Shopping Therapy 101

Warning: This post contains ranting, whining and complaining...read at your own risk.

Some people think I'm crazy, some people know I'm crazy but I think I'm just human. I'm usually a pretty good budgeter. I pay my bills on time, donate to charity, put some away for a rainy day...you know the usual stuff. Well, every so often, usually when Travis has been out of town for a while or I've had a really busy/long day, week, month I go crazy. I could feel this day building all week. Travis was in Vegas all week and I was home running from one place to another to another, fighting off a cold and slowly but surely going from productive, to neutral, to survival mode. Friday morning I woke up and planned to go to the gym, as usual, come home and clean, as usual, take care of all my home making, mothering, housekeeping, taxi driving, bum wiping, dog training, cooking, homework doing, spiritual feeding, primary calling, email responding duties as usual but then I said NO--I'm going to the Mall already! I shipped the older ones off to school via the lovely bus system and began preparation. Went to my closest, put on my 1 pair of jeans I wear everyday, a semi decent shirt and heels. That's right heels. If you are a true shopping diva you will wear heels to the mall and you will like it and own it and pretend that it is completely normal for you to do this while toting your two tiny tykes behind you. Now your tiny tykes cannot be wearing their Erie rec baseball t-shirt and stained onesie when you go on therapeutical trips of this sort. Times like this require you to pull out the trendy outfits with all matching accessories for them... again pretending like they look like this everyday, all day and at all times. Once you arrive at the mall it is important to remember that this is therapy and in order to save your household from being motherless because if you don't fully engage in your therapy session you are very likely to call a sitter, head to DIA and take the first flight to anywhere, never to return. Rules are that you go to any store you like, you buy what you want and you don't only look at sales racks. Next you get yourself some lunch-- and I mean you buy what you want and you buy what your little ones want and you don't do the "Well if I buy this meal, then Sadie can eat this part of it and Reece can eat this part of it and it will save me at least $2.00, and we will just drink water". You get the diet coke and you are allowed to enjoy it. Another rule is you are allowed to say yes to your kids. If they ask you to buy the $.025 gumball you buy it, if they want a cookie at Mrs. Fields you buy it, if they have already eaten a cookie and ask for an icecream cone that's fine too. By the end of the day you feel like a good mom (because you have said yes to everything instead of no to everything for once), your therapy session has been a success and you have saved your family from utter destruction. You go home and are ready to greet your other kiddos returning from their day at school and everybody lives happily ever after. Considering the last time I had a therapy session the cure was I booked a family trip to DisneyWorld (after Travis had been home a total of 4 days in January). I feel today was a small dent and highly successful. You may have to eat Top Ramen and wheat from your food storage for the next three weeks to make up for your little shopping tantrum...I mean therapy, but hey, at least you will look good doing it!!

The spoils breakdown as follows:

Mom-3 items

Reece-4 items

Sadie-12 items (how does that always happen?)

Those that say shopping can't buy you happiness have never been to Gymboree, Hanna Andersson or Jack and Janie.

And yes after my long day of therapy I'm ordering pizza for dinner!!!