do put things in perspective, look at the big picture, life is pretty damn good. I have a husband whom I adore. He’s an amazing father and we have two beautiful and healthy little boys. Life is good.

So here we are. Making coffee cake and venting about my husbands work schedule.

I feel better. You?

So what’s up with stress and coffee cake? Well, here’s the deal. I bake when I’m stressed. I eat cake when I’m stressed. It’s amazing, really, the healing qualities of cake.

And since the Mr. is finally home for a bit, I’ve been baking my frustrations away. Being in my kitchen grounds me and baking brings on the calm. So needless to say, I’ve got plenty of recipes coming your way that involve sugar and a hot oven. Just in time for summer. Ha!

Honestly, there isn’t a whole lot to say about this coffee cake except it’s absolutely delicious. It’s a coffee cake purists dream. A simple cinnamon-sugar streusel with no other adornments- it doesn’t need anything else.

All it needs is a cup of coffee or hot tea and preferably a husband to share it with.

Or wife, life partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, granny etc………..we don’t discriminate here at Mountain Mama.

Thanks for listening.

Enjoy………..

I