Paper or Plastic?

James accompanied me this morning on my weekly trip to the grocery store. I carefully plan this trip to avoid the church crowd as well as optimize my weekend time. Unlike a lot of others, I don't mind doing the grocery shopping. I get a little tired of putting the stuff IN the cart, taking it OUT to pay for it, loading the car, unloading the car then unpacking the bags. So it's nice to have company once in a while but Sunday mornings are NOT compatible with the rest of the family normally. But today James came along and we got talking about shopping and errands with our parents.

Oddly enough, no one in my house is any too interested in grocery shopping with me. Go figure. But since your Mom didn't drive, someone had to go along. I suppose that sometimes that felt a little burdensome to you as teenagers especially but I imagine your Mom enjoyed the time with you very much, as I do if I'm ever lucky enough to have Ryan or Amy along. Perhaps sometimes you went along on the errands in order to have your own time with your mother.

James reported that your Mom liked to make sure she got everyone their favorite treats. There is something very fulfilling about putting stuff in the cart (then out, then load and unload and unpack) that you know will make the kids happy. It's a way to show a little bit of love.

Grocery shopping is a universal experience and we all follow certain patterns and habits in this task. Those patterns and habits probably mirror our personalities. That pattern can be disturbed such as when James came along today to demonstrate that I apparently do not know how to arrange items in the cart properly. But I'd still rather have that little time together than not. And these are the memories that sustain us and give our kids stories to tell sometime in the future.