We shop for groceries two weeks at a time without fail, come hell or high water, and it's always on a Wednesday. That's because Wednesdays are the days that our favorite farmers market has their produce discounted even more than usual. So.... you guessed it ...today was grocery shopping day! At 4 p.m. (no, we apparently could not have chosen an earlier hour in the day) we braved our way into Walmart with a long list of groceries and by some miracle of the Almighty, we made it home only two and a half hours later without even getting mad! We even had a last-minute change of recipe, a quick call to a friend to get her dinner-roll recipe, because well... they're the best! ...and stopped to give a new mom a mini Ergo Baby Carrier 101 lesson right there in the produce aisle. Her 4-week-old had only his precious nose and eyes exposed and was SO TINY! (Can we say newborn envy!?)
We were grabbing mushrooms, I think, when a sweet new mom, her mom, and her teensy little one came our way. I had Danny on my front in the Ergo carrier. We've discovered this is the quickest way we can whip through the store. I hold the kiddo and the pre-printed grocery list with a pen, and Alejandro drives the cart with my purse/diaper-bag/is-there-a-difference? and all the groceries piled on top. Then we go aisle by aisle and Alejandro practices his race-cart skills while tossing in items. I practice my drill-sergeant skills and order which item to grab next. It's a great system! Add to that tickle sessions by the dairy section and cat-and-mouse chasing games with each other down the aisles with our giggly toddler and it becomes great fun! Anyway, with the Ergo on my front, I was about twice the size I usually am so I thought the dear sweet new mama was trying to get by. To my surprise, she actually wanted to ask me if I liked my Ergo. I gushed that I did and showed off some of the features.
Speaking of distractions (weren't we?), I have discovered recently that I am very much like the dog in Up. You know, "Up," the kids' movie? Well, if you don't, you should. Go rent it. Right now. I'm serious. Go.
It's one of our favorites. It's one of my favorites because of how the dog yells SQUIRREL!! mid-thought and immediately takes off running in a different direction. It's sort of how my brain works. I get going on one thought and my mouth can't catch up, so mid-sentence I start another thought and another sentence. Which I may or may not finish.
It doesn't make for very good public speaking. Ahem. Which is bad, because I do that a lot. Public speaking I mean. Well, and having squirrel! moments. Oh, you get my point.
Um, but what was I talking about?
Oh yes! Our trip to the grocery store. It was great fun! Or at least it was a great adventure.
So after we met the nice lady with the squishy cute newborn baby that really has made me want to get pregnant, we headed down the frozen food aisle to pick up two chicken lasagnas. One is for us to eat. The other is to give away. Our pastor challenged us to take a hot meal to someone who is sick or recently had a baby, as way of going back to the structure of the early church. We thought it was a pretty cool challenge, so we took him up on it. Hence, the second chicken lasagna.
On our way to the check-out line, Alejandro said (in squirrel! like fashion) "(Gasp!) We should take the lasagna to her!!"
I knew, of course, who he was referring to, and that initiated our 15-minute search of Walmart to find the sweet new mom with her sweet newborn, who will surely be soon purchasing an Ergo. It was, sadly, a failed mission. I was really so excited too, because I have sort of a knack for making friends in the grocery store and taking them lasagna. These types of friends really become the best kind. Maybe someday I'll meet her in heaven and I can tell her what great friends on earth we were supposed to be. Or maybe I'll just see her in two weeks in the produce section. Here's crossing our fingers!
My favorite moment of all, though, was when we had just braved the grocery store's hazard zone (read baking aisle). As we rounded the corner to head into the next aisle, we passed a mom and her 5 year old (at least he appeared to be 5). As she firmly planted a hand on his back pressing him forward into that chaotic baking aisle, he dug in his heels, looked up at his mom and said, "We have to go IN THERE?!?" Followed by Alfred Hitchcock's screeching horror music. Well, ok, that last part didn't happen really. Except in my imagination.
So there you have it. The
And since it's pretty unlikely I'll manage to blog tomorrow - as I'll be quite occupied eating way more food than any individual should in a single day - I'll just tell you all now:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
