For the First Time in Fontenot Family History

Our entire family went grocery shopping in total peace, harmony, cooperation and relative quiet. I almost can't believe it! None of the children argued or fought. We walked through the store in orderly fashion, me pushing a cart containing Mia and groceries, Manny pushing a cart containing Bree and groceries, Albert pushing a cart containing Sydney plus groceries and Drew walking holding the twins hands. Jackson, Brandon and Brice walked individually. And it went smoothly! I was beaming at my kids, I was so proud of them. They were almost as orderly and quiet as those Duggar children out in public. Almost. There was a very loud family shopping tonight, but it wasn't ours! It was some other unfortunate couple out grocery shopping on a Friday night with their three children. I empathized with them as they repeatedly tried in vain to calm their overly excited brood,because we've been in their shoes plenty of times.
To add to our good shopping night, not one kid begged for items not on the list, and no one threw extra items into the cart, hoping to disguise them underneath the extra large cereal boxes. No one toppled the lemons in the produce aisle and all the kids refrained from writing their initials in frost on the frozen foods doors. Our favorite cashier was working..the one who knows our kids names and even has a picture of our family at home on her fridge door. Our older kids split up the task of helping us bag groceries while another took the little kids out to the van to get started buckling them all into car seats. Without being asked. And more importantly, without fighting over who was going to do what. And for one blessed outing, not a single little Fontenot child uttered the dreaded words "I have to potty." Well, technically Sydney did whine about needing to potty on the way home, about five minutes from the house actually. Which was apparently five minutes too late for Sydney. But I'm not letting that little hiccup steal my joy.
I was proud, happy and okay..a little bit surprised. Most shopping trips don't quite pan out this way. But hey- I'm not knocking it. You won't hear any complaints from me. Maybe we'll tackle the mall again soon. Or, you know, maybe not.