I went grocery shopping with all four of the kids the other day. Kids. Yeah, right. They’re 23, 20, 17 and 12 years old. But they sure acted like kids, and I loved every moment of it.
I can’t remember the last time I navigated a food aisle with eight sneakers trailing me around and eight other hands plopping things in the cart. Matt and Monica have been on their own for quite a while and it’s not often I can cajole Luke into going a long. Even John’s losing his enthusiasm for market madness. It just happened that both the older kids had dropped in about the same time I was getting ready to go shopping and they needed groceries themselves, so we decided to all go together. It also afforded Matt the opportunity to show off the new sound system in his car, so he offered to drive.
It was amazing to see how they all slipped right back into their old roles, teasing, instigating, joking, complaining, laughing and rabble rousing the same way they had when they were younger. It was like having a young family again – even to the point of them having had enough of each other by the time we headed for the checkout.
It’s funny how, when we’re in the middle of something we can’t wait to get out of it. But once it’s long past, we wish we could get back into it. Even “little” kids bickering in a grocery store.
