Patience Required

I've written a little short story about our trip to the grocery store this afternoon.  And the drink spill to top it all off!

I've been putting off the grocery store now for almost two weeks.  We did go to Target last week to got a few necessities, but our Target is the Greatland version, so we only have packaged foods (including refrigerated items like milk and cheese), but not fresh meat or produce.  So a trip to the Central Texas grocery monopoly was inevitable (I hate Wal-Mart's meat department, so that was out of the question).  Back to the story.  Today I decided to bite the bullet and take both kiddos with me to the grocery store.  I successfully procrastinated an extra 2 hours by driving to Temple to have lunch with Jadie before actually pointing the car toward the store.

I knew I would need to feed Sarah before going into the store, but I also knew that stopping by the house would mean I'd decide not to go to the store after all.  So I spent 30 minutes nursing her in the car in the HEB parking lot while listening to Caleb complain about how tired he was of sitting in his car seat.  That made for a joyous experience.

I was looking forward to trying out the homemade baby wrap a friend graciously gave to me after I told her about my failed attempt at choosing a suitable fabric for the one I had Kristin make for me.  Hers was much stretchier and worked very well.  I loaded Caleb in the cart and Sarah in the wrap and headed into the store.

Caleb continued complaining about wanting to go home and about being thirsty.  I didn't want to be there in the first place, so his complaints only fueled my desire to hurry things along.  As usual, I had to go back and forth between the aisles because I forgot something or other and couldn't live without it.  That made things take even longer.  Caleb complained ten more times about being thirsty.  I promised him we'd stop by Bahama Bucks since it'd be Happy Hour (1/2 price drinks).  This only made his complaints about wanting a drink more specific.  He wanted "coconut," which translates to the Bahama Breeze.  I did too.  

We finally finished loading the cart full of meat and cereal.  I had a hard time unloading the cart at the checkout because of having Sarah in the wrap, but that didn't seem to matter since the cashier was in no hurry and was taking a while to ring things up.  When we got to the car, I realized things would be a bit crowded with the gigantic stroller in the back along with 3 camping chairs we'd left in the car from Sunday's church picnic at the lake.  I let the sacker figure out how to get everything in there while I figured out how to get both of my kids back in the car.

I survived, but not without a headache.  Literally.

I felt relieved after taking the first swig of my humongous 44 oz Bahama Breeze, which I counted on drinking most of since Caleb would be taking a nap soon after we arrived home.  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of  allowing him to carry that monster of a cup into the house.  I told him to take it to the coffee table and have a few more sips before his nap.  Apparently, he wasn't listening very well and took it to the dining room table instead.  That table is counter top height.   He tried climbing into his chair with that 44 oz cup and of course, dropped it while trying to coordinate holding the cup with climbing into the chair.  Nice. Big. Mess.

What did I learn?  I lack patience.  I do not lack angry words or a stern tone of voice.  Thank you, Lord, for your grace and your patience with me.  Help me make tomorrow a better day.