Locked out

Today I had big plans and lots of errands to do. And then at about 11:00 I changed those plans...

I had discovered that I locked my keys in my car in the parking lot of IKEA... and just because God has a sense of humor about my self-imposed schedules of things to do... it took a little over 5 hours to get rescued. Now, some may salivate at the prospect of being "stuck" shopping at IKEA, and surrounding strip mall department stores, for five hours... however I must be a killjoy and mention the mitigating circumstances: 1) my seven year old son was with me 2) I was totally broke (only there to exchange something that had already been paid for).

Thankfully I was blessed with a creative brain and a good sense of humor, so aside from some limited window shopping, (see route of window-shopping spree in picture above - double click on it to be able to tell what you are looking at) we figured out how to have fun regardless. Here are ten helpful hints for things to remember when stranded with a seven year old boy for five hours:

1. walk slowly (this is the one time you can encourage little boys to dawdle and notice absolutely everything, and pick up strange things found underfoot that need lengthy examining)

2. trash can become art (Steven found a tiny bendable scrap of metal grating and bent and twisted it into a masterpiece... and when the pointy edges poked his fingers too many times it was no big tragedy to fling it back into the bushes that had spawned the junk in the first place.)

3. shadow puppets don't require flashlights on sunny days (Steven and I spent at least a good half hour designing shadow puppets while resting on a park bench - somehow, though, his animals always managed to eat mine... no matter how friendly they were)

4. look up! (We were near the airport and the planes taking off overhead became a great source of distraction. We got to imagine where they were going and how cranky and uncomfortable the people were on board.)

5. Jamba Juice is a lifesaver (We scraped up enough change from the bottom of Mom's purse to split a strawberry smoothy when we started to feel hot and thirsty - it totally hit the spot!)

6. high heels are fun for everyone to try on! (One of the department stores was a warehouse of womens' shoes - help me out here, ladies, who could resist going in and having a look at their clearance rack? Steven entertained the people shopping near us by trying on his own favorite sparkly high heels!)

7. flat shopping carts are fun to practice driving with... especially when mom is the cargo - but beware of trees and pedestrians!

8. comparison shopping is important - (we spent some time being thankful for our predicament when we compared what it would be like to lock ourselfves out of our car in front of the North African version of Ikea (see add right - and trust me it is not nearly as glamorous as the add makes it look. Think: MegaWalmart is to Gas station convenience store as Ikea is to Kitea)

9. making forts is always fun (when we were done using the cart for driving practice we used mom's handy scarf to create a shady tent to play/rest in)

10. Science lessons happen everywhere (Steven was being our "lookout" on the roof of our dark blue van and noticed that it was a lot warmer on the dark paint than the light colored sidewalk! Whew, and I though we were missing our homeschooling time.)