And on a Brighter Note…..Back to School!

And on a brighter note….
Summer is almost over. We can see it on the horizon. And although it is bitter-sweet to realize that yet another summer has escaped through my fingers I have to smile at my children asking when it is that they can go get school supplies, because, that of course is THE best part of getting ready to go back to school.

I happen to agree with them. The smell of new paper. The selection of new notebooks, because they DO NOT make them like they used to. Folders with the latest pictures of the newest infatuation, art, horses, graffiti, dogs, you name it, we’ve done it-except for bands and stars-that I do not encourage. Pencils! Can you ever have enough pens and pencils? I just love it. I guess it is hereditary because all 5 of my kids love this one thing about preparing to go back to school. And although I can see the end of summer creeping up on me, I have to hold it back. But that of course is like holding back an ocean wave, it will just go around me and occur anyway.

So here is my plan…. I am going to enjoy the remainder days of the summer, AND get ready for school all together. We live from paycheck to paycheck so it will take a month to afford to buy all that is needed for 5 children in school. So I think a trip to the Dollar Tree is in order. (And for those that have not had the pleasure of loving this wonderful store of everything being $1, I am truly sorry and hope that you will soon.) We will buy pencils, copy paper, and notebook paper. Erasers, pens, post-its, paper clips and schedule books. We go to other stores for the color pencils, crayons and folders. Back packs are pretty good from the end of last year so that is one expense that we do NOT have to bear. But even buying these items at the dollar store adds up. So we will have to figure out something to make this fun and entertaining.

This week we are going to do a school supply scavenger hunt around our house. What do we have? What do we need? What can we reuse? What has seen better days? What has served its purpose and needs to go the way all good school supplies go? (circular file) Even that is fun. Amazing what you find when you go in search of….

I used to roll my eyes and say, OMG when I read the school supply lists that the teachers and schools put together. I mean, really?! Get

frustratedmom 150x150 And on a Brighter Note.....Back to School!

They want baby wipes and what?!

your own Kleenex, buy your own copy paper….. Right? But mine eyes have been opened. Teachers get paid less than minimum wage and they buy and buy and buy supplies all year long. We should be buying our children’s supplies and replenishing them throughout the school year not the teachers. And they really do know what they are asking for and it all has a purpose and gets used, pretty darn quick.

And on a brighter note, when break is over we can all get back to our usual routine. But we also have to return to the struggles that education brings with it. May be this year will be different (yeah, right), but we will start off on a better note than we left off and there may be some miracles afoot~we can pray can’t we?

So for now the brighter note is that we still have a few days left of summer. And it is my responsibility to make them fun, productive or just plain relaxing. So here we go, countdown, 21 days left for one and 47 days for the other 4. I feel bad for my son, who goes back to school the first of August when his siblings don’t have to go back til August 26th. But he will have more days off and get out earlier than they do. So it will all equal out in the end.

We are not giving up on summer, but it quickly giving up on us. So deep breath and open eyes and schedule book… Let’s pray it stops raining long enough for us to do something! It has rained almost every day since the children were released from school and that has put a bit of a damper on our days. So a craft it is…..