the Big Trip

Today I went shopping with all three kids. This might not sound exceptional, and I often take the kids shopping. When you run through 6 gallons of milk a week, it's just unavoidable. But this was different. This was the Big Trip. Every pay period I make my Big Trip to the supercenter. I usually end up with a big overflowing cart full. Some Big Trips are bigger than others, and this was definitely a big Big Trip. It was just one of those times where we happened to just run out of everything pretty much. I usually try hard to make the Big Trip with as few children as possible, if any. My group did pretty well, I must say, but Kain was very funny about the whole thing. I'm pretty sure he's never seen that many groceries purchased at one time. He and Maria had allowance to burn, so they went off together to look around. When they joined Jack and me again in the food section, Kain was very disturbed by my cart. "Aunt Mel, do you even know what is in this cart? These groceries are going to cost a LOT of money." I said, "Yes, I know. This is my Big Trip," and I explained the whole Big Trip thing to him. He was still bothered. "Aunt Mel, we will never eat all this food. We can't even carry all this food in the house. It wouldn't even fit in the house!" I said, "Kain, we all eat almost all of our meals at home. This food will make enough meals for all five of us for 2 weeks. We do eat this much food. This is what I always buy when I make a Big Trip." "Aunt Mel, why do you have TWO jars of spaghetti sauce? This is too much. This food is going to cost like FIFTY DOLLARS!" "Kain, this food will probably cost at least two hundred dollars. It's ok. This is what it costs each time." His tone was agitated and he was very bothered by the volume of food. It was pretty bewildering for me. He has a big difficulty with trusting us sometimes, with believing that we know what we are doing. But we made it through, the food was paid for, loaded in the car, and you'll be glad to know, it all fit into the house.