Feeding the Masses

 My grocery shopping buddy and me

I'm a once-a-week grocery shopping kind of girl.  If I set foot in a grocery store more than twice in one week, it's a sure sign that something is off kilter in my little world.  This truth must be so in my life because I find it almost impossible to stick. to. my. shopping. list.  And, since I am a passionate budgeter, this can turn into a bit of a problem.  (Could I really just pick up a bag of lettuce for dinner when that bunch of asparagus is making googly-eyes at me?  And when those peaches, those peaches!, smell so divine? Oh, and I am out of strawberries, too.)  So, instead of coming out with a $3.00 receipt, it reads $24.73 (but, I do get to smell peaches on the way home).

This, combined with the fact that my family could consume a large garden of vegetables, an orchard of fruit, a granary of wheat, and a ranch full of meat every week, makes these weekly shopping trips rather colossal.  As in, two carts full of food, colossal. Which has always been just fine... until we moved into an apartment located on the 11th floor.  I just simply do not have enough arm length to layer that many grocery bags up and down them.  And... even if I did, my strength would come up... short.

So, the kids and I find ourselves just 'running to the grocery store real quick' now-a-days.  And, with the grocery store just 4 blocks away through traffic-filled streets, I've found it only takes a few extra minutes and saves a whole lot of stress to put on backpacks and walk.  This works well because it significantly limits the amount of things I can buy!  That carton of ice cream doesn't look quite so tasty when you have to rush it home through 95 degree heat.  (Don't worry... Brian has made sure we do not have an ice cream void by dropping into the store on his way home from work occasionally.)

The amount of food I have to haul up to this apartment is getting a bit worse, though... it seems we've created another monster.

I'm not sure what it is about our genes, but our babies eat.

And eat.

How many people does it take....

And eat. 

And then they turn into children who eat even more.  And eat.  And eat.  All of them. I might never have known how much they eat without having (secretly) watched other kids and their eating habits.  In our house, there is no such thing as 'adult' portions and 'child' portions.  Each plate holds about the same amount of food.  School lunches are something to be laughed at, happy meals are out of the question, and my 9 and 6 year olds have long stopped ordering from the kids' menu at real restaurants.

Oh, he looks so sweet and innocent.  But there's a food consuming monster lurking in there...

...that never seems to be quite satisfied...

At least I have some helpers to take over feeding duty once in a while...

Now I have to figure out how to get even more food into that elevator (and out of the elevator, and down the hall, (and down the next hall (and down the next hall)), and through the door...).

And, I'm not even going to think about how much food my teenagers are going to consume.