Raynaud's tip: Prompted by a visit to the grocery store...again.

I'm in a grocery store rut - and I can't break out of it! I haven't placed an order for Peapod in almost a month...and both my schedule and my Raynaud's are paying for it. February 19th was the last time I placed an order with my favorite grocery delivery service, so since then, we've been running to the store every few days to pick up "the essentials." But after three and a half weeks of trips that start out to be 15 minutes but end up to be 30-40 minutes plus, I'm ready to break the cycle.

We started out well - deciding to maximize the food we had in the fridge by just replenishing the stuff we ran out of after a few days - milk, juice, lunch meat, etc. And it was working well. Johnny would run to the store if I needed an ingredient for dinner, Bernadette and I would make a quick stop after dropping Deirdre at school, or the girls and I would run over after nap time and pick up a few things. They love riding in the shopping cart shaped like a car, and I convinced myself it was a productive and enjoyable time for all of us. But it turns out, I was working pretty hard to sell myself on that idea.

Truth is, those trips weren't a very good use of my time at all. Without fail, a trip to pick up a few things results in a cart full of groceries, and twice the amount of time at the store. Add to that loading and unloading time, and the fact that anything with little lovelies in tow takes longer, and I've already eaten up three times the amount of time I had planned.  

And considering that my Raynaud's fingers (and toes) go numb when I simply pull into the store parking lot, my Despite Lupus and Pillbag to-do's continue to increase, and our renovation is demanding more and more attention as we grow closer to finishing, time spent at the grocery store is  time ill-spent. I need to leave the grocery shopping to the professionals, and get back to addressing the essentials on my to-do list. Too many things were piling up at the end of the day unnecessarily - and I'm pretty sure it was because I was using my catch-up time to stock up the kitchen. How inefficient is that!

So enough is enough. A much-needed Peapod order is on its way to our rental house this weekend, and I've been sufficiently reminded of why I love the service so much.

Of course, a DL post about grocery-shopping wouldn't be complete without a Raynaud's tip, right? So here it is - straight from the doctor's mouth: you can reuse hand warmers. My rheumatologist, who is a big fan of hand warmers himself, says that if you use a hand warmer for a few hours one day, you can reuse it the next day. Simply put it in a Ziploc bag, making sure all of the air is out of the bag, and seal it up. When you take it out for use the next day, it will rewarm just like a new one. I can't speak from experience on this one, because I haven't tried it yet. But I plan to. Thankfully, it won't be on a trip to the grocery store anytime soon!

Comments

Laura W. said…
I am totally jealous of the grocery delivery. It isn't available in my area! We do have Schwan's but it's not regular grocery items- just frozen stuff and baked goods, which we don't eat much of anyway, and I'd still have to go to the store for everything else. I do have our grocery shopping worked out pretty well though. Friday night I write out our meal plan for the week, and then make the grocery list of the items needed for those meals. Then I write down household items we need (paper towels, shampoo, etc.) and I go do the shopping all at once on either Saturday or Sunday. If I forget something, then oh well! It can wait until the next weekend. Unless, of course, it's something important like toilet paper- in that case my husband will usually go the store for us to get it. That means he'll come back with soda or Oreos or something, too, but that's okay! :) I also try to keep paper plates in the kitchen at all times because I find that plates are the main dish we use and this eliminates having to wash so many dishes. Maybe it's a little wasteful but it really helps.
Sara Gorman said…
This is a great strategy! And thanks to you, i'm going to add paper plates to my grocery (err, peapod) list for next time. as the weather warms up, they are great for the kids to eat outside. thanks for the reminder!

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