Saturday Morning Winning

When I had one baby, I'd ask my mom to PLEASE watch her so I could go to the grocery store by myself. The car seat, and after that the moodiness of a toddler in a cart while making food purchase decisions (in the aisles... I do not recommend this method) was more than I wanted to take on any given weekday afternoon. And Yaya usually obliged, remembering her days as a feeder of small people, a keeper-of-the-pantry. And yeah, it was easier to shop without the baby, but ah, what a novice I was. Currently, I will take the opportunity to hit the store if I somehow have three or fewer kids on my watch (which isn't often) and count it a reprieve. That is, of course, if I somehow didn't make it Saturday morning.

The problem with hitting the store any of the times I was aiming for wasn't just about the tiny dictators I either had with me or arranged childcare for. The timing almost always set me up to encounter any number of grocery store infractions, including but not limited to the Aisle Crawl (What are you doing, meal-planning at the store? I mean, WHO DOES that?); the Aisle Sprawl (self-explanatory, I hope); the Determination to Be an Obstacle (okay, I'll give a smidge of grace and call this BEING PAINFULLY OBLIVIOUS TO OTHERS); and the biggest mystery, the Whole Family Out Grocery Shopping Together For Fun. (What IS that?) I'm not proud of being curmudgeonly about such petty things, and I hear more clearly now the whine in my voice when I describe them. But rather than accept these annoyances and, like, improve my inner self, I changed up my routine. This is not a bombshell, but it has affected my weekly routine in such a positive way.

6AM Saturday. Or earlier, if possible.

Although an early morning shopper must navigate shelf-stockers and floor polishers, she typically has the store to herself, save for a handful of other shoppers throughout the store. (Today I noticed four.) Derek is home with the kids, who will still be sleeping when I get home. I'm not sacrificing daytime hours with family, and when everyone awakes, the fridge and cupboards are stocked for the week. (Fridays I make my list of meals and grocery list for these meals plus pantry fill-ins, and clip online coupons.) As for sacrificing sleep, I've always found sleeping in to be horribly overrated. And who am I kidding? I haven't slept in the pre-kid sense of the word in nearly a decade. Why push for it now when this system works so well? 

It has come to this.