Trials and Tribulations of Delegating

I view grocery shopping, as I noted in an article I did at called "No Need of Spoil", as a ministry not really as recreation. I guess maybe I'm weird. LOL I don't like going to the mall at all--it feels like stepping into an alternate reality. Maybe it'd be more fun if I had money to burn? hmmm...maybe or maybe not. Especially with gas prices what they are, we make sure to condense our shopping trips as much as possible. This has become easier too, with the loss of our van (still waiting on a transmission to come in at the junkyard).

This weekend, I planned to do grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon, after dh got home from work, and hopefully before the much-hyped storm of the century hit our area. Before going shopping, I always make sure to have a detailed list of what I need, and where I plan to buy it. If I am using any coupons (which, I'll admit, I do very rarely since they don't make coupons for stuff I normally buy), I make a note of exactly what the coupon is for. If something is on sale, I also make a note of where and how much, and all of that. And, I ask a few simple questions to my progeny and darling husband:

1. Do we need Dog Food?
2. Do we need Cat Food?
3. How are we on garbage bags?
4. Do we need anything else that is not on the list?
5. ARE YOU SURE?!?!?!?????
6. LAST CHANCE--Am I missing anything?

I ask these things only because there is nothing worse than having to go back to the store for one of these often forgotten items. Since we do a lot of delegating in our home, I rarely handle the dog and cat food (except to buy it), and so I don't usually know. Well, on Saturday, I was told we had everything we needed, and that the grocery list accurately told of what we needed...and so, off I went with my oldest daughter for a little together time while grocery shopping, and paying my debt at the library for overdue books I thought I had returned but which were simply sitting in the van one the day of and since it broke down (whoops).

The following day (Sunday) after church, I walked into the kitchen only to notice an empty bag of dog food sticking out of the stuffed-to-overflowing garbage can.

"Uh, do we need dog food?"

"Yeah, mom, we just gave the dogs the last of it"

Mom: "D'oh!"

I take the garbage out of the can, and have my son take it out to the trash bin, and I reach in to grab a garbage bag....only to realize the box is empty.

D'oh!

Just for kicks, I felt the need to look into the (nearly empty) bag of cat food too.

So, in the middle of an ICE STORM, on Sunday (When I don't shop unless completely necessary), I found myself back to the Lapeer shopping district, only after throughly doing an inventory on things.

At least the roads were clear, and 89.1 FM has some great Christmas music on the radio.