Thank you, we'll be here all summer

To say the last week or so has been hectic, would be like calling the Hindenburg a sad event. Between near tornados, days without electricity, ballet recitals, potty training and Vacation Bible School, we've barely had a moment to breathe, much less sleep.

But we still need to eat.

So today after my 5 am boot camp, I made some blueberry bran muffins, loaded up the kids for Vacation Bible School, dropped Spanky off at the nursery and then proceeded to take care of a group of kids who had a real love for life for a few hours (a real bright spot--everyone should be lucky enough to work with kids who aren't their own for at least a little while).

Once I helped send the other kids home, and after making sure everyone went to the bathroom, we drove out to Whole Foods to get our groceries for the week. Now usually I would never take four young children to the grocery store on an early Monday afternoon during the peek shopping hours after spending an entire morning in a loud, fast paced VBS setting. But because the loss of electricity had destroyed every item in the fridge, we had no choice.

So there we were. 

Naturally, the kids wanted a car cart--the great carts that are impossible to maneuver yet manage to hold almost nothing. Miley decided to chase Spanky down aisles and then I got to chase them hoping Dino and Sarah were behind me. 

After carefully placing items on top of items and walking with the most careful grace, we made it to the cashier. I sighed, giving myself a silent 'You did It' reward and feeling pretty darn proud, right on que, Spanky started to scream, Miley took off to grab a different salad dressing (the girl lives for salad), Sarah began tugging my shirt to ask for the 'treat box' and Dino scanned to groceries looking for his favorites. 

I smiled, trying to hold myself together and turned to the people behind me and I got the comments I seem to always get.

"They're so entertaining."

"Y'all are a hoot to watch!"

"Wow--they sure are fun!"

"This is fun watching them!"

"I am just having a ball just watching y'all!"

It appears my chaos brings a smile to some people's faces.  Now if only I could paid based on the amount of chaos I deal with on an hourly basis, I would be a very rich mommy :)