In the car...

Tonight Sons 1 & 4 ventured to the grocery store with me. Son4 slept little today, but we had some time to kill before I would let him call it a day by giving him a bottle and putting him down for the night. (Well, maybe not for the NIGHT, but for the next five or six hours.) It seemed like an opportune moment to get some much-needed grocery shopping done -- but I had no intention of doing it alone with the little bugger. I could have done that, but it seemed better to bring someone with me to help with the baby or with the shopping or both. It's not easy to lift a huge watermelon while carrying the baby around in the baby bjorn. I know. I've tried.

So Son1 pushed the stroller with his baby brother while I pushed the cart and tried to fill it with as much food as possible. It didn't used to bother me if I forgot something at the store, or if I had to go there a few times a week. But life's a bit more complicated now. These days I want to fill my cart to overflowing and not go back for a week. And speaking of filling the cart, did you know that a family of five should be able to feed their family (and provide toiletries) for $200/week? I know this from a friend who's being going through a lengthy and painful mortgage modification process and who's had their finances relentlessly scrutinized. Two hundred dollars is a fair amount...but have I mentioned that my kids never stop eating?

Anyway, when we were putting the groceries in the car I noticed the astounding collection of items in there. I confess that sometimes when I'm in a parking lot I peek into people's cars to see whether they're on top of things or their life is as chaotic as mine. So, to make you feel better in case you have a messy car, I thought I'd let you in on what you might see if you were to get in my van right now:

An empty seltzer water can in my cupholder
Germ-X (I'm a big fan)
A pair of sneakers with socks inside them
A baseball bag full of gear
A baseball glove (not in the bag)
Flip flops
Empty resusable water bottles
Empty kill-the-planet water bottles
Pencils
Receipts
A script
A copy of The Hobbit
A Land's End Catalogue
A copy of The Atlantic
A baby blanket
A sweatshirt
Resusable grocery bags (which I always forget to bring into the store with me)
Sunblock (more than one kind actually)
Wrappers of many varieties
And the remnants of a major spill of peanut butter pretzels

Bet you can't top all that! But if you can, please let me know so I can feel better about myself. And now that I think of it, I believe it's time to cure a bit of Son3's early onset of summer boredom by having him clean my car.