Coulda been worse...

Today is payday Wednesday, aka grocery day.  I hate grocery day.  I spent literally hours doing coupon searches, trying to find the best ways to save me some pennies (ha - literally), and ended up leaving for the store an hour later than I wanted to.  Dumb.  AND I had to take all three kids with me. 

Half-way through, Natalie decides she's tired of carrying the clipboard, paper, and pencil she always brings.  Half an hour into shopping, Quin needs his bottle.  All the way through, Andur's showing me things he thinks would be good.  They're both all over the isles and getting in other people's way.  Then, on our way to the check out isle, they get into a non-stop bickering contest that ended with me taking away all their presents.  Then, at the check out lane, Andur gets a bloody nose.  Natalie's talking on the princess cell phones that just happen to be at her eye level.  Quin's super fussy because it's past his nap time.  Trying to help, the smoker-chick behind me gives Quin her keys to play with.  Her keys! She might as well have stuck her fingers in his mouth.  Whatever.  Anyway, grand total, minus the hours worth of coupons found, is STILL over my budget.  *sigh*

And, yes, my afternoon could have been worse.  See, I forgot it was an early release day.  If I had left when I wanted to, my kids would've come home to an empty house.  They would have freaked out.  Usually, when I go shopping, I plan it so when I get home, Matt's getting home and can help me bring in the groceries.  The kids usually get home right after Matt gets home.  I leave the door unlocked in those cases in case the kids get home before Matt.  I would've done that today, more than likely, but I might have locked it.  Who knows.  I don't have a cell phone, nor does Matt, so they couldn't have called us.  I don't know that they would've known what to do, so right quick before we ALL left for the store, I updated our emergency numbers, showed my kids where they were, and we went over what to do if something like that should ever happen. 

I would much rather fight the chaotic stress of all of my payday Wednesday-ness with ALL of my kids, than come home to find them crying and scared.  Or, you know, find a cop with them because the only thing they could think to do was call 911.