Tales From the Grocery Store

Caleb, a photo by Justin and Kelly Webb on Flickr.

I really dislike being at the grocery store. And I'm there ALOT b/c I'm not a great meal planner. It also makes it more difficult when I have kids with me...all for different reasons.
- Caleb shares the same feeling as I do about grocery stores - he hates being there. Fortunately for him, he rarely has to tag along. And although he dislikes it, he is the best little shopper to have around and can actually put a smile on my face when I'm there. Why? Because he does things like....randomly asks the women at the deli counter if they put preservatives in their deli meats (they do, btw). He walks by certain products and says "mom, we should buy this. They are a proud sponsor of Cyberchase."

- Sam just makes me buy ALOT more than what I need or care to put in their mouths. He is well behaved...doesn't whine, doesn't run off...but he also sneaks ALOT of stuff in my cart when I'm not looking. He even unloads it from the cart, onto the counter at the register without me knowing. It's not until I get home and am unloading the groceries when I pull something random (and horrible) out of a bag and say "Sam, did you put this in our cart?" He lights up and says "yeah, can I eat some?"

- Izzy is okay. Not great, not horrible. BUT, I made the mistake a few weeks ago of letting her go into one of those car carts. She gets out within minutes and then she's off running around. And while I'm unloading the cart/paying for the food, I'm looking around for her and a woman says "are you looking for your daughter? She's over here eating candy." lovely. She is not getting in a car cart anytime soon. Or ever.

On a positive note about grocery stores....I'm happy that our stores are now carrying 2 of my favorite items: pumpkin pie creamer and honeycrisp apples. Those apples are expensive, but my kids will eat them as a dessert so I really don't care. I also found a new product recently that I LOVE...Breadsmith Bread. My #1 complaint about bakeries in grocery stores is their "fresh baked bread".... they are loaded with preservatives and other crap I can't even pronounce. If you ever made bread at home, you know it only takes a few ingredients to make, but if you look at the ingredients in these store-bought breads (even in the bakeries), there are like a million ingredients. Well, Breadsmith bread has very few ingredients (all ingredients I have in my home..NONE that I don't) and it's wonderful. Yes, it will go bad soon, but in my house it will be gone before it gets bad anyway!! Bread SHOULD go bad soon!! Anyway - it has been an annoyance for me every time I put a loaf of bread in my cart (which is every grocery store trip)...and I can officially say that I will no longer feel that sense of irritation. Caleb and I can finally feel good about the bread we eat. ha!!