Let's Go To Publix!

You decide you need to hit the grocery store today and you hate paying full price (that's the REAL "F-Word"), so you spend a good part of your morning looking though the ad and seeing if you have any coupons to match the sale. You love to coupon, but your coupon binder is in terrible shape! It's full of coupons that expired around the time you had your baby three months ago. You still pull the coupon inserts out of the Sunday paper each week and keep them in a pile on the kitchen counter. 

This always takes longer than you anticipate. Especially since nothing is properly organized.

You've finally made a list.

It's nearly lunch time, but you decide to load those kids into your car and take them to Publix anyway. You tell yourself they can handle it.

You've taken your oldest to the potty and you are all loaded into the car!

You realize you aren't wearing make-up, so you sit in your driveway and cover those under-eye circles.

You put your make-up on in the car so often that there is a perpetual layer of powder dust on the dashboard.

Okay, you're ready to go now!

You decide to try something new today! You think you should get the kids fun food for lunch and feed it to them while you shop! This *may* just be the best idea you've ever had!

You go across the street to Publix and you park next to the cart return. 

Your daughter knows where you are and asks for a cookie. 

As you burn your fingers prepping cups of food for your kids, you see a store employee coming to gather carts and take them back into the store. You have to ask him to leave one for you. This is a common "problem" when shopping at Publix. Their customer service is so great that they almost never have carts waiting for you in the cart return corrals. 

You finish the lunch cups for the big kids.

You hear about the cookie again.

Time to grab the cart and load it up! (Don't forget to put shoes on your kids' feet)

You have to wake the poor baby to strap her to you. She should fall back asleep fairly quickly.

Don't forget your bags! They're under that pile of clothes you bought at a children's consignment sale last night.

You get to the carts that hold a bunch of kids and you transfer your oldest ones.

Gotta sanitize, of course.

Your daughter mentions the cookie again.

Hand over lunch! Your kids are pretty happy.

You pull out your list and you get to shopping!

You haven't made it past the Deli before another mom stops you to ask you about your baby carrier. She has some issues with her Ergo and you tell her about your Beco.

You finally move on. You grab the peanut butter that's on sale and a loaf of bread and some fresh fruit.

You notice your son has squeezed his plastic cup so hard, he's cracked it. You decide to just "keep an eye on it".
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Your daughter hands you her empty cup.

Uh oh. That was fast. You had hoped to at least make it half-way through the store before she was done.

You make the catastrophic mistake of transferring your son's food to your daughter's empty cup and handing that cup back to your son. 

You daughter thought she was getting more.

Her meltdown is imminent. 

You make it a couple more aisles, but she's in full-on meltdown mode. To make life more fun, your son can't seem to get his drink cup from down by his feet.

He starts to lose it too. 

You help your son get his cup and you make it a couple more aisles while your daughter cries. You try to move quickly and with purpose. You stop trying to photo-document. You NEED to get these kids out of this store.

You have crossed everything off of your list! Your daughter has calmed down and your son has just finished his lunch.  

You tell your daughter she can have her cookie now. She is VERY happy about this!

(This is excitement)

Head down to the bakery and nicely ask for two sprinkle cookies.

Everyone is happy again!

You still need to check out.

You are impressed that (by purchasing sale items and using a handful of coupons) you still managed a 43% savings!

You let the bagger help you out to your car. He's a nice kid who makes friendly conversation on the way to your car.

You load all of your kids in the car as he loads your groceries. He finishes before you do, but he waits patiently for you to get all of your kids out of the cart.

Everyone is loaded in. Yay! You take a minute to breathe.

Your daughter says she needs to go potty. You sigh. Okay. You stop resting and put the car in drive. 

Once you're home, you unload the bags and place them by the front door. This is the most direct route to your kitchen.

Oh, look! That video monitor you left in Atlanta has been mailed back to you! Thanks, Lori!

Time to unload your kids. Put the baby in her bed (She doesn't like this. She's hungry and she wants to make sure you know.). Take your oldest to the potty. Your son comes along. You daughter does her business and you take them both upstairs. Your daughter gets to go into the play room and your son gets a diaper change and is put in his bed for a nap.

Bring the groceries inside. Unload the cold stuff. 

Mix a bottle. Find the baby and take her upstairs to the play room.

Enjoy resting as you feed the baby and watch your oldest play. :)

Did you miss my post about Target? You can find it by clicking here.