Making Memories That Mean Something

​Okay this is going to sound crazy but, Walmart gives me a crazy sense of joy. Not the spending money part, just the being there part. My husband... not so much. He could do without that weekly bill I rack up every Monday. 
Mondays have always been shopping day for us since we first moved to Caseville 23 years ago. Every time I walk through the doors and grab that shopping cart, the memories rush over me and I think of the thousands of times I have walked through those very doors and the different seasons of my life I was in. Walking through the doors with 4 children under the age of 7. Taking my youngest straight to the hospital from Walmart when she fell running around a rack of clothes with her brother, only to find she had a broken collar bone. Shopping with my kids after they got spending money and losing my patience because my son could not make up his mind on a toy after over an hour, sometimes longer. (He's still the same way today). Listening to them all chatter and laugh through the aisles as I tried to keep them close and demanded they had one hand on the cart at all times while in the parking lot. I remember watching my girls pretend to shop like mama. I remember thoughts about what it would be like to actually shop with them when they were grown and married. To talk to them as we shopped, to pick out makeup together or share recipes. Thoughts of the fun times we would have during the holidays, looking at the decorations or checking off our lists for Christmas baking and present shopping. For them to someday become my best friends. 
And now, my little babies (and their spouses) are all my best friends. I don't have to wonder anymore. My girls shop with me quite regularly. At times it can be crazy if they are all with me, sometimes packing all my girls (Jessica, Andrea, Kathryn and Shannon) and our groceries~and even the babies~ into one vehicle. There have been trips where babies cried the entire time or pooped through outfits. Times when my daughter and I were in the bathroom holding their onesie under the hand dryer after washing the poop out, (to the horrified looks of some elderly ladies) or the time one of the babies peed through her diaper and someone actually told me my granddaughter was leaking from the cart 😂😂 (Thank God Walmart sells clothes!) but I wouldn't trade it for the world. This is my awesome life and I will forever be thankful to God for the chaos and crying and poopy onesies and the piles of groceries jammed between my daughters and car seats and their dad's tools in the back~the serious talks and the silly ones where we laughed so hard we cried~ and the love that fills that vehicle~ all on our way to and from Walmart. 
Cherish every single moment of your life. Make it a memory that means something. Always be thankful to God for the piles of blessings our lives our jammed with. Blessings that we can sometimes miss if we only focus on the negative. See the good in every situation. Yes, we can have a heart of joy if our hearts choose to look for it in everything, even as we walk through the doors of Walmart.
James 1:17