One of my favorite things about working from home is, of course, the FLEXIBILITY. We badly needed groceries for a few days, but with soccer all weekend, it just never happened. (In large part just because no one actually wanted to go get groceries.)
Come Monday night, when I thought I would run over to the store- alas, I still didn’t feel like it. Grocery shopping is probably my least favorite “chore”, so procrastinating on this is a very common occurrence for me. 😁 (I know, we could do the pick up thing…but we just haven’t gotten into that. Ivan is always willing to go for me, but I feel like I just do better at this one…knowing which brands, misc. stuff the kids want, etc.)
I did sorta try to pawn it off on Ivan Monday night but he was tired, too, so I decided to go first thing on Tuesday morning. (He said he would deal with getting the kids off to school so I could head off to the store early). This was an excellent trade-off for various reasons:
- the grocery store is dead at ~7:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning
- I have WAY more energy and interest in doing it in the morning, anyway
- coming home and putting groceries away in an empty house, while listening to a podcast, was much more enjoyable than at 8 pm with everyone home and underfoot
With my flexible schedule, I just started work a little later. Wasn’t a big deal.
Here’s a peak into my grocery cart. I am always fascinated by spying on others’ carts…it blows my mind how differently each family eats!!! The above makes up a bunch of our staples. I’ve been trying to prioritize lean protein lately again in my diet, hence the fish and 99% lean ground turkey. (There’s also shrimp under the fish). Other staples…yogurt for the kids (I hate yogurt..), tea, veggies, fruit, usually more berries but they are $$$$ right now!!, always bananas, always usually zucchini, CHEESE (Wisco folks here)…the cauliflower is more of a variable. Sometimes its broccoli, or a squash, etc. Yesterday, I grabbed cauliflower. TBD what will become of it. 🙂
My meal planning has been WEAK lately, as in, non-existent. I don’t know why. I go in spurts with this. When I don’t meal plan, I just buy a bunch of staples with nothing particular in mind, and then sort of wing it throughout the week. It works okay. Not “awesome”, but, we eat and everyone has been happy. Maybe I’ll shift back into meal planning mode again soon.
Since I worked til 6 last night (and Ivan got home around then), we had this random, super quick meal (also a family favorite):
Pico de gallo (tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, lime, salt + bonus chopped avocado) with canned tuna. We then spoon it onto crackers!! So random, so quick, so delicious. And, healthy! The kids had some leftover buttered noodles, fruit and we had some sliced cheese.
Asher then had a pool lane reserved at 8 pm….yawn. Not ideal but with covid restrictions you have to reserve, and that was all he could get. I sat and watched him and it was nice. Sooooo glad we live just a block from the gym!!! Seeing people in there running on the treadmill and lifting weights at almost 9 pm also blew my mind. I used to workout late if I had to, but man, that looked like torture to me last night. I was tired by then.
Thought of the Day:
Try the QTIP life motto: Quit. Taking. It. Personally.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for my treadmill. I don’t run on it much currently, but I like having the option- and, I love walking on it if it’s yucky outside. I’m trying to finish a book before it’s due, so yesterday I walked (slowly, but still) for 10 minutes as a quick afternoon work break and read a few pages!
GRATEFUL KAE 
Phil does our grocery shopping on Saturday mornings. He goes at 9 as that is when Aldi opens and that is his first stop. Their produce is sooo cheap so I can eat berries year round and not feel like we are paying too much! He gets home around 10:30 and unpacking everything is not my favorite because Paul is hungry around then so he is whining about wanting lunch and also hyped up and excited that daddy is home. So it’s not the most fun 30 minutes but we get through it. We did grocery delivery for awhile and Phil hated it so I said – we do grocery delivery or you grocery shop and he chose to shop. I love it!!
Oof an 8pm lane reservation! Yawn! I can’t imagine working out that late either. I used to workout around 6:30ish and that seems so late now! But 8 or 9 seems insane! But I am such a lark – in bed early, up early.
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Ha! I have done the exact same thing today as our cupboards were also empty 😊
I love things like seeing in other people’s carts too. Today I bought sushi for dinner tonight, jacket potatoes for dinner tomorrow, and some essentials (pastel de nata pastries, of course)
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Lol, yes- the essentials!! My oldest came home from school and immediately said, “hmmm, I’m going to inspect the groceries now….” and started looking in all the cupboards to make sure I had remembered to bring the Oreos and other snacks he “needed”. hahaha.
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This post made me smile. I’ve never looked at someone else’s cart but I always notice the old couples who shop together and if the man is pushing the cart my heart just melts! I do a weekly menu and I forget items. This is not a good week for being in the middle of cooking and thinking, “We need –“.
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I too love the flexibility that comes along with working from home. I never go to the grocery store in the afternoon/evening. I always go to the store/run errands in the morning when the stores are the quietest and people are working. I unfortunately am at risk if I were to get covid so it is safest for me to not be around large groups of people, ever. It also is just so anxiety producing if I am in big groups of people, is that strange? With the change in the world, I think that smaller gatherings and quieter hours at the grocery store will be a thing for at least a few years to come. I would have to say that I am always interested in what others get at the grocery store. Do you feel like your grocery store trips now are a LOT different then they were before the pandemic or at the start of it all??
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i love seeing other people’s carts too! so many yogurts and banana. Ours are usually filled with tons of vegetables, fruits, and some fish/shrimp, everything else we mostly make at home.
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Yes yes yes – this is why I work from home at least one day/week even when we’re in the building. It’s my hit-the-grocery-store-before-7 day. Love. It. You’d laugh at my cart, though – it’s just me so no kid stuff, and it’s mostly the same stuff every week (or every other). I am very, very boring, because I have no one to please but myself. So I eat what I like. That said, I have been branching out – mostly thanks to my “regular” stuff being unavailable at times over the last year! I love hearing what you cook for your family – especially the things like pico + tuna. What a great idea! 🙂
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