not to us

Tonight, I took my very tired children to the grocery store.  Our cupboards are bare.  We need a bit of sustenance.  We had been out of the house all day, playing in the sun, so I knew Ruby would need a bit of bribery to make it through the mission.  Armed with a lollipop and my checkbook, we headed off to ALDI.  After I got the kids loaded into the cart, I remembered that ALDI doesn't do checks.  So, I got them back out of the cart and back into the car.

I needed to return something to Target, so I decided I would just get my groceries at Target.  (Let me say, for the record, I try to avoid Target.  NOT a Target fan, in general.)  So, I drive to Target, and Ruby falls asleep on the way.  I managed to to gently wake her up and lull her into a good mood with a lollipop.  Burke is all good with his butterfly rattle.

We shop for an hour, and I'm SUPER proud of myself, because I've gotten everything we need for the week for less than half of our budget.  PLUS...I've finally remembered to bring my reusable grocery bags into the store, which is a *major* part of the process, if you actually want to avoid using plastic bags.  Best of all, Ruby and Burke have both been ANGELS the entire time.

As we pulled into the checkout lane, I let Ruby pick out a cheap toy (an echo-phone) as a reward for her excellent behavior.

The lady at the register rings up our purchases, and she loads all of our groceries into our reusable bags.  By this time, Ruby has been playing with her echo-phone for a few minutes, and she's in love.

I write out the check and hand it over.

And they won't take my check...because I didn't have a picture ID with me.  They unload all of our groceries

(WHOA!  Wait a second...did any of you watch America's Got Talent tonight?  Did you SEE that tiny little woman pick up her bear of a husband??  That was incredible.  Odd, but incredible.)

Okay, um, so, they unload all of our groceries, and then the manager has to ask Ruby to give back the $.99 echo-phone.

Yep.  My little angel turned into a screaming mess.  When she asked me why they took her toy away, I told her that I didn't have any real money to pay for our things, and (this is where it gets sad and pathetic) she tried to offer the cashier her "money" from her armpits.  :(

By the time we got everything unloaded, both kids were screaming, and I was so incredibly irritated.

We got home, and I got them fed with the help of my brother (who got us some dinner.)  Then, we read a couple of books, and I got them down for the night.  It took quite a bit of work to get Ruby down, and, by 9:00 p.m., I was wiped out.

There are nights when I feel like I haven't done much good in the world.  I lost my cool with the Target manager.  (Not terribly bad, but I certainly didn't smile and wish her a good evening.)  I lost my cool with Ruby, when she spilt her milk on the brand new carpet.  I just felt like my day was worthless.

THEN, I uploaded a bunch of pictures from the past couple of months.

And that's when I remembered.

I remembered that there are inevitably going to be evenings that don't go very well.  However, on the whole, I am one of the luckiest women in the world.  I love the people in these pictures more than I could ever express, and I am so thankful that I get to buy groceries for them.  I am so grateful that I get to cover the household duties, so they can be happy, healthy, and growing.  I love them, and I am so overwhelmed that they love me, too.

Like I said, I am one lucky wife and mother!