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.
8 comments:
haha... I am always embarrassed by the state of my car, but being that it's not a mini-van, I can only fit car seats in the back seat, and that leaves only the floor for debris.
I just had a horror of a grocery store trip a few minutes ago with all 3 boogers... usually they are good, but oy! today was awful... no cookies for little people today.
a). I bet I can guess which script is in your car.
b). I LOVE peanut butter filled pretzels: thanks for the reminder.
and c). your last sentence about curing son3's boredom made me smile and reminds me of my mom. In our house, boredom is a sin because there is ALWAYS something you could do to fill the time...cleaning the car is right up there on ways to avoid sinning! ;-)
Emily, I remember the days when I had three car seats crammed in the backseat of my car. I would break out into a sweat just getting all my kids buckled in! Ugh. And sorry about your grocery store trip. No fun. :(
Jess, you got me on the script! And yes...peanut butter pretzels. Yum. I think a huge container was gone in four days! That made me chuckle about your mom. I think all parents think boredom is a sin. :)
Up until today I had the majority of my classroom in 2 cars...backseat of both cars, floor in the back of both cars and in the front of 1, and the trunks of both cars. Now I have a smaller portion of my classroom in the trunks of both cars and mostly everything else in my living room and dining room. Does that count?!
I absolutely have the 3rd trip of my classroom remnants in the back 2/3 of my car. What's worse is that school ended 11 days ago and I just keep driving around with all that stuff in there! I've ended up using other people's cars or accepted rides and I haven't actually driven my car but more than once in all that time and so.... it seemed like an excessive use of energy to empty all that stuff out. And, perhaps by now you're wondering where the first two trips of classroom stuff, home from school have gone..... to the basement, to the storage closets, to my office, to all four corners in my house.... but there is no more space! I have no idea where I'm going to put the last load of this stuff! And so, it's low on the priority totem pole.
I like your writting style... and by the way I mean I'm not a mother so I have to ask: Is it as terribly consuming as it seems? I mean..Honestly, What is it really like, motherhood?
Kathie and Beccs...the contents of a classroom in your car? Ugh. And it's been much too hot for cleaning cars, don't you think?
Sofie...thanks for stopping by. Motherhood? Yes. Utterly consuming. For me adjusting to motherhood was like walking through the fire. I don't know if it's that way for everyone (maybe this is a good subject for a blog post!) but it was for me. I resented how consuming it was...and then, i guess, I embraced it, which was totally transforming.
haha My car is just as bad or worse! I only have 3 kids and btw I could never spend only $200 a week on grocery shopping, the people that think this are clearly childless lol! Your new follower :)
Post a Comment