how much home delivery is enough?

One of my first learnings of the summer, besides not forcing your child to eat foods he despises, is that taking three unwilling children to the grocery store is pretty much a form of torture that should not be inflicted on even your most heinous enemies. (Okay, maybe them...)

While working, I'd usually stop by the store to pick up stuff for dinner either at lunch or on my way home before picking up kids. I knew this was easier and faster, but I had no idea how much easier.
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Samuel: Can I ride in the back of the cart?
Tali: No, can I ride in the back of the cart?
Naomi: I ride in back cart?
Me: Naomi, you get in the front, Tali in the back. Samuel, you walk because you weigh more than the cart.
Samuel: That's not fair! My legs get tired, too. Can I stand on the back?
(He gets on and the cart starts tipping and perilously close to falling over. I catch it in time.)
Samuel: Okay, can I get on the side?
Me: NO! Why don't you go to the cereal aisle and pick out a cereal with less than 6 grams of sugar and then bring it back to me. (He runs off)
Tali: Can I go?
Naomi: I go?

I pull a bag of Veggie Booty off the shelves and open it and hand it to them. They are quiet for exactly 30 seconds, which is how long it takes me to get to the produce aisle.

Naomi: Booopberries!!! (She stands up in her cart having unbuckled her belt and as I catch her from tipping, she grabs onto some oranges on a display that falls down.)
Tali: Can we get some oranges?
Samuel: I got Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It's only got 20 grams of sugar. Is that okay?
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I don't really need to go on... You get the picture.
And in order to get everything I need to accomodate our various food allergies and diet restrictions, I have to go to three stores. So picture this scene at least three times a week. Also, once they've finished the first bag of booty, picture me opening other unnecessary snack items to keep the kids occupied.

So recently I signed up with spud! organic grocery delivery. We got our first order of fresh produce and it was really good, but when I visited their website, I realized that I could order fresh baked goods, dairy, and prepared meals, as well. (Seriously, this is not a paid ad--I'm just a satisfied customer. Really.) So this week I ordered all my groceries on spud! and I get them on Tuesday. I'm so excited. My goal is to appear in person at any grocery market at all this week.

But then that got me thinking... I wonder what else you could have delivered at home.

I mean, there's online shopping, which for some things is just not worth it. I like clothes shopping in stores for the most part. And shoe shopping, too. But I started thinking about all of the places I hate taking my kids on errands. And then I searched.

There are a ton of food and meal delivery services. That makes sense.

Some libraries will deliver books to you if you can't get there--even if the reason you can't get there is not because of a disability, but also because you don't have transportation. That's pretty cool, though I like going to the library.

There are a lot of pharmacies doing home deliveries.

In some cities, you can have your dry cleaning picked up and dropped off. (I want that, Seattle!)

And how come the range for restaurants that deliver in smaller cities don't vary from pizza and Chinese food?


Over dinner tonight, I told Boaz that I was going to experiment with how much I could have home delivered and ordered in and see if it would save me money and time.

"Seriously? You're going to pretty much test how long you can stay in the house with three kids and not lose your mind?"

Um, yeah. I didn't think about that. I guess it's good to get out sometimes. Maybe we'll take a trip to the dry cleaners and the post office tomorrow...