This is where my life has brought me! Not once during my childhood dreams did I ever imagine that my life would be here, but I love every moment of it!!!
Normally I loathe going grocery shopping. It's a chore I would gladly hire out. In fact, I prefer scrubbing toilets over grocery shopping and would love for someone to just show up at my front door with groceries so that I wouldn't have to go out and get them myself. My hubby likes to help me but has had a work/school schedule from . . . (well, you know). So now I'm not only grocery shopping, but cleaning up messes that Caden makes, telling Reghan NO for the 100th time and she cannot have that new Barbie or the new cool My Little Pony. Now I'm also trying to control Caden's screams as he shouts out how hungry he is.
To be honest,I have to make sure that no perishable foods make it into his reach because we have dug cheese out of his mouth and gone to the check out with a half eaten block of mozzarella cheese more than once.
I used to judge those parents that would allow their kids to eat the food before purchasing it but now I am THAT mom -- anything to get the screams to stop! The first time I tore a bag of gummies open for him, Reghan's eyes grew huge and she whispered to me "mommy is that stealing?" I told her that Mama would pay for it when we left, so it technically wasn't stealing. Plus it was saving mommy from running crazily around the store.
To make matters even worse, our financial situation is not the greatest at this moment in time, which makes grocery shopping even that more stressful. Lastly, I was recently diagnosed with several different ailments -- some of which are hereditary, so we're trying to make better choices so that Reghan has a better chance of fighting them when she's older. In order to do that though, we need to eat more naturally . . . which is also more expensive!
I really am getting to a point and here it is: Grocery shopping can be fun. Tonight we geared up and I checked the ads of my favorite stores and as we bundled up, I tried to prepare myself. I was determined to have a good time with my family and that I would not allow our financial situation to dictate my attitude around my kids or at the stores. What kind of witness would I be if I'm being mean and snappy to those around me just because I am stressed out? On many, many, MANY occassions the Lord has proven that He is Jehovah-Jireh, My Provider.
So, we arrived at our first location and they were having a huge sale. Most of their fresh fruits and vegetables were marked .88/lb and their hormone free chicken breast was marked at 1.77/lb!!! Praise the Lord! We loaded back up into the car and went next to my favorite location (my favorite because they walk you out to your car and load your groceries for you - love it!) and found ground beef marked down and a package of thin cut steaks marked way down! They also had other fresh produce and sales that allowed us to walk out with a lot of food for very little pay. Lastly we went to the big chain store and got our NYE menu and a few fun things. At the end of the day we were able to stock our fridge and freezer with a lot of fresh foods for very little money.
Even on bad days, I need to praise the Lord for His provisions (something I'm still learning) but today was a good day in the grocery store world and I praise the Lord for directing us to those locations.
This may seem petty and silly to some, but to me this is huge! It was just yet another example of how powerful and amazing our Lord and Savior is. He is not just the God of the big stuff but also of the "little" stuff. So, no I never dreamed I would be at this point in life but I praise the Lord that I am here and I am able to witness the love and provision of my God -- even at the grocery store.
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