Maaaaaaany years ago, when the boys were kids and teens, and we got paid on the first of every month, I found that we ran out of food AND money by about the 28th/29th of the month. To combat that, I started making a month’s worth of menus and the grocery list for the whole month. That took a couple of days. Then, I spent the better part of an entire day grocery shopping. I’d go one place for a whole cart of non-perishables, which I then packed into the trunk. And then I’d go on to another store for a whole cart of cold and frozen stuff. I’d rush home and haul everything into the house, and put things away. And then, it really was nice to know, every day, what I would be preparing, and knowing that everything I needed was there.

I don’t do that any more. First, we get paid every two weeks. Second, I’m way older now and the very idea of shopping that way makes me have to go lie down whenever I think about it.

So, now I’m at some grocery store a couple of times a week, if not more, when I’ve forgotten something or changed my mind.

It’s really irritating when folks do this. This guy has parked his cart while he’s searching for something. But, instead of keeping a pathway clear for other shoppers, he’s standing beside his cart so that now, between him and his cart, no one else can move up or down the aisle.

When we were first married, David was in the Air Force. We did our grocery shopping in the commissary on the Air Force base, and occasionally in the nearby Navy base commissary. There was no funny business like this in either of those places. The aisles were one way, and there were people patrolling and making sure that things were going smoothly and efficiently. The center, horizontal rung on each cart was painted red, all the way around. There were “half-cart” lanes, and shoppers learned how to wisely pack their items so that they wouldn’t peep over that red rung, or they’d get gently, but firmly, moved to the full-cart lane. Military precision all the way around.

One food store-related thing that I think I’ve finally learned, the hard way, of course, is the inadvisability of purchasing plants at the grocery store.

I really love Cyclamen. I’ve not had lots of luck with them, but I keep on trying. The pink flowered plant came from a very nice nursery in Fort Worth. The other ones, which had white flowers and red flowers, came from the grocery store. I understand and accept that it might be my fault. But it seems a little suspicious, doesn’t it. And, really, I think I should stick to buying food at a store whose main purpose is getting good, nutritious, wholesome food (well, and the candy bars and chips) to people. And, if I want beautiful, long-living healthy plants, I might should stick with places for whom that is their specialty, the thing for which they are trained.

My new mantra:

Groceries from the grocery store.

Flowers and house plants from the plant store.

“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

Luke 12:27 (New International Version)

Okay, it guess there is a little bit of crossover here. They’re both growing things, and they both nourish, in usually different ways. But I think I’m sticking with my new attitude. Things grown for the nutrition of my body should come from the grocery store. Things  grown for beauty should probably come from the nursery. But, those big, fat, orange pumpkins are pretty attractive. And big red apples. Hmmm. What a conundrum.