What do you pack for lunch?

Making lunch one night.....

Bowl.
Spinach.
2 slices turkey bacon -cooked crispy and crumbled.
Cheddar.
Avocado.
Snap peas.
Grape tomatoes.
Garbanzos.
Green Goddess dressing.
More spinach to hold it all down and keep the dressing from sticking to the lid.

Husband says, "Are you kidding me? Garbanzos, baby poop dressing & ecoli.... yum."
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And then there is the grocery budget. The "budget" is $75/week for groceries.... but I tend to use the word "groceries" in a casual manner.... cough meds, dog food, detergent.... all groceries. So we've been doing quite well sticking too it until....

Costco with Hot Stuff on Wednesday. $150. Bacon, hot dogs, pickled asparagus, butter, random meat products, beer, pop, almonds, underpants (a 3-pack. boxer-briefs. why? the man doesn't WEAR underpants.).

There are certain unspoken rules about Costco:
1. Pick a theme. (like "veggies" or "things you can do with a bag of spinach too large to fit in the overhead luggage compartment of a 7-47) and shop around it. Dinners this week (veggies) are creamy veggie pasta, stir fry, grilled veggie sandwiches.
2. Shop from a list.
3. Purchase one impulse item per family member. (Me.... I like pesto, sugar snap peas or kiwis. Sweet Boy likes turkey bacon & bread.... I'm serious.... they had samples of toast and he loved the bread..... heavy, dense, fiber bread.... he was so excited when I bought it for him. Hot Stuff gets things like garlic-stuffed olives, almonds & real bacon. Darling Girl gets.... nuthin'... but she's been eyeing the frozen potstickers & jalapeno poppers.... or maybe a nice bottle of Liberty House wine.)
4. Don't pile groceries on the baby.
5. No matter how quick a trip it is.... we will have to take at least one potty break.
6. Keep the bill under $100... the place ain't going anywhere.... the frozen chicken cordon bleu will still be there next week.
7. If everyone is good we get pizza for lunch.

So we are doing our usually shopping thing.....

Raising eyebrows with the sampler-ladies by giving SB a taste of the spicy pasta sauce..... the lady just kept saying, "It's spicy, it's spicy" as I was ladling our 3-noodle sample into his baby-bird mouth. Except the way she was saying it -over and over, getting more high pitched by the moment- it sounded like, "Iyahts spaycee, iyahts spayyycceeeee" and SB kept saying, "What? What? Mama. WHAT is she saying??"

Making people laugh by talking to the baby like she's a real person and not just an adorable fluff-brained kewpi doll in a funny hat. She entertained a couple by the milk cooler with her amazing play-my-tongue-like-it-is-a-musical-instrument rendition of some great work of symphony music. That kid and her tongue. I have yet to get it on video but she has a future in..... something.

Poking fun at the very tiny Eastern-block woman in the odd grey tweed suit who felt up our baby to make sure we weren't stealing something.... as if there was anything at Costco small enough to fit in the folds of a carseat.... a stray grape tomato maybe?

Being amazed, yet again, by how much pizza SB can consume.... and how clever he is when he announces to EVERYONE, well, ok, to me... at 90 decibels, "Mama. Mom. Mommy. I went POOP in the potty! Poop, mama. By myself. In the potty. With daddy. And I WASHED my hands. Mama. With soap." Laughter all around us... all the time.

Yes. Laughter all around us... all the time..... we know how to make the ordinary fun, don't we?