I love the grocery store. Taking care of children keeps mothers from just "hanging out" like they did alone. So the grocery store is a place to go and indulge. Sometimes that means coffee. For my mother, going to Piggly Wiggly in the 80's, that meant stopping at the coffee stand on the way in for a complimentary cup of Folgers or Maxwell House. My sister and I got one or two sugar cubes. Now Starbucks is set up in Safeway. I don't always stop. But I do stop at the refrigerator for a drink, en route to the bakery for the children's complimentary cookie. Smart of them, to give the kiddies something for their stomachs so Mama can spend money without the whining. Sometimes indulging means looking at magazines while Seth and Arwen have cookies. (Savannah's usually at school.) Then there's all the possibilities in the rest of the store, Nutella, Ben & Jerry's.... I don't give in very often though.
After tucking the kids in at night, sitting down to something to eat brings a similar feeling as the grocery store. At night, I get to eat without getting up for their requests, and I've come to look forward to food to replace the socializing, the running around town, the shopping alone, reading. Food fights boredom.
But I am reading more. I stopped surfing the internet like I had. Sometimes I get up and clean which, surprisingly I really enjoy at night.
