Never is there a dull moment with my three little ones and rarely is there a quiet day. Today was no exception.
After Sagey and I picked up the girls from school this afternoon, I took the three kids to Whole Foods intending to buy dark rye bread and Dalmatian sour cherry spread for breakfast. I didn't venture downtown, but simply went to the smaller Gateway store - which will next year, thankfully and finally, be closed and moved to its new location at The Domain. In addition to the two breakfast items, I ended up buying two 6-ounce containers of beautiful blackberries and a pound of strawberries, all of which we ended up eating for dinner tonight.
Whenever we go to Whole Foods and pass by the cheese counter, the kids always want to sample whatever cheese is on display. A kind lady noticed that the kids wanted more cheese and asked me if I knew about the Kids Club where each child can take a piece of fruit for free. I told her that I knew the downtown store had this but never saw it at the much smaller Gateway store. We went on our way. Moments later, the lady appeared with three bananas for the children - an unexpected and random act of kindness in the midst of a "challenging" shopping trip with three small children.
There was the usual pushing and fighting for space in the black police car shopping cart, the grabbing for the big box of Annie's Bunny Graham Friends as we drove past a display shelf in the tight aisle of the small store (and my having to put the box back on the shelf amidst pleas and screams), the oldest child grabbing the arm of some old man who happened to pass by and give the children a smile, the middle child licking the steering wheel of the car shopping cart and my raising my voice at her to stop it (yes, my tolerance and patience is much lower when I'm sick) while, at the same time, a helpful Sagey missed the conveyor belt as he tried putting one of the containers of blackberries on it.
Not sure what I should do, I quickly gathered the blackberries from the floor and placed them back into the container and onto the conveyor belt. "Should I have them toss the berries?", I wondered. I'm guessing that a few people might have tried to hide the container, pushing the berries aside with one foot while placing the rest of the grocery items on the belt. Others, with embarrassed looks on their faces, might have simply had the store clerk toss them. Then I thought how wasteful that was and figured it wouldn't be harmful if I gave the berries a good rinse when we got home. Besides, how many times have the kids, unbeknownst to me, eaten gummy bears, cookies, and chips that happened to fall out of their little hands and onto a dirty floor? At least in this case I was able to rinse the food. Yes, that is exactly what I did. The blackberries were really tasty and the kids and I didn't mind a bit.
So, while every day and every evening is a challenge with these three, a random act of kindness somehow makes things a little bit better. Thank you kind lady.
