When I grocery shop, you can imagine I buy a lot at once. Either that or the three items I need to get through the next 45 minutes. Today was a big shop. I went to Costco and then to Kroger. At Kroger, I was buying to restock some very empty shelves at home, plus picking up stuff for the church’s food pantry.

So, the bagger was busily bagging the groceries and it occurred to him that they might not all fit in one cart. Drat, he said, that means I will have to go outside again. Well, my helper and I are strong women so I said, no prob, we’ll handle the carts. I can’t imagine what he thought I said, because he suddenly decided every. single. thing. was going to go into ONE cart. He bagged wildly and kept stacking things higher and higher and higher. I eyeballed the cart wondering how many hands it would take me to keep everything on for the ride.

I think he decided that the MORE items he put IN a bag, the BETTER they would FIT in the cart. This was evidenced by his choice to put FOUR jars of applesauce in one bag. Really big jars.

Actually, I guess I have to hand it to him. He must know his stuff. Nothing fell off. I only needed one hand to keep something on and the applesauce didn’t break through the bag(s).

Now, the checker on the other hand — our store has the “if it rings up wrong price, you get it free.” Some checkers just automatically ring it up as free when it rings wrong. There are a few checkers though who still try to charge me the lower price. Today’s item rang up at $4.49 but should have been $2.49 as it was on the markdown shelf. I wouldn’t even have bought it for $4.49! So it rings up wrong, and I say, no that’s not the right price. Oh, she says, sometimes those tags don’t ring up right. Here, I’ll just put it in as $2.49. Actually, I said, that should be free. She rolled her eyes and entered the scan right code.

You know what? I didn’t make up the policy. But I’m ok with asking for it to be enforced. So, my helper, my giant cart, and my free box of organic chocolate coins rolled on home and wow do we have a yummy looking bunch of food here.

This is my camera? And you can see that I left it sitting on the table? Instead of taking meaningful and memorable photos of my students this week? Maybe I’ll do more actual photographing next week? Let’s hope so?

Ooo, good week this week. I came within an hour of my goal of 25 hours of actual teaching time. This is the first week I have come that close. So, I feel quite encouraged.

Highlights of the week: playing theater games with all my children on Tuesday morning. Kepler even wanted to get involved and he joined our circle. Since he is so short, we all knelt down to be closer to his level. The little mimic that he is, HE then knelt down. So we all lay on our stomachs, which of course he did too. He might not have understood everything we were doing, but he sure did have fun. I got the games from Lisa Bany-Winters’ book “On Stage.” Improv games, warm-ups, theater-in-the-round, and several other categories. I think my favorite moment was at the end of a circle game which involved clapping with the person next to you, when we all spontaneously broke into some very rhythmic, syncopated clapping, which went on for a couple of minutes. Everyone wanted to do more games but we just couldn’t find any more time this week. I still have the book — I think these would be fun games with adults too!

Keys to my year so far: having a curriculum I continue to love, five weeks into the year; taking time twice a week to see a personal trainer and really work hard physically; eating pretty well most days which means I avoid most of the foods that mess with my blood sugar and/or moods; realizing that I CAN do this; and it probably helps that Kepler is now TWO instead of ONE. Surely my strength must come from the Holy Spirit and how glad I am to have it!

Another highlight: beginning to read “The Witch of Blackbird Pond” and deciding to throw a bit of fine arts in after the first chapter. All of us drew an illustration from the first chapter. One of my students felt very unsure about being able to create a good picture, but ended up with such a creative piece with many fun little details in the drawing.

There’s so much to learn and experience and do. And I’m really enjoying this school year.