Spent a small fortune at Costco this morning…
…as I tend to do.
Here’s the thing. I think I’ve come to a conclusion about Costco. As much as I know I should go weekly, I just don’t ever get there. I go to the city regularly, but I tend to have a shortish time crunch and I’m too far from Costco to fit it in. But I NEED to, because its easily the best value for our crew. BUT but, when I do get in, one cart does not cut it. Especially if I have all the babies with me. Nope nope nope.
So my conclusion is that I’m just going to have to suck it and go when its busy, on a weekend or in an evening, with my whole crew so I have cart pushers, and just overbuy what I can. I can supplement fresh things during the week from Walmart when I’m in the city or otherwise, or Brady can hit Coop on the way home from work. But, for Costco specifically, it has to be, and it has to be with everyone.
Except I really don’t know what I was thinking today. Did you know its Thanksgiving this weekend?? 😅 I did know, but I did not plan for Costco to be positively BURSTING at the seams, and that it was. Here I was thinking I was SO smart going on a day where the kids were out of school, because everyone else would be at work or in school, and isn’t that perfect?? I’m not sure why I thought my kids would be the only ones out of school but 🙄 We’ll just blame the Lemon Drop and call it a day. Didn’t think it through, but regardless, stuff needed doing! So in we went!
Our setup was like so:
I pushed the first cart with the Spoonful and the Lemon Drop.
Rowan pushed the next cart that held the bulk of the groceries.
Dekker pushed the last cart with the Morsel.
Yup. We went with three today. Thats how much we needed. Some of our things were big, so it just made the most sense.
The other kids still helped. Laela held the list and kept track of where we needed to go next. Solly helped load lots of things into the carts. Wavy carried the diaper bag with our emergency “babies are crying” stuff in it, and she would help occupy the babies when their cart pusher had to duck away for a second.
Somehow – and I CANNOT tell you how – this became a well oiled machine.
With my beautiful crew in tow, we hit ALL the marks. We got batteries, scotch tape, bread, chicken breasts, sausage, salami, bacon, salad stuff, tortellini, gnocchi, paper towel, milk, butter, cheese, perogies, pizzas, broccoli, coffee, crackers, baking ingredients, oats, granola bars, raisins, Tylenol, etc etc etc.
We even got TWO pumpkin pies!! 🥧 🥧
I had been on a hunt for a box of little individual lasagnas we usually get, and I hadn’t been able to find it. The kids and I did another lap of the aisle I thought it would be in, didn’t find it, and I decided to keep moving. Probably a good 5-10 minutes later, a woman approached us and quietly handed me a box of lasagnas. I know it was small, but it was SUCH a beautiful kindness 💜 Sometimes its hard to stand out the way we do, because if anything goes south, ANYTHING, everyone sees. But sometimes, it opens up some beautiful opportunities, and people use them to show us love. I know it was just lasagna. But it was really humbling.
We managed to get into a decently short line, and had SUCH a lovely cashier help us. She recognized us from coming through previously, and she was filled with the warmest compliments and kindness. And honestly, the kids really crushed it today. They earned every nice word said in their direction!
Even once we were out at the van, Rowan helped me get everything into the van while Laela tetrissed it all into place. Dekker found a safe spot up front for the pumpkin pies, and helped lift the babies into their seats and buckle them up. The others got to their spots and waited patiently. Then, Laela and Rowan took the carts back to the return, and off we went!
We hit up a McDonalnds drive-thru for some well-deserved treats! Anyone else call ahead and order 16 apple pies? No? Just us? Cool…
Of course, upon arriving home, more work began and I only just VERY recently discovered I abandoned my now cold coffee in the pantry while putting things away 😅 Ah well. Whats mom life without cold coffee?
Ok. We shopped Costco. We unloaded, and put things away. Babies ate and had naps. I finished putting things away, and typed this very blog. I can hear babies are awake now, so onto the next!! Good thing I put my feet up while I typed!
I think supper will have to be very relaxed today 😅 Perhaps we should just all eat a pumpkin pie…