Defining Insanity

Yesterday I noticed that we were running out of a lot of essential grocery items.  Sure there was plenty of candy in the pantry, but important things like juice, cereal, romano cheese and other staple items were glaringly missing.  So I did what any normal mom would do.  I went grocery shopping.

Grocery shopping for me means visiting three stores: BJs Warehouse, Target and Acme (Yes, there really is  such a thing as an Acme.).  It drives me crazy that I can't get everything I need in one place.  I could probably get most of what I need at Acme, but the prices at BJs and Target make the extra trips well worth my time.

I had Bryan unload the tell tale soccer mom items from my van (You can't deny your soccer mom identity with two folding chairs and a six seater folding team bench in the cargo area of your van unless you are a phenomenal liar.  I am not a gifted liar.) and put the rolling cooler in there.  Anytime I break out the cooler it means I'm dead serious about getting the pesky grocery shopping banged out in one trip.

Just before leaving on my grocery expedition I compiled a list of the needed items and asked Bryan for his input.  I generally don't see further ahead in time than the next day's worth of food.  That usually translates into lots of last minute take out orders or me making several dinners to mask the fact that I once again didn't make sure we had everything we needed for a particular meal.  In creating the list, Bryan asked me to pick up rice.  That's when I got the "brilliant" idea to buy rice at BJs.

As I chugged along with my shopping cart at BJs, I happily ticked off as many items on the list as I possibly could.  1 gallon of Hershey Syrup (I hope that is an exaggeration, but I'm afraid to see how much is in the twin pack of super sized chocolate syrup in case it really is a gallon.), small flock of dead pre-cooked chickens (Two to be exact.), many gallons of cranberry and apple juice, enough peanut butter to sustain Ellie for about a month and I was just about set.  Then I remembered the rice.  One twenty-five pound bag of rice and I was all set to check out.

Buying this bag of rice seemed like a good idea at the time.  It was only a little more than what I'd pay for a 5lb bag at the grocery store and it was five times the size.  Lately the kids and Bryan have been eating rice so I figured I could save myself unnecessary trips to the store in the colder winter months.  What I hadn't thought about was where I might be storing twenty five pounds of rice.  As I looked at the enormous bag of rice sitting on my kitchen floor I realized that I had a moment of total insanity.  What was I thinking?  I have a family of four, not fourteen!  Then curiosity made me flip the bag over to see how many servings of rice you'd get with a twenty five pound bag.  252.  It looks like we're going to be eating a lot of rice over the next few months.