You know how I was prepping for my once a month shopping trip last week? Well, surprise, surprise. Things didn’t actually go as planned.
So this post shares a good dose of reality. No matter how prepared we think we are, things will go wrong. You might as well count on that!
Are you ready to learn how my shopping trip went down?
First, I decided to take the Suburban instead of the bus. I don’t really know why–but that was not the right thing to do!
You see, Owen was in a mood. He was in a “I don’t want to be strapped in my seat” kind of mood. And in the Suburban, we fill every seat. So he was really close to someone.
That someone was Jeffrey. And Owen started really picking on him. Well, putting Jeffrey in a headlock would be a more accurate description.
We all (barely) survived the trip in. We tackled our first store, and I was thinking that despite the rocky start we were actually going to get this shopping thing done.
And then it happened.
Jeffrey started coughing. And he kept coughing so hard that he puked.
All over Ellie.
The poor thing. I think I might have felt more sorry for my little girly girl sitting there with puke all over her than I did for the poor puking boy.
It was bad.
To make matters worse, I didn’t have a towel or anything like that in the car. The only thing we had was Ellie’s special blanket that she wraps her special toy in.
Can you see where this one is going?
Yes. I used that special blanket to clean up puke. Just enough so we could make it home.
I don’t remember much about that return trip. I think my brain has purposefully blocked it forever. I don’t blame it! It was a disaster.
The car smelled like puke. Two kids were covered in puke. And one was screaming because I’d contaminated her special blanket.
I wasn’t brave enough to try that shopping thing again until today.
And I would have put it off even longer, but Owen is sick and I had to go pick up meds in Spokane.
Today, I left several little ones home with my dad and Jayme. I tackled those stores like a mad-woman, and packed everything into the back of the Suburban.
Here’s what it looked like–filled to the brim! Except (are you ready for some more reality?)
I hadn’t yet thrown the pizzas on top. Because after shopping all day, and remembering the struggle from last week–the idea of cooking made me want to scream. So imagine a couple of Winco pizzas up on top.
Life doesn’t always go as we plan. And that’s okay. No matter how prepared we are, life happens.
We just have to take it one day at a time, and remember that God knows all about it. He’s there for us and will give us strength to get through each day. Even when we’re driving home with puking, screaming kids. And even if we have to take an extra trip to town to actually go shopping.
