Eureka!

I feel like I spend a LOT of time whining about my trips to the grocery store. Maybe not so much here but often to my poor family and friends who have to speak to me on grocery days. So, why not continue the boringness that is sometimes my life and blog about it?

I like to plan out a menu for three weeks and buy everything I can buy ahead of time all at once. Then I have a running list for the next two weeks for produce, milk, etc. This doesn't always happen, but it's my preference. Last week I went Wednesday morning, with a list that really only covered about a week. But even then, there were three issues. One, I didn't have nearly enough time to really shop before I needed to pick Seth up at school. Two, Luke felt a burning desire to be really helpful (read insist on getting items off the shelves, even though he couldn't really reach them, and scream loudly if I did not permit him to do so). And three, I ran out of room in the cart early on. See, Luke is in the seat with the belt. Max, in his infant car seat, is in the bigger part where the groceries should go. [One day, a likely well-intentioned older woman said to me, 'OH, there's a baby under all of those groceries.' To be fair, I was very very cautious of my grocery placement and he wasn't covered up and was in no danger at anytime. You know, no infants were harmed, etc.]. Anyway, after I ran out of room last week I came home and added a few more things to my list to stretch it a few more days and ended up BACK at the store about 10pm that night, after a little time on the treadmill. It was nice to be alone. It was not nice that they were trying to put out all the Christmas items and change over for the sales that start on Thursday. There were aisles I couldn't get all the way down and had to turn around and backtrack. Then there was ONE cashier working, and he was in an express lane, which meant that I had to ring up my entire cart of groceries. Nevermind that the coupon part of self-ringing is extremely annoying to me. But, I must say the entire trip was salvaged when the poor lonely employee had no more customers in his line and came over to bag the poor exhausted woman's groceries! I was so thankful for his help!


Wow, this post has rambled on just to get to this! Yesterday I took the boys on a little walk through the neighborhood to look for leaves that we could use for a craft. I wanted Luke to walk, rather than ride in the stroller, so he could help. So, I thought, oh, I'll just get the infant carrier thing that straps to the front of me for Max. We got it, as a gift, when we had Seth. So, it's nearly 5 years old and can be a little confusing to hook a baby into. However, it worked great. Max was fine on the whole walk. This brings me to eureka! Today I got up early and got ready to leave the house. Thus, getting out of the house in time to do the shopping. AND once we got to the store I put Max in the carrier, thus freeing up the entire basket part of the cart for, wait for it, ...groceries! Luke still wanted to be my helper, but that's easier to deal with when the other two issues are out of the way. Now we can eat for the next few weeks AND we can try out the pumpkin cake recipe that I want to sample before serving it to a house full of family on Turkey Day. Yeah me! Off to bake.



Finally, if you've read all the way to the end of this painfully boring post, kudos to you. And I'm sorry it never really got too interesting. However, here's a photo of Max in the carrier before we headed out on our walk yesterday. Please notice the expression on poor little Luke's face. I think it hit me that I couldn't carry him and Max at the same time. He's a little attached. And apparently I thought Max should smile for the picture, thus the annoying 'don't you wanna smile little baby?' face. Ahhh, good times...