#YOUREWELCOME

Picture this scene with me...
Your husband has night class, you have a zillion errands that you need to run, its dinnertime, there is basically no food in the fridge and you have a 17 month old daughter. What do you do?

Well if you are me, you feed your daughter an early dinner then pop her in the car and start off on your errands hoping and praying that said daughter will take it easy on you. 'Tis the season. This was the scene about a month ago where I think I experienced a moment of insanity. Why oh why did I insist on running those errands during Baby K's witching hours and so close to bedtime? I barely even remember everything I bought. But as most of you expect, after getting shuffled around to a few places Baby K was over the late night (for her) errand run and wanted out of her car seat. The problem with heading home early? Tolar would be home from school and would be hungry and I already told him that I would take care of dinner.

Enter Panera to my rescue. And no, I'm not just talking that there was a Panera close by so I stopped in and picked up some yummy food. They seriously came to my rescue and made picking up dinner with a fussy toddler extremely easy. As Baby K was letting me know that she was tired of shopping and just wanted to not be strapped into something anymore, I quickly pulled up Panera's menu on my phone to make my decision on dinner so I wouldn't have to waste my time in the store deciding what we would eat. And there I saw it - I could order online, pay online and get my food FAST.

Oh thank you Jesus, I wouldn't have to be that person in line at bedtime with a screaming toddler. It is a hard and fast rule; Tolar and I try VERY hard to never be those people. Yes, we know sometimes toddlers just have to be toddlers and the only way they can express themselves is to cry. But I wasn't about to take Baby K into a public establishment and let her have a meltdown that was basically my fault. Thank you Panera for creating your Rapid Pick Up.

Rapid Pick Up is amazing, the bees knees! You place your order online, pay for your meal online with your credit card, select the date and time that you want to pick everything up, walk in, grab your food and leave! There was no line, basically no interaction with people, no shuffling of the purse/wallet/baby and we had our food and were on our way. I could seriously kiss whoever invented Rapid Pick Up. Mothers all over the U.S. thank you. We will be using Rapid Pick Up a lot I am sure. It's too easy and convenient not to! Why yes, I would much rather sit down inside Panera and enjoy their Potato Soup, just like in the picture below. But we need to save those times for when I actually have it all together.

And no, this isn't an ad or a sponsored post for Panera. This is just my public serivce announcement to you. Use Rapid Pick Up, your toddler and husband will thank you. #YoureWelcome

(PS - some Panera's even have a drive thru!!!)