Church and Adventures in Shopping Part V

I decided to be brave and take the kids shopping all by myself the other day. I guess I should clarify a few things. I've taken them shopping quite a few times before, on my own even, but it's getting more and more difficult because of increases in kid size and rowdiness. We also decided to stop spending so much money at Wal*Mart and start saving money by shopping at a smaller chain even though they don't take credit card and we'll be losing out on the credit card reward points. The problem with this is the shopping carts at the smaller store are quite shallow, and I can't let a kid ride in the back of it (we had a falling out incident last summer). But I had to go shopping and I had to take the kids because David was at work.

I strapped Samantha into the Snugli, put Drew in the seat of the shopping cart (he's more likely to actually run if left to run free) and held on to Owen's hand. Owen did pretty well helping me push the cart and putting things in it when asked. He didn't try to sneak anything into the cart, but he did grab a fruit roll up and say, "I want to eat this." Don't we all.

After a while, I guess Owen got tired of behaving, so he decided to explore the meat aisle while I selected some ground beef. I grabbed two little one-pound chubs, and put them in my cart. When I turned to grab Owen so we could move onward, I noticed that he had poked a huge hole in a 5 pound pack of the fresh-ground beef. Grr. I put the two chubs back, stuck the holey meat in a bag and put it in my cart. We'll definitely use the meat, but I didn't really want to buy that much, have to divide it up and freeze it. It's just one of those little chores I've never really liked.

We finished getting our groceries without too much further incident. Owen discovered that he just fit underneath the cart so he sat there until we got to the checkout. At that point, he hopped off and walked around looking at magazines and things. Then he went over to the coin counting machines and said, "I need money, Mom!" Don't we all.

Drew decided to be really cute and friendly with the cashier. He laughed and chatted with her, pointing to the groceries and telling her what some of them were. Then he said, "I have a moustache." The cashier just laughed and kept scanning, not knowing how else to respond, I guess. Then Owen came back from the coin counting machine and Drew told the cashier, "This is Owen." The cashier laughed again and said, "Hi, Owen. How are you?" She was a really nice cashier.

Even though we got a lot more meat than we set out for, it was a pretty decent trip and I was really proud of Drew and Owen (and Samantha, too; hardly heard a peep out of her the whole time) for behaving so well.

Today I was on my own at church, too. We found a pew sort of in the middle, which I've discovered is much better at corralling the boys than the chairs at the back where we usually sit. I've been working with the boys on prayers (and being reverent during them) at home. Usually Owen asks to say the prayer, and Drew says, "I don't have to say a prayer." He doesn't even like to fold his arms. Today, though, during the prayer at church, Drew folded his arms quite nicely. He also turned to the guy next to us (who was a visitor and happened to not be folding his arms) and whispered, a couple times, "Fold your arms, please." I hope the guy thought it was funny and not annoying. I was trying so hard not to laugh. I think I snorted a little. During the prayer. Some example, huh?

Today was testimony meeting where people from the congregation are allowed to go to the pulpit and share their feelings and some of their spiritual experiences. It was a really nice meeting, but I think the boys found it rather long. One of my friends got up to share her testimony, and when she was done speaking, Drew yelled quite loudly, "Amen!" Then as we finished singing the closing hymn, he yelled, "We done! Let's go play toys!" That was right before the closing prayer, so once again I find myself feeling rather irreverent during a prayer. But we made it through and the boys got to go play toys at the nursery which is what they look forward to the most. Next to snack time.