Am I the only one that is starting to get the cold sweats when they walk into the grocery store? Now in my defense I’m feeding 4 boys and a husband but it’s starting to get comical. I swear I walk in the door and all I hear is cha-ching! I’m really hoping one day I will walk into Walmart and it will be like the game Super Market Sweep but instead of the big blow up bonuses adding money to your bill total it would deduct it. Honesty this is something I could get behind, come on Walmart let’s make it happen! Anyhoo, Adam really wanted to have hot ham sandwiches after church on Sunday so we stopped into the store to grab things for lunch and our obligatory New Years Eve brats. (Bear with me I’ll explain the brats shortly.) We barely had half of our cart filled and it was still $130! We got home with the boys and as we were eating lunch Adam asked me what in the world I was thinking about. Apparently I don’t have much of a poker face and I replied that I was doing math in my head. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how our groceries added up to $130. Which caused us to have a conversation with the boys about inflation and the price of groceries. We shared with them how when we were very poor college kids we went to the grocery store to find that a 24 pack of Coke was now $4.65. We were shocked and thought it was highway robbery! Fast forward 26 years and that same 24 pack is now $12.58. In the immortal words of Ron Burgundy, “Boy, that escalated quickly.” As we talked about the price change of things, I told the story of visiting my Grandmother about a month after my Grandfather passed away. Noah wasn’t even a year old yet and we made the trip from Indiana to Wisconsin to check in on her for a few days. It was during this trip that my Grandmother asked me a very simple question. She said “Meghan, how much house money does Adam give you each week?” Adam and I immediately made eye contact, Adam got HUGE eyes and blinked a bunch, and then started laughing. Adam quickly said it’s not how much I give her it’s how much she lets me have. Now I know what she was getting at, and we ended up having a really good conversation with her about the cost of living and how much a family of 3 needed each week. She was curious on what had changed since she had babies and it was eye opening for all of us. Sometimes just for giggles I ask Adam how much house money I’m getting for the week. I usually get a huge eye roll and a I have no idea you’re the one that keeps the checkbook. 😂🤣

For those of you wondering about the brats? On New Years Eve 1996 I was a Freshman in college. I had just gotten done early from my bartending job and Adam was staying with us at my parents house. Since I hadn’t eaten yet Adam decided he wanted to grill some brats on a cold December night in Wisconsin. He trudged out onto the back porch of my parent’s house that was located in the middle of a corn field on top of a hill. It was freezing that night and the wind blew up the hill making everything feel so much colder. There had to have been at least 18 inches of snow on the back deck that he shoveled just to get to the propane grill. He then spent the better part of an hour trying to grill brats with the wind blowing the grill out. He finally admitted defeat and finished cooking them in the microwave. For the next 27 years for New Year’s Eve we have always eaten brats… you never know when a tradition will be born.

All in all the boys are alright, Adam and I are alright, and the dog is living his best life.