Before You Go Judging

My SIL has had a lot on her plate, and with her husband out of the country I knew she could be running on empty.  There really isn't much I can help with, since I tend to be shadowed with 5 extra sets of little hands and feet, but I could take her little shadows with little hands and feet and let them come play with mine for a while:)

So I asked if I could steel her kids for a day.

Alethia loved having some other girls to play with, Rainy and Zeke LOVED being picked up by the multitude of children at the cross walk after school, Cai "wuvs Kaywis", and Jude had endless people wanting to push him up and down the hallways on his little car.  Which means that all the kids stayed occupied and content the majority of the time.

It was a win-win for everybody!

There was one downside...it was the end of the month and I was in desperate need of a grocery store run.

Here is where you are going to have the tendency to think: "Uh-uh, no she didn't!"

But my refrigerator and pantry weren't leaving me with much of an option.

With two of the kids in school I was down to 6.

Totally doable.

I got my coupons together and piled them all in the car to head to Harris Teeter.

After we got all situated in the car I decided that we had better lay down some ground rules that were going to have to occur in order for this trip to be successful:

1 - Cooperation

2 - Obedience

(and reiterating that Aunt Tasha ONLY gets what is on "the list")

BONUS rule: you have to eat one of those yummy sugar cookies after we have success!

If these rules were not obtained I told them it was going to be very hard to keep Matilda in check. (she likes to flick little naughty noses;)

We made our way into the store and handed out assignments.

Kayil wanted to push the big cart, and every couple of aisles we rotated Alethia, Cai and Karis. Cana pushed Jude and the food and helped me pick out the best produce:)

We had plenty of time, so we took our time.

It really was kinda fun.

AND I saved $81!!!!!!!!

So now you are are REALLY thinking "NO SHE DIDN'T", and maybe a few other things like, "how does she do it?" or "I can't even handle my own kids, and I only have two!" or a multitude of other self-esteem deflating things.

And I'm always about trying to keep perspective, so here is my mini sermon to us all:

I wanted to help my SIL and this was the ONE thing I could do.  It's only 8 kids.  People have way more and function just fine, right? I can totally do 8 for a day.  Besides, outings like this go way different when they aren't all your own kids (and if a couple of them are older than 3) and if you make a game out of it, and if it is just one time (it's not like I take kids with me to the grocery store every week).  It was only for a short period of time.  It's not like I do this every day.  And as for the grocery shopping outing, my friend Kelly put it quite perfectly when she said that maybe I just needed a challenge for the day.  It was a challenge, something different, something to accomplish and it got us all out of the house for a little fun.

Besides any of ya'll out there could totally do it too.  The key is to have plenty of time, realistic expectations, and try to make it fun!

PS - I took the picture to document for the memories.  Not to prove something.  I mean, if I ran a marathon or made it through a week with my husband out of town (I think of my sister whose husband lives in Afghanistan 6 months out of the year...she's my hero in this department!) you better believe I'd be documenting that too, ha!

So don't go judging me, or yourself for that matter.  It's all about perspective.  Besides, everybody is a winner on my blog!