Grocery shopping during a heat wave

Holy cow, it is HOT out there. The high temperature for Baltimore for tomorrow says 109. That isn't summer. That's hell. The last time I checked, it's around 97 here. It's just like stifling hot out there. It's been like this for a week now, and it is brutal. We haven't gone out of the house during the day all week. I sat on my front porch this afternoon for a few minutes and the cement was burning my butt.  I haven't even wanted to go to the pool. I can see the parking lot from my house, and it has been packed. I don't like when it's that crowded. It's not relaxing, just annoying. I prefer the air conditioned indoors.

Yesterday morning, my dad picked up Princess and Pirate and took them to his house to spend the night. Princess has gone there before a bunch of times, but this was Pirate's first sleepover. He was so incredibly excited! He normally sleeps with around 75 stuffed animals on his bunk bed. He picked up about 50 of them to take for the sleepover. We were able to narrow it down to two. Thankfully he has an overnight bag and I told him anything he took had to fit in there. Princess is a pro at packing now, so she knew exactly what she was taking. The kids left around 11:30, and suddenly I only had three kids at home. Although Princess and Pirate are the "easiest" to care for, it still made such a difference to only have three kids. Rest time was great because all three little boys slept and I had 'Me Time', which unfortunately consisted of doing dishes and folding laundry, but at least it was quiet!

Usually my husband goes to the grocery store Thursday evening after work. He just goes on the way home to get it out of the way so we don't have to go during the weekend. I am very blessed in the husband department! Yesterday we had so many leftovers from our 4th of July cookout, he said he would go after work today instead. This morning, he had to get up at 5am to go to work, but was going to get done early, stop at the grocery store, and come home early to start the weekend. At 7:30, he texted me that someone called out and he had to stay through and work the dinner shift. I guess that's the downside to being the boss. So, since he's working 13 straight hours today, I thought the least I could do is get the grocery shopping done. Well aware of the fact that it was 300 degrees outside and I'd have to take three kids three and under with me, I decided it was still better than being at work all day.

My original plan was to get out the door by 9. Even with only three kids here, I couldn't get my act together, and we didn't leave until close to eleven. The big kids were going to be home around one, so I had to move it. Thankfully Curly just gave up his morning nap so I didn't have to work around that. Once everyone had shoes on and Superchunk was in the carrier, we headed to the van. Usually I make a couple trips to load everyone in, but today I was determined to do it all at once. I carried the carrier and held Curly's hand and hoped Trouble wouldn't run out into the street. Once everyone was buckled, I blasted the a/c and crossed my fingers that the little bit of gas I had would be enough for the trip to the store, because more than one stop was out of the question.

I was under the assumption that the store wouldn't be too crowded, but apparently when it's a zillion degrees out everyone goes to the store. I got a spot close to the cart return so I wouldn't have to carry everyone too far. Bonus, there was one of those carts with the bench seat on the back of it. It's not a car cart like Trouble really wanted, but it was one big enough to hold everyone. I parked that bad boy right up next to the van and unloaded the boys, then buckled them into the bench seat, pushed them around to the other side, unloaded the carrier, and hooked Superchunk onto the cart. This particular kind of cart is great to hold all of my kids, but weighs about 1000 pounds and is hard to push and maneuver. I really wanted to take a picture of it, but trying to fish my phone out of the bottom of my purse while steering this cart wasn't happening. The novelty of the fun cart wore off after about five minutes in the store and Trouble started asking to switch to a car cart. While it would have been really fun to walk to the entrance of the store, transfer three kids and some groceries to a different cart, and finish shopping, I passed on that idea. Trouble needed to make his own fun, so he held onto the strap that was hanging off of Superchunk's carrier, said he was on a train, and made a "Choo-Choo" noise as loud as possible for the rest of the trip. Curly started whining, I guess because he wanted a strap too. I gave him one of Superchunk's toys, and we played a fun game of 'Throw-the-toy-on-the-ground-and-have-Mommy-pick-it-back-up" for a few aisles. Somehow Superchunk slept through all of this. I maneuvered my giant cart that progressively got heavier through the store in record time. There was no backing up or going back to an aisle I already left. If I missed something, I'm going back alone to pick it up another day!

Finally, we made it to the checkout section. For some crazy reason, although the store was crowded, there were only three cashiers open - one of which was an express lane. Clearly this was not an express trip. And doesn't it figure, as soon I got close enough to start unloading my groceries, two more cashiers open registers. Such is my luck! The checkout was the hardest part of the trip. Even though this cart was enormous, I could still keep it in the middle of the aisles so that Curly and Trouble couldn't reach anything on the shelves. But at the checkout, it is very narrow. Trouble was right up on the candy section, touching everything. Curly was reaching for a balloon. Trouble started asking me every two seconds for a balloon, for a pack of M&Ms, for Skittles, for gum, for a different balloon... you get the picture. Curly started whining for Goldfish he saw. Superchunk started crying. In my head, I was cursing the cashier for being so nice to the person in front of me that they wanted to have a long conversation. She was super sweet to us too, despite the meltdowns that were beginning. When she was giving me my receipt, she asked if I needed help out to the car. I was tempted to ask if I could get help once I got home, but I didn't. I pushed the ginormous cart out the door into the sweltering heat and wished I could snap my fingers and be home. After I walked the 10 miles to the van, I loaded the kids back in, piled in the groceries, returned the cart (smart to park by the cart return!) and blasted the A/C. I was beyond a hot mess. Sweat was just pouring off my face. I looked back at the boys, and they seemed completely unphased by the heat. Burger King is in the same shopping center as the grocery store, so I told Trouble I'd get him some fries for being so good in the store. I knew deep down that the prize was really for me for surviving the store trip! 

Driving home, the gas light came on, but I knew I could make it home. No more field trips for today! When we got home, I took the kids in the house first. Then I really wished I had brought the grocery store helper home with me. I piled as many bags on my arms as possible and got everything in the house in two trips, again sweating like crazy. Before I put anything away, I fed the kids and inhaled my own Kids' Meal. Fast food always makes things better. Now I have no intentions of leaving the house anytime soon!

Where does the day go??

 Every day this week, I have had good intentions. I intend to get things done around the house, get the kids outside and play with them, and feel accomplished. And every day I look at the clock between 4:00 and 5:00 and wonder where the day has gone and what I did all day. At that time, I feel the need to clean up messes (again) and try to get the house looking somewhat decent (again), start dinner, feed the baby (again), etc. When my husband gets home, I want it to look like I did something...anything...during the day. Most of the time it doesn't look that way. And I don't know what happens to the day. I feel like I have ADD when I can't finish one task at one time, but I think it's just called being a mom, and a mom of 5, to boot. There are simple things I want to get done each day, but nothing too big that should be a problem. For example, the batteries in Curly's crib projector are dying, and it makes an awful sound when he turns it on, so that was on my list of things to do this week. Simple enough, right? I finally just did it today, Friday. Every time I put Curly down for a nap or to bed for the night I remembered I needed to change the batteries. That would remind me that I wanted to attach the light up aquarium to Superchunk's crib too (which also needed new batteries). And it took me all of five minutes to change the batteries and re-attach the things to their cribs. (side note, I'm disappointed in both of these toys, as the tabs to attach them to the crib broke off both toys within the first three times they were taken off to change the batteries.)


Yesterday my big plan was to clean the stroller. We have three strollers. One is an umbrella stroller, one is a double stroller, and one is a regular stroller. This one is our original stroller we received at my baby shower nine years ago for Princess. It has been good to us. Maybe I should have been better to it, as I have only taken it apart to clean one time, and that was before Pirate was born five years ago. Gross, I know! So, Wednesday night I decided to take Superchunk with me to Pirate's swimming lesson. We walked to the pool and I pushed Superchunk around in the stroller while we watched. Poor baby doesn't get out for fresh air very much! I started looking at the stroller and realized how dirty it was. I thought to myself that I should clean it soon, meaning sometime within the next two years. When we got home, I left the stroller outside while I changed Pirate into clothes. As we were walking to the car to go get a snowball, I noticed bird poop on the seat of the stroller. That bird decided I needed to clean the stroller sooner rather than later. So, yesterday I brought it in the house, took it apart (which required tools!) and washed all of the fabric parts. I laid them out to dry, in the laundry room, because with my luck if I laid them outside another bird would crap on them. Then I scrubbed, and I mean scrubbed, the frame of the stroller. I even took it outside and hosed off the wheels! Let me just say, the creator of the Magic Eraser is a genius! The stroller went from filthy to new(ish) looking! The tray is still scratched and it has other spots and scratches on it, but for the most part, this stroller looks great! I even put it back together on my own. And this project took me ALL damn day! At 4:30 yesterday, I looked at the clock, looked at the stroller, and realized that was where my day went.

I do the same thing every morning. Feed the kids, clean up the kitchen, straighten up the middle floor of the house, have kids do chores, feed baby. Sounds so simple. Looks so simple in writing. Why does it take hours? This is how today has gone:

Wake up, take Trouble to the bathroom, put on his underwear. Get up Curly, change his diaper, take him to kitchen. Three boys are up, Princess & Superchunk are still sleeping. Break up a fight over who sits where at the table. Pour milk for all three and give to them. Take breakfast orders. (Apparently I run a full service restaurant.) Answer customer questions - "Do we have any more chocolate poptarts?". "Do we have any more pancakes?" No & No - it's grocery day and it looks like Mother's Hubbard's Cupboard over here. Serve blueberry Poptarts. Cut up a banana for Curly. Give Curly half of a bagel thin. Put my bagel thin in the toaster. (Bagel thins are the healthyish alternative to a bagel, I guess. I only bought them because they were on sale and I couldn't find any regular plain bagels.) While the bagel is in the toaster I refill a milk, wipe up milk that was splashed on the table, and tell Trouble to stop sprinkling Poptart crumbs on the floor. Then I smell smoke, my burnt bagel pops up, and the smoke detector goes off. All three boys immediately start crying. Fan the smoke detector, open windows. Crisis averted. Shit, it's grocery day and that was the last bagel. Eat it anyway. Remind myself to be thankful the coffee turned out right. Send boys to play, drink coffee in "peace" while Curly walks around. Tell Curly to stop touching that. And that. And that too. Move recycling bin out of his reach. Move pans out of his reach. Block trashcan so he can't get to it. Remember coffee. Pour out cold coffee and refill. Clear table. Remember dishwasher is clean. Empty dishwasher. Start to reload dishwasher. Break up fight in basement over Legos. Answer phone and feel relief to sit down and talk to my friend for a few minutes. Enjoy coffee while on phone. Tune out the incessant "Mommy" coming from the basement. Finish coffee and conversation. Finish cleaning up kitchen. Trouble comes upstairs to announce that he has pooped in his underwear. Curse like crazy in my head while I dump his poop in the toilet and wipe him. Tell him he's not playing in the sprinkler today. (It's 200 degrees out so we weren't going out anyway.) The Princess awakens and wants breakfast. Run through the pretty non-existent menu and make her a bowl of cereal. Throw in a load of laundry. Think to myself if I had just put the laundry in when I got up it would be done by now. Oh, well. Look at clock - 10:30. Naptime for Curly. Lay him down, wake Superchunk. Get him dressed. Tell other kids to get dressed. Help Trouble get dressed and brush his teeth. Feed Superchunk. Listen to an argument over what show to watch. Listen to an argument over Legos. Listen to an argument over books. Listen to an argument over someone sitting in someone else's spot on the couch. Yell downstairs to stop arguing. Clean up Superchunk's spit up. Change Superchunk's clothes. Clothes? Oh right, put the clothes in the dryer. Get laundry together to put in another load. Wake up Curly. Change poopy diaper. Get myself dressed (finally). Go downstairs to hear another argument over Legos. Yell at kids and threaten to not let them go to pool with my mom and sister, secretly knowing that I will just be screwing myself if I keep them home. Start writing this blog. See that it's going on 12:30. No computer time. Start making lunch. Lay Superchunk down for a nap. Remember batteries and change them. Back to making lunch. Heat up leftover hotdogs for Trouble and Pirate. Make tacos for Princess (leftovers), give Curly his lunch. Listen to Pirate, Trouble, and Princess simultaneously complain about their lunches. I'm sure Curly would complain too if he knew how. Start to clean up from lunch. Trash is full, take out trash. Wipe up spilled ketchup from floor where Pirate tried to clear his spot but the trash was too full. My mom and sister get here. Tell Princess and Pirate to get their bathing suits on. Apply sunscreen. Pack towels, water, snacks, goggles, extra sunscreen. Wave as they leave. Comfort Trouble who cries about going. I know better than to try to send him anywhere with anyone. He's a flight risk and too much work. Lay him down for a nap. Lay Curly down for a nap. Feed Superchunk. Lay Superchunk down for a nap. Breathe a sigh of relief. Watch my soap in fast forward. Remember I need to run dishwasher, fold laundry, and register Pirate for soccer. Remembering to do things reminds me of my blog. Ignore other things and work on blog. 

Trouble is now awake. Curly is starting to make noise. I have the soccer registration screen pulled up but haven't finished it because my wallet with bank card are upstairs and I'm too lazy to go up and get it. The dryer buzzed 20 min ago, but I haven't gotten it out of the dryer. I have two loads to fold and put away, dishes in the dishwasher to put away, and random things that need to be picked up. And oh, look, it's after 4pm. Where has the day gone??

Things are getting easier?

In the past week, we've had three major outings, and they've gone amazingly well. It's sad that I look at these things as something I just want to get through, instead of enjoying them. But I actually enjoyed myself and the fact that we made it through each thing with no major problems. Last Friday was Pirate's preschool graduation, Saturday was my nephew's baptism, and this past Monday was Pirate's school field trip to the zoo. We made it to all three things, on time, and had no problems!

One more personal accomplishment, that my husband had already done successfully, was last Thursday when I took the four boys out to a real store, on my own. It took me 14 weeks to get up the courage (or cabin fever) to do this on my own, but I did it. I even came home with all four kids, and with everything I went to the store to buy. One thing is for sure, there should be parking close to the store for parents with a lot of kids. I feel almost handicapped when taking all the kids with me, so a close-to-the-store parking space would be appreciated. Pirate walked, I put 5's carrier on the front part of the cart, and Trouble & Donkey rode in the back of the cart. Fortunately I know where everything is in Walmart, so I had a plan and was able to get in and out pretty quickly. The only problem I hit that I hadn't counted on was Trouble and Donkey opening everything I put in the back of the cart with them. Easy fix, I just had to put the things on the bottom shelf of the cart. Although this trip went smoothly, I wouldn't make a it a regular occurrence. And I know for sure I can't do the grocery shopping with all of them. There would be nowhere to put the food! At least I finally took a trip on my own. Oh, and my husband still wins on this accomplishment. He only took the three little boys out with him, but he bought a bike that day, so he had to push the cart and pull a bike through the store. I'm not that brave!

My little graduate

On Friday, we had to be at McDaniel College at 8:45 for Pirate's graduation. I knew it was going to be a busy morning, so Thursday night I did everything I could to be ready for the next morning. I packed the diaper bag full of snacks for Donkey and Trouble. I knew if the toys and books failed, that eating would keep them quiet during the ceremony. That morning, we took Princess to the bus stop, loaded everyone else into the car, and made it to the college early! The graduation ceremony itself was really cute. The class sang a bunch of songs, marched in to 'Pomp and Circumstance', walked across the stage to receive diplomas, and threw their hats in the air. It was so cute! The boys were really good the whole time. We were even able to stay afterward for snacks with Pirate's class. Success!

family picture 

Saturday morning we had to be in Baltimore by noon for my nephew's baptism, so we had to be out the door at . I was worried about the baptism because we were the godparents, and I didn't know how the kids would act during the ceremony. There was a party afterward, so we knew we'd be out for a good part of the day. I packed extra clothes for everyone since they would be dressed up for the ceremony, lots of snacks and drinks since it was taking place during lunchtime, and toys and books to keep them occupied. We were out of the house on time, and were early for the ceremony. The kids were good the whole time too. Thankfully my family helped watch everyone while we were on the altar. We were able to stay for pictures, and make it through the party with no melt-downs. My sister's sister-in-law had the party, and they had an awesome back yard tons of fun stuff, including a moon-bounce. The kids ran around the whole time. Buster and I were actually able to eat while we were there! We even stayed much longer than we thought we would make it. When we got in the van to go home, we high-fived each other because we successfully made it through our first big event. The kids slept the whole way home. We were out of the house for six whole hours. Success!

sleeping on the bus ride home

The zoo trip wasn't as big of a deal as the other two things because the whole family didn't go. My dad came over to watch the babies, and Princess was in school. I had to get Trouble and Pirate to Pirate's school by 8:45, so the morning was still a little busy. I didn't want to leave everything on my dad, so I made sure to get Donkey up and give him breakfast before my dad got to the house. I packed the bag the night before, again with a ton of food. I had to take lunch for all three of us because I didn't want to pay for food there. I gave my dad the run-down on the little boys, and headed out with the other two. We arrived at school early (3 for 3!) and waited for the buses to get there. I was so proud of Trouble! He was so excited and so good the whole day. When we got on the school bus, he said, "Wow, I can see everything up here!" from his seat. It was a 45 minute ride to the zoo, and the boys entertained each other the whole way. They had a blast at the zoo. They had both been once before, but Trouble was just a baby, so this was pretty new for them. They loved seeing all the animals. The train ride was a thrill, as was eating lunch at the picnic tables. Pirate even got to feed a giraffe! I was impressed that they were able to do so much walking. Trouble asked me to carry him a few times, but for the most part, they walked the whole time. I really enjoyed getting to spend the day with them and seeing their excitement all day! Both boys fell asleep on the bus ride home. Success!

Things seem to be getting easier. Either that, or we're just getting really good at getting out of the house. I'll take it either way because with it being summer, we can't stay home inside all the time!