Life rarely goes as planned. Especially with little ones that you are trying to corral. Its like herding cats and then inevitable one of them has to pee when you are about to be where you need to go. That is what happened to me the other day.
Friday my kids had off of school, so I planned a trip to our local science center. On Thursday I decided I would do our local grocery stores online shopping and pick up program.
Ladies if you have never tried this before it is amazing. You go to the stores website and add all the grocery items you need to your shopping cart. Then you set up a pick up time and pay with a credit card or debit card. Then you let them do the shopping for you. A-mazing!
So Friday morning comes and I knew it was going to be a long day. A was in a bad mood and that set me off and I wasn’t feeling like taking the high road. So when D (6) and C (4) were fighting even before we went to the science center I was afraid it would be a rough day. A was moving cattle to pasture and lets just say the cattle were not moving in a timely manner. W wanted to stay and go with grandpa in the big semi truck. So I said sure it would be fine if he wanted to wait until the cattle went out to the pasture. We would just leave from there. I wasn’t concerned for time because I set my pick up time pretty late in the afternoon and I also knew we couldn’t stay at the science center very long (I run out of stem and patience pretty quickly).
It was after 11 AM before we left. W didn’t even end up coming with us because he said he NEVER gets to stay with daddy because he is in school now (We home schooled for 2 years). So off I went with the three little ones to the science center an hour away. Since it was close to lunch time we drove through and of course J didn’t want what she said she wanted. Whatever… She will eat something later (She does that, Tanks up at one meal and then doesn’t eat the next). I am sure along the way I gave some kind of speech about getting along with each other, blah blah blah is all the kids actually heard. C and D were fighting C moved to the front.
We made it to Starbucks, (I mean the science center) and off we went. I was able to enjoy watching the kids play (I had coffee in me 🙂 ) even though I was running around chasing J most of the time. (She is officially out of a stroller and life is interesting when we are out).
When we left I was tired out but I thought YES I already have my groceries ordered and someone else is doing my shopping (SCORE). All I have to do is drive up and call them! (SUPER MOM) So I did. I ordered from two different stores because some things I can’t get at the one. So we picked up the first load with no problem. Then we arrived at the second store. The problem with a large city is that there are often multiple stores of the same chain in that one city. So I drove around the parking lot looking for where the online order pick up is. I drove around for about 10 minutes until I decided to check the website and see which store I ordered from. Of course it was the wrong one and I had to drive to the other end of town. Off we went with a snack in our hands to the store where my order was waiting. (I was starting to loose it more).
We picked up the groceries with no problem. Now we were off to go back home. We were just out of the parking lot and at the stop light. Home Free!! Guess what I hear from the back? I have to pee really bad mommy (You know the interrogation process). OK, buddy exactly how bad do you have to go? (trying to avoid unbuckling and re buckling kids and going into the store). Like is it so bad you can’t hold it for an hour until we get home? (Mind you I had them all pee before we left the science center) oh man! So I turn to go back to the store and actually go in this time. My awesome plan of not getting out ruined. Two hours after my original pick up time and we are on our way home for real this time. Stopping at a pizza place to get take out for supper.
AHHHH!!!! Sometime life just doesn’t go as planned. I thought it would be so easy to do the online ordering thing. But actually I spent just as much time running around as I would have in the store. I suppose I would have been whined at for all sorts of things if I had taken them into the store for an entire shopping trip. The verdict for me isn’t in yet whether it was actually worth it. I think next time I might tag it on the end of a date night or girls day instead of with the children LOL.
So as we all progress in life it is always imperfect because we are all imperfect. I love this because it takes the pressure off to preform and be something I am not. It makes it so that any progress I make can be seen as a positive. Instead of not measuring up and meeting an unattainable standard.
Here are a few cute pictures of the kids playing at the science center. ENJOY!
Signing off from one woman to another.
Jenny Ren