The boys and I went grocery shopping this afternoon. Dad has a pastor’s conference up in the quad cities, so after teaching this morning he left straight from there. We have to go into the school to pick the boys up. They have a buzzer you push near the entryway door, which always makes me feel like I’m bothering the secretary whenever I push it. I’m sure she has her days, but she doesn’t seem to mind when the buzzer rings again.

We made it in and out in exactly a half hour’s time. I made a list of dinners while we were eating our lunch. We parked by a tree and watched a man with a guitar walking around the Lowe’s parking lot. He tried out each of the sheds lined up against the Lowe’s property fence. He’d go into a shed with his guitar and close the door. A minute or two later he’d come out and go into another one. Halfway through this a Lowe’s lady came out.

It sure is a tremendous help to have all those hands. When your kids are little, people in the stores lines often smile and say things like, “You’ve sure got your hands full!” People don’t smile or say things to me like that anymore. We usually roll up to the check-out line with a pretty full cart, to the silent dismay of all those who come behind us. I don’t know that. I just know if I let all the people with less go ahead of me, I’d be there all day.