To market, to market, to buy A LOT

"She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar." Proverbs 31:14

One mom, one 95 degree day, 4 children and 4 full shopping carts equals what? A full pantry and a very tired me. Oh, I forgot to mention the horrendous thunderstorm that broke loose just as I was leaving Sam's club with 2 of my full shopping carts along with a 3 year old who thought she had to go potty for the 3rd time just since we had been there and a tired 1 year old with a leaky diaper. Good times good times.

I know what you are thinking. "Why in the world...?" Well, my older two girls have started doing some painting and cleaning for us at our apartments and they were busy with that. I had no babysitters at home, so I had to take the younger 4 with me.

We were way overdue for an Aldi's run. I find that I get my best deals on canned goods there. Their selection isn't huge, but there are most of the basics. I buy flats of canned green beans, peaches, various other fruits, tomato sauce, cream soups, etc. Yesterday, they even had a mexican brand of tomatoes with chili peppers (similar to Rotel) for only 55 cents a can. We also stocked up on cereal, granola bars along with a few other misc. items. The nice thing about going to Aldi's with the kids is that I actually have help. When I do it alone, I have only one cart and it is tough fitting everything in it. I had Patrick push a second cart and and was able to use one just for flats of canned goods and the second for all the other stuff. Way easier. We loaded up our van with our two cart loads and moved on.

We were also long overdue for a Sam's Club run. As our family size has grown and we go through larger quantities of things, I am discovering that buying in bulk really works well for us and is more economical. The day before, I made a list and placed a Click-n-Pull order. If you don't know what that is, it is a service they provide for business members. You order online and they gather it all for you. You just show up, pay and take it home. The only downside to it is that not everything in the store is available online, so I always end up with a short list of things that I need to walk through the store to pick up. The click-n-pull does still save time.

My darling 3 year old, Rachel, must have a bladder the size of a pea. I made her go to the bathroom before we left. We used the bathroom at Office Depot, one of our first stops before grocery shopping, and hit the bathroom as soon as we got to Sam's. I think my big mistake was bribing them with lunch at Sam's for good behavior. You can't eat out much cheaper. You can get a hot dog combo for $1.70 which includes a big hot dog and a BIG soda. Did I say big soda? I meant BIG. Obviously, this was not a good thing for Rachel. Of course, she waits until we are at the very back of the store, the opposite end from the bathrooms, to start doing her desparate potty dance. You know the one, right? You bounce around holding your bottom yelling (so everyone around can hear) "I have to go potty!" over and over. Fearing an embarrassing puddle on the floor, I relent and stop my shopping to drag everyone back to the front of the store to the bathroom. The older two say they could try to go so I send the three in by themselves while I stand outside with the full cart and baby. After about what seems like 20 minutes of squeals and giggles coming from inside, they finally emerge. We return to the other end of the store and finish up. This is when I notice that the blazing hot sun has disappeared and it looks like rain. As I am standing in line to check out and claim my click-n-pull, the heavens burst forth and we hear torrential rain coming down along with lots of thunder and lightning. I am envisioning wet kids, wet groceries, and wet me. My order was brought up in two carts which meant that I now had three carts. As I am consolidating it into just two, my son accidentally spills my entire full cup of iced tea on the floor. So, I sheepishly have to tell someone so it can get cleaned up. [sigh]

I decided that there was no way that I was dragging four kids and two carts out into a thunderstorm. So, I place my older two in charge of guarding the carts by the door and grab the baby and 3 year old and go to the van to pull it up under the covered loading area. This is when I discover that Baby Samuel's diaper has reached capacity and he is soaking wet. Ick! This is the second time his diaper has leaked on me in one day. Thankfully, this time it was only wet! I pull up and start the task of trying to quickly load two more cart-fulls of groceries into my already full van. Cars are lining up behind us waiting. This is when Rachel begins her encore of the desperate potty dance. I think, "You have got to be kidding me! I am not taking you a third time to the bathroom here. Not now." We finish loading, pull out of the way and I change Samuel. Rachel is screaming and holding her bottom. Luckily, I still have one pull-up in the van and put it on her. We drive home listening to her cry "potty" all the way.

Thankfully, when I got home, Barry and the girls were there so I had lots of help unloading which was wonderful. Rachel did, by the way, make it home to the bathroom without an accident. I am so happy that we are fully stocked up and won't need to do that again for a long time - at least a week [wink].