The first day of school is coming....

We have been busy around here, buying school supplies (yes, $276 worth of them) for 4 boys, from lists that are longer than my arm it seems. And please tell me what kindergarten child needs 12 glue sticks? I mean, seriously! But they were on his list, so we bought them. Along with the 2 packages of regular crayons and 2 packages of twist-up crayons, the mountains of pencils and erasers and folders (not paper, but plastic ones) and paper and specific kind of notebooks and binders and post-it notes and pens and red marking pencils and 3 ounce cups and baby wipes and tissues and cap erasers and backpacks and lunch boxes.....SIGH


It makes you tired, doesn't it? It does me, first Walgreens for their ad stuff which they didn't have much of, then Wal-Mart to finish out the list, although they only had 1 package of twist-up crayons... then Kohls for backpacks for the high school boy and middle school boy because with the amount of stuff they have to carry around, they have to have a heavy-duty backpack!

I know times have changed and all, but all I remember buying was some pencils and loose leaf paper and that's all I remember! I don't remember teachers being so very specific about "only plastic folders, not paper" and "2 inch binder, no other size." And the worst part of all is that after the first couple of days of school, they will all come home with things that each specific teacher wants them to have just for her class (that we haven't bought already), like a stenographers notebook or index cards or something like that. It doesn't seem like much, but when you multiply that times 2kids that have 7 classes apiece and 2 more kids who have 1 teacher but may have a GT teacher or music or PE or something else... it really really adds up. Even for families with 1 child, it adds up.

I haven't even said ANYTHING about buying new school clothes, because heck, after buying all these school supplies, who has any money for new clothes? But the good (??) thing is that here in Arkansas it will be hot for several more months, they will be wearing shorts to school probably until into October sometime. So their summer wardrobe will have to work, it has been over 100 degrees for I think over 2 weeks now and it's just too hot for long pants!

Basically where we live, the boys wear shorts from mid-March until probably mid-October, and suddenly one day it will be cold and they will have to find pants that fit, and let me tell you, that is no easy task! It's impossible of course, for growing boys to wear the same pants more than one year, so I try to anticipate what size they will be! HAHAHAHAHA

If you have sons, you know that's a joke! One of my friends has a son who grew 9 inches in one summer. Nine inches. With the younger 2, I can at least make a good shot at figuring out what size they need, because when they are 9 and 5, they don't skip many sizes. The 14 and 12 year olds, that's another story. Oh, my word, how those boys grow! They are both taller than me, which, granted, isn't any big shakes. They are at least 5'6" each, have feet bigger than is imaginable, and are fast catching up in size to their father! I know my 14 year old skipped 2 shoe sizes at one time once. And that was from a 10 to a 12!

We have 11 more days and counting for school to start, it's a mixed blessing of course, for me since my youngest is starting kindergarten and I will be feeling the quiet of an empty house for 5 days a week instead of just the 2 days that he was going to preschool in the spring. The house will get cleaner more often, the dinner will be cooked and planned better, and probably more laundry will get done. I hope to get a lot more sewing done, but I would trade it all for one more year with Tyler at home. Sounds sad, I know, but when you've been a stay-at-home mom for 11, nearly 12 years, it's hard to switch gears.

But switch gears I must because I won't hold Tyler back. I won't let him know how much I will miss his sweet face or fixing him his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Because kids grow up. They just grow up. I don't have to like it, but I do have to let them go. And buying $$$$ worth of supplies is the first step towards it. It took us all weekend practically to acquire all these necessary items, but acquire them we did. And I promised myself not to get crazy when Tyler brings home 11 unopened glue sticks the end of school next year!