"What would you do..."

"...For a Klondike Bar?!"

I know, it's an unusual song to begin a blog message with, but bear with me. I have an interesting, funny story to tell.

This past Wednesday, our family learned of a dear friend from church that was dying-- heard first thing in the morning. It made for a long, tough day... I was busy all day with laundry, homeschool, the usual cleaning, cooking, straightening... ( and chickens dying too...) I didn't nap that Wednesday, although I did lie down with our youngest daughter and rest. She slept sooo sweetly on my arm, it was hard to pull myself away.

My son had a baseball game that night, and my husband had music practice at church. We dropped him at church, since he had brought our minivan in for service and had left his car there after he picked up the van. We (4 kids and I) went to the baseball game, which was very windy, chilly and busy. I kept track of my two little girls while helping in the dugout. We went home about 8:20 and I got the three girls to bed. I waited a little while for my hubby and son to get home. When they did, my son told me that they lost the baseball game. :( Oh well, you win some and you lose some...  My husband and I talked for a little while about our friend, things that had happened at work, how the near widow was... sigh.

It was the 16th of the month, and we went, with heavy hearts, to the grocery store. We needed to stock the partially empty pantry and fridge, since we were running out of the usual staples. I grabbed my coupon binder, purse and canvas bags. We had told our 13-year-old daughter that we were off to the store and left her with a phone nearby in case an emergency arose.

When we arrived at the store, it was about 10:00. We are known for being "night owls" and have found it a lovely quiet time to shop in the evenings without small children. We joke that it is a "date night" where we enjoy the music and laughing at the store with each other. As we arrived at the store, my hubby's phone rang. It was his father, so I went into the store and shopped the first few aisles without him.

In our local supermarket, the lights dim at 10:00, so it was partially dark as I wound my way through the aisles. My hubby joined me as I gathered items we needed, a few things we wanted, and found coupons for several items from my binder. When we were in the dairy section, Joshua got another phone call and it was a fellow pastor from church. We giggled about listening to the Eagles singing, "Standin' On a Corner in Winslow, Arizona" and the other old music that they play over the store speaker. We passed the ice cream, gathered some coconut ice milk (since I had a coupon) and went to the toilet paper aisle, when the phone call ended.

As we went to the check-out lanes, my sweetie mentioned that he'd seen the Klondike bars were on sale, and that sounded good. We went to the registers, and the checker informed us that we had to go through the U-Scan since she was the only checker available to help everyone. So, we winced and began the process of the self checkout. I don't mind the self checkout normally, but when you have over 100 items to purchase, it is a drag. We agreed and slowly scanned each item, placed them in our own bags, and then I ran to grab Klondike bars at my hubby's urging. After they were scanned, Joshua went to pay by credit card (since we get rewards that way). As he went to sign on the signature pad, he pulled it to adjust the angle and broke it. We all three (checker included) tried to get the signature pad to work. No luck. Checker called the night foreman, he couldn't do anything.

Then she tells us the bad news... We have to cancel the order and scan everything again. Sigh. She offers to run it all through a checkout lane this time, so we traipsed over and began unloading our full cart again. As we unloaded, the checker offers to give us free ice cream. So the Klondike Bars, in the package of six were FREE.

After loading our bags into the car at nearly 11:30, I began to giggle about the Klondike Bars we were eating on the way home. What would you do... for a free Klondike Bar? Would you check out your groceries twice? We giggled about it on the way home, and decided that we had fun and were glad to be done. I'm glad that my hubby was with me, so I didn't have to endure that crazy process alone! We hoped we were a light in the lost world to the frazzled checker that helped us late that evening!

---------------------------------------
John 8:12
"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”


Genesis 42: 6-10

"Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. ⁷ As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked.
“From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.”
⁸ Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. ⁹ Then he remembered his dreamsabout them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.”
¹⁰ “No, my lord, ” they answered. “Your servants have come to buy food. ¹¹ We are all the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies. ”"