Survival.

We survived! "What?" you may well ask. My mom and I took all six kids grocery shopping to Costco. and Walmart yesterday. Now I am on a budgeting kick. I figured that it would be pointless to try to spend less and then take 6 children plus myself out for fast food. So we packed a picnic lunch. We took off early in the morning to make it to Costco. My mom has one of those nifty handicapped placards so we got a front row handicapped spot (my mom says crip card and crip spot, but only those bearing the card may use such lingo). What a blessing. My mom took the older children and checked out Christmas decorations and snack options down the aisles. I took the two youngest in the shopping cart and the third one was (gasp, are you ready for this?) on the harness. Then we shopped. I had already made out menus for the month and made concise lists. I stuck to my list and I cut my bill by over half of what I had been spending at Costco. in recent months. I was so pleased.

We made it to a really nice park where we ate our picnic lunch and the children played. I changed all the small fry into the last diapers I had on hand (this is an important detail). We loaded up to get going to the Health Food Store and Walmart. This was the time that all the girls needed to empty their bowels. The oldest is a potty user, but the rest are still challenged in that area. I did the best I could for them, made it to Walmart and bought diapers. My mom sat in the van with the stinkers (is she a saint or what?). I then changed all bottoms and we shopped Walmart.

I again stuck to my list and we made it out with plenty of groceries and within budget. I counted at least 5 older ladies that complimented on the harness. They said that they did that to their children and got a lot of flack for it. I just figure that my children are too precious to risk them wandering off in the middle of a store out in the "big city." I know there are quite a few people that think it is a training/discipline issue. All I can say is: You go ahead and shop in Walmart with 6 children 10 and under with no harness. You may not yell at them, lose your temper or lose any of them. If you think you can do it, I would ride a really good pizza dinner on that one.

We then found a place for all the children (legally restrained), the groceries and ourselves in my 8 passenger Astro. I think we deserved a Starbucks treat. My mom and I each got a Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Frappacino. Yum, yum. The children all got a juice and chocolate cookies (the juice was purchased at Walmart and the cookies came from Oma's house:)

We even made it home in one piece. We survived and saved money and learned patience. I guess it is a good thing that we are working on memorizing scripture passages that have to do with endurance and perserverance:)