Mental Moment for Monday

As you all know I have been running from pillar to post (figuratively and literally) to get Mantra’s book where it needs to be and ready for everyone to grab their copy by the end of this month. You also know my one of gal pals, Lizzie, has been in the trenches with me. So, let me let you in on a secret.

One mid-afternoon, I got to thinking about all this running and had a Lizzie-style Mental Moment.

What if we could harness all the energy we spend running around?

Silly Monkey

No, not just store it up, but channel it into something far more productive than merely chasing our tails. There are hundreds of examples. What? Oh, yes you do. Let’s take the one I hate the most…the grocery store.

You pack up the kiddles and get in the mobile and motor to the grocery. Next is the fight with the handicapped cart…you know the one with the one wheel which does not touch the floor?

Then, there is the cotton top who is standing in front of the tomatoes who has to touch 45 before she picks one. Once it is in her cart, she looks back longingly wondering if she really liked #26 better…all before she beats you to the bananas, where she repeats the entire process.

Up and down the aisles in a mad dash, running from the meat counter to the liquor aisle to the frozen food section to the dairy. You have everything and rush to stand in line to wait for some ill-tempered teenager to tell you she is not old enough to ring up your Cabernet.

King of Condiments

While you are waiting for the manager to come to squint at your ID, which has had a more birthdays than he has, you realize you completely forgot the ketchup because who really goes down the condiment aisle every trip to the store? You have one point four minutes to get there and back to the snotty cashier, so you are running back to the register, really trying to look like you are speed walking for the exercise, to avoid the embarrassment of having forgotten the American cover up to every burnt dish known to man.

Little Miss “I really need to be discovered by someone who has loads of money so I can sit at home and play Playstation twenty-one hours a day” gives you your total. You open your wallet and discover the money you were going to use is sitting on the dresser right next to your speeding ticket and the receipt for the dry cleaning which was wrinkled before you could get it home.

Sheepishly you hunt around for some other form of currency whilst the eight people in line behind you at the only open register scowl as they shift from one foot to the other as though you planned this, and they cannot wait to tell someone about the idiot in the grocery who tried to buy a cart full of groceries with the change in the bottom of the console of the car.

Meanwhile, Kiddle One has discovered the gumball machine and is doing the pee-pee dance in front of you (and the other eight patrons in line) begging for a quarter at 40 decibels…replete with cajoling and promises to clean the bedroom where you have not seen carpet since the third birthday.

As you explain while Kiddle One sees you hand money to the pouting cashier you really do not have a quarter for one gumball, just one please please pretty please, Kiddle Two decides a wonderful idea is to begin running around the front end of the store playing freeze-tag with an invisible friend.

Bag boy is ready with your purchases, and you beg off seeing as you have nothing left with which to tip him. Off to the parking lot after running down Kiddle Two and threatening both children with a life sentence of unloading the dishwasher and bathing the dog…only to find out it is raining.

Now, children love to run in the rain, but you, well, not so much. Running to the mobile produces enough additional wind to blow the receipt away and get everything in the basket jostled around so that loaf of bread looks like a model for a Salvador Dali painting.

You know…It would be so much better to skip the running around and order in.

And now, a word from our sponsor…

So, why did we have this mental moment? Because this is the first stop in a scavenger hunt. What are we scavenging? You will note a number and a word (italicized and bolded) in this post. The word is one word in the name of a .wordpress.com blog. The number is the position of the word in the name. So far, you have….

http://running____________.wordpress.com

To find the other words in the name, you will need to visit some other bloggers who have some special wishes for Lizzie. Why are we having mental moments for Lizzie?

Today is her birthday.

The other bloggers holding the secret pass keys in the scavenger hunt are:

Ginger Snaap

El Guapo

Linda Vernon

Buddha Kat

Ginger Fight Back

Writer Wannabe 763

Happy Hunting!

Lizzie, I love you!

~~~~~~~~~~

Am I the only one who really hates the grocery store?

If you would like to wish Lizzie happy birthday on the special blog, but do not have a load of time to visit all the other blogs (but you should because they are all awesome blogs), stop by the birthday blog.


(c) Red Dwyer 2012
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47 Comments

  1. holy cow, Red… ya had me in such a grocery store tizzie, well I done furgot that this was a birthday post (a WHOLE post) for dear lizzie!!!

    excellently done, especially making a lesson moment out of the chaos of splattered energy!!!
    great big hugz

    🙂
    BuddhaKat recently posted..Cracked, but never broken…My Profile

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  2. AWWWWWWW happy Birthday Lizzie 🙂
    now that is sweet
    xoxoxoxoxo
    and i do NOT like grocery shopping xxx
    Never have i xx
    Happy Birthday Lizzie
    Nice one Red xoxoxoxo
    C
    Cat Forsley recently posted..There are Hush times Cat Forsley ©My Profile

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    • It is the one shopping I will never ever like. Ever. 🙂 Hope you had a restful weekend and a productive day, mon Chat Doux. <3 xxx

      Reply
  3. I hate grocery stores, but for different reasons. I don’t like spending money (never having had any will do that) and the dirty atmosphere. European stores had me spoiled. Plus, the screaming children that parents do not correct. I have NEVER heard one parent say to a child yet that screaming in a store is inappropriate behavior.

    As far as running goes: I have never had 10 kids, only three at the most (2 were part time). However, I used to have a calendar as busy as anyone with a full-time job, house duties, and tons of school events and activities with a husband who was not exactly motivated.

    Anyway, my daughter, when around 12 or so, told me this: When you are late or stressed, the worst thing you can do is speed up cause you’ll end up forgetting things and wasting more time. She said the secret was to slow down when you felt rushed.

    You know, I’ve done that since then and it’s been a life saver. I still got all done somehow. I know it does not make sense because people say they are too busy to slow down. However, I don’t mean waste time by slowing down. I mean: breathe deep and focus on the one immediate thing in front of you.
    Alexandra Heep recently posted..Dog Days of Summer: What is Your Ideal Vacation?My Profile

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    • I do that. The just breathe method works for me. Frenzy just gives legs to Haste makes waste.

      Reply
  4. HAHAHA! Oh no… this is classically funny! I go at like 6:00 a.m. to the store for grocery shopping. LOL 🙂 In and out, one cashier, no fuss no muss.

    Happy Birthday to Lizzie! 🙂

    (I just saw this today)
    MysteryCoach recently posted..Day (260) – Repost: Day (58) – It’s TimeMy Profile

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    • Today is still her birthday 🙂 Where I live, they are not open early. And they do not stock overnight. Morning is mayhem. Ugh.

      Reply
      • See? I didn’t get the notification that you responded. So weird… I guess I’ll just have to check back periodically.

        Oh, that stinks. We have 24 hour stores here that have everything, so I’m lucky. I can go whenever I want and there’s always what I need. Which is pretty cool …
        MysteryCoach recently posted..~ Brawl @ Hair Salon ~ (Almost)My Profile

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        • You have to check the comments box each time. I do not require everyone withstand email from M3 merely because I talk back 😉 There are some 24 hour stores, but the nearest is 28 miles away (40 minutes away)…definitely not where I will be running in the middle of the night 😉

          Reply
  5. Laurie

     /  August 20, 2012

    Happy Birthday Lizzie!

    I am very confused, I do touch all the produce. I don’t it bruised, or rotting. I go down the condiment isle every time, ketchup is an emergency in this house. When I’m digging around in the bottom of my purse it’s usually because someone forgot to give me my card back. Shorty does the potty dance in front of the use, and stands in front of the gumball machine (the one with the giant gumballs) repeating want gumball (or whatever logo is on them) while I tell her we’re not buying gum for her hair…….I’m confused what was I supposed to be doing, is one of them running with scissors?? Oh I’ll read the instructions when I wake up.

    Reply
  6. Grocery shopping can be fun with the right incentives (treats). Too bad you can’t farm it out to someone else.
    Binky recently posted..Incriminating BreathMy Profile

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    • Considering the minor fortune I spend at the grocery, I would have to hire a truck as well 🙄

      Reply
  7. Thank God I have no kids! LoL!!! 🙂

    Grocery shopping is a pain of endless counting of frozen meals so I buy only what I need, dodging senile old ladies and strange smelling guys who haven’t seen soap in some time! 🙁

    Love and hugs hun!

    Prenin.
    prenin recently posted..Monday – wonderful weather…My Profile

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  8. If I had known that was you in front of me in the grocery store I would have said hi instead of giving you that awful scowl that I have that my wife says will curdle milk. (BTW…I wouldn’t drink that milk if I was you.

    Reply
  9. I can shop at my leisure nowadays, at least in the grocery store. I hate grocery shopping because no matter how many times I stop in for ONE item, I seem to spend $60.00 almost every time.
    Tess Kann recently posted..Curious Meets CrazyMy Profile

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    • LOL! I cannot remember the last trip under $100. To be frank, I go to the store once per month (do not get me started about that cost), but only use the grocery for the consumables in mid-month (bread, milk, fruit, vegetables).

      Reply
  10. By the way, Happy Birthday, LIZZIE!
    Tess Kann recently posted..Curious Meets CrazyMy Profile

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