I just spent most of the morning on an annual pilgrimage…
…to buy school supplies.
Really?
It’s that time already?
Sigh.
I’m not sure I’m ready.
(and yet, sometimes I can’t wait – but that depends on how restless the natives are)
It seems like summer just started, and with the exception of July 1st week, it seems like I haven’t really had a summer. I’ve been so busy!
But, I have to say, the girls are thrilled. They can’t wait to start their new schools and to make new friends and get things going again.
And our annual shopping trip is something we all look forward to. They are just like me in that buying new school supplies causes the heavens to open and choirs of angels to sing. It’s a beautiful, yet dangerous thing -the three of us in an office supply store – that’s for sure.
We’re suckers for pretty pens, fancy notebooks and any new thing that has been dreamt up to make you more productive.
It’s a little scary.
So, we are now overwhelmed with notebook paper (college- and wide-ruled) notebooks, composition books, binders and dividers, pocket folders, markers, colored pencils, glue, tape, hand sanitizer, kleenex, locker organization supplies, decorations and more. My dining room table looks like an office supply store threw up on it. (gross, I’m sorry, it just slipped out)
There was a couple behind us in line at WalMart when we checked out. They were going on and on about how ridiculous it was to buy all this stuff for kids to start school. Snorts about buying dry-erase markers and special binders and the like. “When we were in school, all we got were some pencils and notebook paper and that was good enough for us.” Or some such nonsense.
I resisted (with great willpower) responding to their ridiculous conversation. It was obvious they did not have kids and so had no idea what they were talking about. I just kept thinking about how I’d rather spend the money and get my kids off to a good start than not.
And, thankfully, the girls were oblivious to their silliness. They were lovingly unloading their loot for the checkout lady to scan and loading it back into our buggy to take home where they would quickly open every package and arrange and rearrange a million times as they figured out what the “just right” configuration was going to be this year.
And so now we wait. And wonder. And count the days.
Which are 21, just in case you are wondering.
21 days until school starts.
Sigh.
Thoughts Along Life's Highway 