Well, once upon a time I would stop in at the grocery store whenever the whim hit me. Feeling like chicken tonight? Farmer Jack is at the corner. Want some snack food and breakfast muffins? No problem - Kroger is on the way home from work. Now, the pantry has to have dust on the shelves and the refrigerator makes a popping noise when you open it from the vacuum. So today I gathered up the coupons, read the weekly specials, made my list of meals I was going to buy for, and began to get ready to go out. First, Mary had to wake up from her nap which ran late. So she woke up and I stuffed her into her cute little pink fuzzy bear snowsuit. While that was going on, Emma was having a meltdown which caused screaming and throwing oneself onto Momma's leg and clinging to it for dear life. Oh, wait, that would be a stinky diaper. Jim got her changed and into her boots, coat, and hat. Both kids got ferried out to the car and strapped in accordingly while returnables were collected and the double stroller was removed from the back of the Jeep. We made it all the way to the parking lot of the grocery store when we realized, due to Mary's lengthy nap, that it was Emma's lunch time. Jim took a U-turn and we went to the nearest fast food restaurant. After Emma spent a long time sorting out her chicken nuggets between the box and her napkin, we corralled everyone back up and got in the car again. Then we went home.
I am not kidding. We went home. Not grocery shopping. See, it was now prime pumpkining time for Emma (although she seemed mostly a pumpkin all morning). In other words, NAP TIME. Nap time is SACRED. Under any and all circumstances the schedule must be preserved. So we went home. I Tucked Emma in for her nap and nursed Mary. After Mary went down for a nap, Jim said the magic words: "Do you want to go grocery shopping by yourself?". I WENT. I went to the grocery store by myself with no children and no diaper bag. I took coupons that could be sorted and perused and did the glorious grocery shopping. That should be a song - Glorious Grocery Shopping. Then I could hum it while I was pushing the cart up and down the aisles - twice even, if I wanted. So I got every little item on my list and compared prices and scowled over sales versus generic brand values. It was a beautiful thing that took me a very long time. I was so happy that I came home and made lasagna. Now THAT is happiness.
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3 comments:
Tee hee hee, I'm so glad you got out there to shop by yourself! I learned that one early on. Chris still wants to go ...all three of us. Forget that noise. Firstly: Victoria would turn into a pumpkin. Secondly: Chris crabs about items and whines 'do you really need that, how about these'. Thirdly: the shopping gets me out of the house without having to nurture the two beings in my family. Next step Ann, turn your cell phone off while shopping....nothing you can do with a cart full of items so why be interupted. Sorry Jim!! :)
Glorious Grocery Shopping should be a hymn. Or even a hymn medley.
Oh, definitely - grocery shopping is an incredible luxury. I never realized it until I had to take two children along. Add all spontaneous errands to the list of luxuries and you see the real gulf between parents and non-parents.
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