Not all Pick N Save's are created equally...

Whew- it's been a busy few weeks. I traveled to Michigan in July for a week of chaperoning the youth group from my church at work camp. The week was great fun and a very uplifting experience. I always say that I get at least as much if not more out of the experience than the kids. It's a very spiritual and moving week. My crew this year was assigned the project of painting the house of 77-year old Harold. Now, this place really needed much more than a paint job- in all honesty, it could probably be condemned. But, Harold just wanted to have it painted for the first time, probably since it was built. So, we painted the place- the color was called Respite, however, basketball fans out there would call it Carolina Blue (and us Duke fans out there call it F***-ing Carolina Blue). You can imagine my displeasure when on the first day, I dropped a half a can of paint and it splashed ALL OVER ME. Half of my face, my shirt, and my entire calf were covered in Carolina Blue paint. While it sucked, it did serve to lighten everyone up and we wound up finishing in plenty of time and having a little extra time to watch a re-run of Law and Order with Harold on Friday afternoon. 

I wasn't fully unpacked from work camp, when I had to re-pack to get ready for the MS150 bike tour. This was my 6th year riding the tour. Saturday was rough. The morning was not too bad and everyone was feeling pretty good heading out from lunch. We rolled into lunch around 10:30am and were halfway through the day's ride. Unfortunately, the wind kicked up and made the afternoon hell. We all kept looking down to see if we had a flat tire or had somehow shifted the wrong way. You just kept thinking, "No way is this my easiest gear." Somehow we all made it to Whitewater Saturday afternoon and got some much-needed massages and beer. Sunday morning was again pretty tough. Lots of hills and we were all hurting at lunch. Thankfully things just seemed to go much more smoothly after lunch and we finished in Madison feeling really good. Another successful outing! But, finally, my travels were over and I have been able to get back to regular life. 

This leads me to my Pick N Save title. I made a list on Sunday morning of what food I needed to pick up at the grocery store that afternoon. I happened to be at my parent's house helping with some projects and so my mom and I decided to do our grocery shopping together, which meant going to the Pick N Save near her house. I have realized over time that not all grocery stores are the same, even within the Pick N Save or Sentry families, but I never really realized just how different mom's Pick N Save in New Berlin is from the mine in 'Tosa. I like to have a little cottage cheese with my lunch- I feel like it fills me up more, and lately my preference has been the new Fiber One cottage cheese- not only does it have the protein, but it also has added fiber and is lowfat. Mom's Pick N Save- didn't have it. I also love getting packages of frozen edamame, and of course, this place didn't have that either. I was getting very frustrated when I realized that along with not having a lot of the newer "trendy" foods, this Pick N Save was charging significantly more for the Organic foods. While the Pick N Save near my place charges a little more for Organic, it's usually not all that much more (quite possibly because they are competing with the Outpost Organic Food Store across the street). And my Pick N Save has a lot more organic and low-fat options. I came to two conclusions: A- I'm very happy that I live where I do and that I have an easily accessible place to grocery shop that serves the types of foods that I love eating and B- if I shopped at my mom's store regularly, I would wind up getting very frustrated at not being able to find any of the foods that the healthy eating websites and magazines that I read are always suggesting. So, I guess the key is that if the place closest to you doesn't offer something, that doesn't mean that all of those stores won't offer it. Here's to living in a health conscious area and having readily available healthy foods:)