My Trip to Shopper's Heaven Otherwise Known As HomeGoods

I heart discount shopping.  I mean, really love it.  I love places like TJMaxx and Marshall's but with two kids dragging behind me, one asking how much longer and the other trying to grab all of the breakables off the shelf, it's usually not worth it for me to ever spend more than 5 minutes in these places.  I have visions in my head of older children who will follow me around silently texting on their phones while giving each other eye-rolls behind my back but that dream is a long way from now.

A friend of mine from Oklahoma recently had her third baby in the great state of Alabama and I decided it was time to go visit Katie Scarlett and her newest little nugget and get in some much needed girlfriend time.  When she asked me if I'd like to make the drive to HomeGoods a little over an hour away I just about wet myself with excitement.  So we loaded our combined 5 kids into her humongous SUV, threw some Chick fil A at them and blazed a trail for a day of discount shopping.

As soon as the doors opened I could have sworn I heard angels singing.  It's funny, because I thought those angels only lived in Hobby Lobby but it turns out they're in HomeGoods too.  The aisles looked so...shiny.  The wares so...discounted.  It didn't matter that I didn't need a thing or that the kids were not in the mood for shopping - we were at HomeGoods!


We each grabbed a cart and wandered off in different directions without saying a word.  Good shopping friends are like that.  They don't feel the need to shop every aisle together and there's an understanding that each gal will go her own way and you'll eventually meet back up when your cart is too full to hold another thing.  


I meandered slowly down each aisle carefully contemplating each shiny new purchase.  I tried to think of others and what gifts I might need in the near future instead of only shopping for my own house but, um, well, never mind.


Eventually we found ourselves together in the toy section with 5 kids who were D-O-N-E with shopping for the day.  A storm rolled in, the lights went off, our kids were pulling toys off of shelves and playing with them in the middle of the aisle and still we kept on shopping.  (FYI, in case you ever need to know you can still see price tags by the glow of emergency flourescent lights.)  By the time it was all said and done Katie Scarlett and I were having to tag-team.  One of us would finish shopping while the other one sat out in the car with the kids listening to Tangled on the DVD player and throwing Goldfish their way.  Then, SWITCH!  I entertained myself during my car shift by eating more than a single "portion size" of a box of Ghirardelli chocolates. 


Never mind that my kids were almost past the breaking point.  Never mind that I bought things for my house that I didn't need.  


I got to shop at HomeGoods and eat chocolate.


It was a great day.