Happy Grocery Shopping!

I found the cutest shelf and drawer liner ever! Cherries!!!!! Isn't it pretty! I love the colors and I'm going to put them in all my drawers in the kitchen and who knows what else. They are great for kitchen drawers b/c they repel stains and are easy to clean. Have you ever tried to clean out your drawers w/o one? YUCK! I found this adorable pattern at Publix, "Where shopping is a pleasure". It cost 2.69 for a 10 ft roll and I must say it was quite a pleasure shopping there today. I saved 31.65 using my coupons and their buy 1 get one free deals! This is my second time using coupons and I'm getting the hang of it, thx to some of my good friends ;) I usually go grocery shopping with all my children. Yes all five of them. I teach them to walk along side the buggy, not ask for anything and try to behave. My second eldest child Jon likes to help me with the coupons. He keeps track of them and locates all the items need so we can buy them. He really does enjoy it and like us saving money. My other children are just there trying to entertain themselves while mommy adds up everything. I always make a list before I go or we will come home with 200.00 worth of groceries and nothing to show for it. I used the sales paper to make my list ahead of time so that I knew what was on sale and what was buy one get one free. It also helps to make a weekly menu so that I know what to buy and what we need. When we are at the grocery store we often get lots of looks and questions. It's so funny how people are amazed at the sight of this mom walking with 5 children around her buggy. I think I may have been photographed last year at Walmart while shopping with all of them. There were two guys walking behind us joking with a cell phone in hand....when they did finally pass by I heard one of them say...."This is going on People at Walmart.com" It a really is a web site where people post funny pics of people at Walmart. You can google it. I can't be sure if they were talking about me but I'm sure it's a sight to see. So we get alot of questions like....Are they all yours? and I like to answer with...no I just gathered up all the kids in the neighborhood and went grocery shopping...jk I would never be that bold but I do say yes they are all mine, I gave birth to everyone of them. Another thing people like to say to me is.....Mam you've got your hands full...and I reply....it's better to have them full than empty :) Now my children aren't angels at the grocery shore by all means. I am constantly correcting, training and reminding them how they should behave in the store. It takes time and it is stressful but I like to say a little prayer before I go so that the Lord can help me through it. We got through it today with shining colors! No one hid behind the toilet paper shelves or in the clothes racks...but that's probably b/c we weren't at Walmart. No one pretended to be Luke or Darth Vader using various items as their light up swords and no one asked for anything! It was a very successful trip, so much in fact that the lady that bagged, walked out and loaded our groceries into the van....Yes she did that...she said that my children were well behaved and that I was doing a good job! Me?! Was she talking to me? The same mom who not too long ago was called an awful mom b/c I wouldn't give my crying children what they wanted. They were pitching a fit in the middle of the store for something I said they couldn't have. That was the first time I had ever had to deal with that situation before. I did the best I could with people standing around staring. I didn't give in and stuck to my guns. Now one of the children still cried throughout the rest of the time and it was horrifying but it paid off. They now know that mommy isn't going to cave in to crying and they learned to accept that no means no and no crying about it. So don't be afraid to take your children with you. They can be a help to you and it teaches them how to behave in public places. They also learn the value of a dollor buy seeing how much things cost and how to do it when they grow up. Happy training & shopping :)