I try to avoid grocery shopping on Saturday. I don’t have to go on that day, because I don’t work during the week. Today, however, we were out of food, and it was one of those things I had to do.

The other thing I try to avoid is taking kids with me to the store. Honestly, when I’m alone I save a ton of money. I compare prices, sometimes use coupons, and unless I’m hungry and pass something that smells or looks really delicious, I’m not tempted by junk that isn’t on my list.

Today I not only had to shop on a Saturday, but I had to do it with DD4. A recipe for disaster. I prepared DD4 ahead of time that we wouldn’t buy lots of extras. I also bribed her by saying she could pick out one special thing. Usually when I say that I’m thinking a thing of fruit roll-ups or a package of ice cream, but darned if that girl hasn’t figured out that even grocery stores carry Barbies. Ah well.

So DD4 and I made the trip to Kroger, and all went well in the purchasing department. I only came home with an extra box of princess fruit snacks, a box of princess cereal, a dinosaur pool floating toy, and two half-gallons of chocolate milk that weren’t on my list.

While I was walking down the baking aisle, an elderly woman stopped me. “Excuse me. Can you help me find the pickling spices? My vision is poor and I can’t read the spices.” I searched with her for a few minutes, and we found what she was looking for (and I learned about a spice I’ve never heard of!). She thanked me profusely, and I thought how challenging it must be to go to the grocery store when you have macular degeneration (I assume that was her trouble).

A bit later, I was in the produce section. A lady said, “Excuse me, you don’t happen to know how to pick a fresh pineapple, do you?” I can’t eat pineapples–oral mouth allergy–so I wasn’t able to help her.

And then as I was leaving, an older couple sat patiently in their van while I unloaded my groceries from my cart into the car. There were plenty of other parking spaces, but they seemed to be enjoying watching DD4 help me with my job. As we walked our cart to the cart return, the man called out the window, “You sure do have a great helper there!” And he was right.

I left our Kroger feeling energized and encouraged. As much as I sometimes get frustrated living in a small town in the south, there is a lot to love. When you go to the grocery store, do you find people are friendly and want to engage you in conversation? Or is everyone busy, crossing things off of their list, and not paying attention to anybody else?