Embarrassing Safeway Trip

My mom and I recently canned 78 quarts of peaches that we had picked with the boys and our good friends. Not because we are awesome, but because we are crazy and maybe because we're picky eaters. It was exhausting and messy and the deadline of the family reunion and peaches trying to rot in their boxes was stressful.
My friend had mentioned that she really wanted some peach jam. I really wanted to make some for her, but we didn't have time during the canning blitz. As I was picking up the 20 pound box of blueberries I had ordered from 4 Seasons market, I found some delicious peaches. I was a little frustrated to learn that they were actually much cheaper than the peaches WE HAD PICKED. Why did we pay more to do extra work?!?!? Oh well, that morning picking peaches is a nice memory now.
Anyway,
I picked the most bruised peaches from the box since I was making jam anyway and I like that little farm stand and want to help them any way I can. I had a whirlwind of an afternoon and the next day I hoped to start making and canning peach jam before the peaches had a chance to get moldy in the fridge. I realized I didn't have the right kind of pectin for canning so I decided to run over to Safeway and pick some up. I yanked the boys away from the TV time they had been promised, telling them it would just be a short trip and they could get back to it as soon as I had the ingredients I needed. Quin was actually being pretty reasonable and went and got in the car right away. Ammon kicked and screamed as I carried him downstairs and into the garage. I calmed him down with the exciting prospect of riding in a car shopping cart.
We pulled into the Safeway parking lot and found a really good spot close to the front of the store. As everyone was getting out I noticed Quin was barefoot. "Where are your shoes?" I asked. He just shrugged. Now what? Do I turn around and go home or just run in and get the pectin? Option B it is. I'll just put Quin in the car cart and probably no one will even notice that he doesn't have shoes. 
I directed my mini circus toward the door that I thought had the car carts. (I found one there one time and we can't afford to regularly shop at Safeway, so I don't know where everything is.) Quin hopped barefoot on the hot asphalt in a dirty pair of forest green pajamas. (It was a costume/look he was going for. I was picking my battles and wrestling him out of his pajamas and into other clothes was not a battle to be fought just then.) A lady noticed him walking barefoot and offered us a cart. I told her we had our hearts set on a car cart so she kindly suggested that he walk on the painted lines since she learned growing up in California that paint on asphalt is less hot. It turns out we went in the wrong door, no car carts in sight. Painfully aware of the "no shirt, no shoes, no service" rule I backtracked my little circus through the force-door and back onto the hot sidewalk. We had to walk through the bottle return area and I noticed there were shards of broken glass. So I held Quin on my hip with Ruby squished in a front pack carrier, and Ammon singing as he trailed behind. We got in the RIGHT doors and found a firetruck cart. Ammon was ecstatic, that was the one he was hoping for. Quin was unimpressed and requested the police cart behind most of the other carts. Nope, this is just a quick in and out, people. Not re-organizing the cart storage for them right now. So he grumpily switched places with Ammon a few times before resorting to a game of "let's ruin the buckles on this thing." By which I mean, they discovered that if they buckled and then stood up in the car the plastic clasp snapped open with a satisfying "pop."
Quick in and out. Come on, where's the pectin? Here we go. That's where it's supposed to be. Oh, the kind I want is sold out. No problem, I'll just pick up the ingredients for homemade blueberry ice cream my mom had requested and head to Bimart. Oh, wait- the carts are really small at Bimart. I could probably fit Quin, but that will look weird pushing a cart containing a barefoot 5 year old in dirty pajamas while the three year old walked. Asked my mom for help and made plans to drop barefoot Quin off at the church so I could go to Bimart for the pectin. 
Got the cream, milk and rock salt at Safeway, made the mistake of veering too close to the donuts and starting a rousing chorus of "I WANT A DONUT." We checked out just fine, but then we had more trouble in the parking lot. I stopped the cart near the van and since the full firetruck cart was so big I didn't have room to open the trunk or go in the driver's side to drop off the groceries. So I went around the corner of the van to quickly drop them off in front of Ruby's seat before unbuckling and loading the boys. That was a mistake. I heard a man yelling "Stop! Stop! Stop!"and noticed our firetruck cart was touching the car next to us. I assumed it had drifted over and bumped the car next to us. I started apologizing and then I realized the car was backing up, into my kids. That was scary! Luckily they heard the guy screaming "stop" and probably felt the cart bump into them. Everyone was fine, I was just really embarrassed that I had come to the store and put on such a crazy show.

I finally got the pectin but then I was too exhausted from ring leading the circus at the store to start the jam. I waited until Michael got home and ended up staying up until 1 AM making 19 half pints of jam and 7 pints of canned blueberries. Because I couldn't flash freeze the blueberries fast enough on cookie sheets and I was worried that the blueberries would try to rot alongside the peaches! CRAZY.

I wanted to write that story down not because I necessarily wanted to share it with the world, but I want to look back some day and re-read it and have a good laugh.