The excitement of the weekly shop

The supermarket shop. Crucial to my daily life. And a great indicator of exactly what stage in this journey of life I am at. Let me explain. Sitting at work this week (I still have a job whilst I work towards launching All By Mama) and I thought about my evening and what I had planned. Not that I ever have plans it was more of a ‘what jobs do I need to do around the house tonight’. I got quite excited when I realised it was a Thursday! My Sainsbury’s shop was arriving! I emailed Pipin’s daddy to confirm the news to him. I then felt quite excited for a good hour, trying to remember what I had ordered and what I had to look forward to unpacking. This feeling was sharply followed by the realisation that getting excited about the Sainsbury’s shop is probably a little worrying. Maybe I need to get our more. I quickly emailed Pipin’s daddy again suggesting a date night (he was still to reply to my last email, no doubt wondering exactly what he had signed up to for the rest of his life!) I was then transported back to one of the last times I had felt so excited about a supermarket shop. I realised it was when Pipin was first born and I was just recovering from my caesarean, yet to leave the house alone sans baby. It was a tough day with a lot of crying so when Pipin’s daddy came home I ran him through what to do in every single emergency situation I could think of, grabbed the keys and went for a drive. By myself. Within minutes, I wanted to go back and check on Pipin, call home, ask if he was ok (I think I settled on a text) but I decided on 30 minutes of alone time. What to do? Where to go? It was evening. Friends were all out having drinks (I looked awful and didn’t want to put them off having children for life so that wasn’t an option). I know, I thought. I’ll go to Waitrose or the 24 hour Asda. I got a bit excited. I could buy things. I headed to Asda to buy baby clothes and unnecessary feeding accessories. I remember walking out and feeling genuinely refreshed. After a trip to an Asda superstore! So, the supermarket shop. An important tool to help decipher your current life priorities. My shop arrived this week, on Thursday…EARLY! And that was even more exciting. It felt like a mini victory in the me v’s the work / family life churn. And then while I was savouring some ‘me time’ unpacking our food for next week, I realised I am extremely lucky and very content with being at home every evening enjoying the all-consuming chaos of being a working mummy – a world where what was a chore once upon a time is now a well-deserved break! Oh, and thank god for online shopping!

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