09/02/2026
Good evening, Udderly family. 🤍
I’ve always tried to be extremely open and honest with our customers and our community. Throughout my life, I’ve been told that I overshare, that I care too deeply, and that I worry too much about other people and their opinions. And maybe some of that is true.
I am a sensitive person. When I love someone—or something—I love with my entire being. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I have always tried to put the people I care about before myself.
Today, I want to share something deeply personal with you. Not because I am looking for sympathy, but because I believe there is strength in letting people in. And if sharing my story helps even one person realize they are not alone, then it is worth sharing.
Our son, Charlie, is truly our miracle.
For more than a decade, I was told becoming a mom probably wouldn’t happen for me. But if you truly know me, you know I don’t give up easily. Tell me I can’t do something, and you can bet I’m going to do everything in my power to prove otherwise.
The truth is, though, I haven’t really been the same since losing my mama bear.
My mom and I didn’t always have the relationship I wished we had, but in the last few years of her life, we finally began building the relationship I had always wanted. We were even preparing to go into business together when pancreatic cancer suddenly took her from us. I didn’t just lose my mom—I lost the future we were finally going to have together.
Coffee was something that always brought my mom and me together, and Udderly Caffeinated grew from so much of that love.
My husband, my dad, and I invested everything we had into making this little dream a reality. For nearly five years, I have poured my heart and soul into this place. There were times I worked more than 100 hours a week trying to keep everything going. I gave the shop everything I had—emotionally, physically, financially, and mentally—and somewhere along the way, I stopped leaving enough of myself for me.
Then life handed us another unimaginable journey.
We found out we were miraculously pregnant while also being told we were miscarrying. Somehow, against the odds, our little Charlie held on.
Every ultrasound, every heartbeat, every little Charlie kick gave me something back that I thought I had lost: hope. Love. Faith.
After everything it took to get him here, I think part of me believed the hardest part was behind us.
I was very wrong.
Our pregnancy was high-risk. Charlie spent time in the NICU, and I went through serious complications and multiple blood transfusions. After we finally made it through all of that, I discovered just how serious postpartum mental health struggles can become.
Postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, and the other mental health symptoms I’ve experienced have affected me in ways I never imagined possible. That is a large part of why you haven’t seen me at the shop as much lately—and why, when you have seen me, I may not have seemed like myself.
I want to be clear about something: none of this has ever been directed toward Charlie. It has been directed inward, toward myself.
My mind convinced me that I wasn’t good enough.
Not good enough for Charlie.
Not good enough for my husband or my dad.
Not good enough for my employees, customers, friends, or family.
Today, we closed because I needed help.
I reached a point where I was in a very dark and dangerous place. I left in my car, and then I looked in the rearview mirror and saw Charlie’s things behind me. In that moment, I begged and pleaded with God to please get me home.
And He did.
When I got home, I reached out for help.
The only appointment available was today. My first instinct was to turn it down because I didn’t have anyone to take over the shop while I was gone.
And that thought alone made me realize something.
I have spent so much of my life worrying about taking care of everyone and everything else that, even at a moment when I desperately needed help, my first concern was still the coffee shop.
I have invested nearly everything I have into Udderly Caffeinated while putting my own health—and sometimes the people I love most—on the back burner.
I couldn’t do that anymore.
So I took the appointment.
And I am getting help.
I am sharing this because postpartum mental illness is real. It can be terrifying, and it can happen to people who love their babies more than life itself.
If another mom is reading this while fighting a battle inside her own mind, please know you do not have to fight it quietly or by yourself.
Asking for help is not giving up.
For me, asking for help is how I am choosing to keep going.
And that brings me to Udderly Caffeinated.
We are NOT permanently closing. 🤍
We are simply taking a short break.
For the first time in a very long time, I need to give myself permission to rest, heal, get the help I need, spend time with my family, and find my way back to myself.
At the same time, we are going to use this break to breathe new life into Udderly Caffeinated.
I believe deeply in this little shop, and I believe in the community that has carried us, supported us, and loved Udderly Caffeinated for nearly five years.
So during this break, we are going to rest.
We are going to heal.
We are going to rebuild.
And we are going to rebrand Udderly Caffeinated into something that carries even more of the heart it was always meant to have.
We will still have the legendairy variety of beverages you know and love, but we will also be expanding further into a café, with a larger food menu and so much more to offer.
More than anything, I want to create a place that feels like what coffee always meant to my mom and me:
Connection.
A place to gather.
A place to laugh.
A place to have hard conversations.
A place to celebrate the good days and find comfort on the difficult ones.
A place where there is always room for one more at our table. 🤍
Udderly Caffeinated isn’t disappearing.
We’re giving it—and ourselves—a chance to breathe so we can come back stronger.
🐄 WE WILL REOPEN WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH! 🐄
We’ll be rested, healing, renewed, and ready to welcome you back with more to offer than ever before.
And for anyone who already has catering booked with us, please don’t worry:
All confirmed catering orders will still be fulfilled as scheduled.
We are incredibly grateful that you have trusted us to be part of your special events, gatherings, and celebrations, and we will continue honoring those commitments during our short break.
Please be patient with us while we take the time we need to make these changes.
And please know how incredibly grateful we are for every person who has walked through our doors, ordered a drink, grabbed lunch, enjoyed something from our bakery, trusted us with a catering order, shared a post, told a friend about us, supported our family, checked on us, or simply believed in this crazy little dream.
I am truly sorry for the short notice and for any inconvenience this break may cause.
I am choosing to believe that there are still beautiful chapters ahead—for me, for my family, and for Udderly Caffeinated.
This isn’t goodbye.
It’s a chance for all of us to breathe, heal, grow, and begin our next chapter.
Thank you for loving us through every season. Thank you for giving me the grace to take this time. And thank you for being part of the Udderly family.
We love you all more than you know, and we cannot wait to welcome you back to our table. 🤍🐄☕️
All our love,
Nolan, Malinda & Charlie Ellingson
Udderly Caffeinated
