Quick Takes: Livin' Large Edition

Well, it's still summer. Even though I feel like each day is both ten years long and zipping by at light speed.

It's also raining and the kids have almost perfected Lord of the Flies in the playroom (GIVE ME THE CONCH!), so that makes it a choice time for me to do some Quick Takes.

It's either that or pull out the single malt. Or put them all at the corner with a sign that says FREE. Or both.

My sister was here last night, and as I was putting something away in the fridge, she did a double take at the amount of pudding we have stocked. For one week.

She actually asked if I was stocking up for the apocalypse. She won't be laughing when she needs to survive on iodide tablets and pudding.

I told her what my sister-in-law (also a mother of five) and I were just discussing on the phone a few weeks ago: for the most part, bulk shopping is now our regular food shopping. I try to be as conservative with the food as possible, but it takes a lot to keep this place running.

Milk alone is enough to break us, and I don't even have a place big enough to store all the milk we need. I have mightily resisted having an extra fridge, thinking that I could just be more efficient, organized, space-saving, blah, blah, blah, and use the perfectly good ONE fridge we have. Let's just say that I am good, but not that good.

And also, why don't they sell milk in larger containers than a gallon? We could set something up like those big filtered water pitchers with the spigot that sit on your refrigerator shelf. We could really use some thing like that.

Without further ado, here is a whirlwind tour of our extra large groceries. I can guarantee it will be the most mundane content ever to grace your feed reader.

One

Here is the aforementioned apocalyptic pudding stash. Just plain old chocolate and vanilla, but we usually have a second layer on top of this one. What can I say? We all enjoy a good pudding cup. Besides, even the "family pack" only comes with twelve pudding cups. If each of the kids has a pudding cup after dinner each night . . . well, you can do the math.

Two

We don't go through this Vat O' Peanut Butter in one week, but if I get a smaller size, we do. This probably lasts a good two and a half weeks here.

Three

You'd be surprised at how fast this toilet paper goes, given the questionable bathroom habits of some of the younger members of this family.

Four

We have no use for the cute little wipes boxes. With two still in diapers and countless hand/face wipes throughout the day, we go straight for the ginormous refill bag as our everyday size.

Five

Unless Rob wants a fancy flavor, I've given up buying little yogurt cups. There's just no point since I spend more money and have less space in the fridge when I do. These tubs are less than a week's worth of yogurt for this bunch. We like our yogurt. It's almost as good as the pudding.

Six

The Great Wall of Waffles.

Seven

Barbecue sauce anyone? Now, this jug will last for quite a while, and I can't even blame the kids for the barbecue sauce consumption around here. Ketchup, well that's another ball game, but the barbecue sauce is hand's down Rob's favorite condiment. He would eat a shoe if you covered it in enough barbecue sauce. Seriously. He was in the military, folks. He might have actually eaten a shoe at some point.

So there you have it, groceries the HomeFront Corp. way. Come on over any time -- it's loud and messy, but we can always offer you a pudding cup.

Be sure to visit Jen at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes, and have a lovely weekend, my friends.

PS: I forgot that Quick Takes are being hosted by Betty Beguiles this week. Hop over there instead.