Earlier today, I left a cart full of groceries in the parking lot of the grocery store. I just forgot them there. I didn’t realize it until we were home and unloading the car three hours later. Even then, I wasn’t convinced that I could have possibly had such a massive mental misfire until I called the store to verify that, yes, there was in fact a cart of groceries found in the parking lot.
Tim thought it was funny. He tried to console me by noting the fact that I’d had all six kids with me, and that I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in over a year. But even so, I was seriously upset by my mistake. I hadn’t been feeling particularly tired today. The kids had been well-behaved in the store. I wasn’t frazzled. I wasn’t at the end of my rope. I wasn’t dragging myself through the day in a sleep-deprived daze. I thought I was doing well. I thought I was on top of things. I was having a rare moment of not feeling overwhelmed by life, but I failed anyway.
I’m trying to find a lesson in this. It seems like there should be obvious parallels with redemption, or pride, or sin, or something, but all I can think is that I’m only thirty-six and this kind of thing shouldn’t be happening to me.
p.s. I do find it amazing that not one of the kiddos reminded you to put the groceries in the car! Did you get upset with them? Once we got home from church, only to realize (when we got a phone call from a friend who was still at church) that we had left four year old Marcus at church. I yelled at Ethan, because Marcus place in the van was always next to him in the way back. As if it was eight year old Ethan’s fault. It is kind of weird that none of the kids mentioned the groceries.
The kids all usually get in the car while I put the groceries in the back, so they wouldn’t necessarily have noticed. If I had been missing a kid, though, I’m sure I would have gotten upset with the other kids. As it was, unless they had paid close attention to what I was doing, they wouldn’t have realized what I did. Me, though? I went to two more stores after that, put those things in the back, and never noticed that the groceries weren’t there. I also forgot items from my list at two of the stores, and filled a vase with flowers at home but never added water. Clearly, something in my brain wasn’t working right yesterday :).
Well, I hope today is going better. :-)
Oh, man! That is a tough one. It is slightly unbelievable, but i wouldn’t let it ruin you. :-) If it makes you feel any better more than once ( as in thrice) I have shopped at Aldi and Walmart, come out loaded all my groceries, only to find I had left the van running the entire time and never even noticed until I couldn’t find my keys. I swore Myles to secrecy, because I was sure Michael would freak out. ( I did tell him eventually and he was incredulous.) I was so upset the first time I did it, you can imagine when I did again…and again! Someone could have just gotten in and drove away! Anyhow, did you have to go back for the groceries? Such a bummer, but I really don’t think you are losing your mind or have dementia or anything. Stuff happens. :-)
Thanks for sharing your story :). It helps to know that others have had similar moments. Tim ended up going to the store for me…as silly as it is, I think I would have had difficulty maintaining my composure. Thankfully, I didn’t have any refrigerated items, so everything was fine four hours later.