grocery shopping with Kain

I haven't taken Kain on a real grocery shopping trip in a long, long time. And even then, I think there was just the once. He doesn't handle the store well. And usually, Maria and I go after her dance class. John is usually off that day and he watches the rest of the clan. But this Friday was pay day. John was working. We were desperately in need of many things. Maria was leaving the next day to visit her grandparents for five days, so she wasn't going to be around for regular Tuesday trip anyway. So I decided to take Kain and Henry and left Maria home to babysit Tess and Jack (she was thrilled).

You should know that grocery shopping for seven people is huge. And also that I shop once every two weeks. So. It's really huge. And food for seven people for two weeks is just about all my house can hold, so when the two weeks are up, we are pretty much out of everything. I decided to take Kain because, 1., he had been kind of a butt lately and I didn't think he'd behave for Maria, and 2., he complains that I never take him to the store, and 3., some help loading and such is nice to have for such a long day.

So, we started our trip at Aldi. And it was really funny. Even though Kain usually helps unload the groceries when we've been home, I guess he had no idea how much of each thing I actually buy. I went first thing back to the milk case and loaded 10 gallons of milk into the cart. Then I loaded 10 dozen eggs in as well. His jaw hit the floor. I blew through the pantry goods and piled in 6 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of granola bars, 2 bags of pretzels, 4 bags of tortilla chips, cans of beans, bags of rice, a few dozen fruit cups, and several boxes of various pasta, among other things. We hit the cold case for 4 bags of frozen chicken thighs, four pounds of ground turkey, some fish, some chicken nuggets, 6 cans of frozen juice, three pounds of lunch meat, bacon, sausage, and four pounds of butter. We hit the produce section for salad greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, a watermelon, a dozen nectarines, dozen plums, 2 bags of apples, a bag of potatoes, a bag of onions, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, and 2 bags of bananas. Kain kept expressing alarm and mumbling that he hoped I knew what I was doing. We checked out with our overflowing cart....$254.00.
Kain gasped loudly. "Oh no, that's too much Aunt Mel!" I laughed. "Relax kid. We are just getting started."

After a run through a drive through for a quick lunch while Henry napped, we hit walmart. First stop was for non-food stuffs...diapers (I use cloth mostly, but use disposables at night), wipes, cat food, cat litter, dishwasher soap, some supplies for my co-op class, dog food, a big pack of toilet paper, paper towels, and some various toiletries. The cart already nearly full, we headed to the food section to squeeze in yogurt, 3 packs of american cheese, a big block of cheddar, some mozzarella, pepperoni. We hit the meat section for a pound of round steak that I couldn't' find at aldi, then picked up some dregs like 2 huge jars of pickles, peanut butter, coffee, frozen fruit, frozen vegetables, brown rice, and salad dressing, and four boxes of frozen ice creams, among other things. Then we hit the bread section last, piling in 2 packs of hamburger buns, goldfish crackers, and 6 loaves of bread. Usually I get bread at the bakery thrift store, but it's in the same town as Maria's dance class and was too far out of the way to make a trip there just for the bread. One last stop by the deli to get Maria some popcorn shrimp and potato wedges...her bribe for babysitting...and we checked out....$165.00.

All in all, not a bad trip. We were out of everything, food wise, but I didn't have anything too out of the ordinary to buy so it worked out. Kain was whiny and tired, but he handled it pretty well overall. I don't think he'll ask to go shopping anytime soon though. I don't think he had any idea how much work it is!

This isn't working very well

We just can't get off the ground very well this year. Sigh. Staying up late...I gave that up. Neither Tess nor Henry would go to sleep and stay that way. They were up too late and up too early and just cross and fussy all the next day. No good. I tried laying down in Tess's room with her, but she took quite a while to go to sleep and I realized it wouldn't work too many nights anyway. John is very often still at work at bedtime, or newly home and not wanting to chase Henry around. So, I'm back to going to bed insanely early and then getting up early. It's still not working so great. The kids have an uncanny ability to know when I'm out of bed. Usually within 15 minutes of heading downstairs, I have company.

On other fronts...Kain is already as belligerent about his schoolwork as ever. I'm already threatening public school, and it's not even Labor Day yet! haha! Jack is doing quite well with his schoolwork, but his behavior overall is an issue. He's having lots of tantrums and anxiety...not related to school, just for all kinds of reasons. It's all been rather exhausting to handle these two. I'd appreciate some sanity prayers.