Friday, August 12, 2011

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Remember the Staples TV commercials showing a father gleefully dancing through the aisles of a store with a cart load of school supplies  with dour-faced children following him...and the background music proclaiming this to be 'the most wonderful time of the year'?  That's how I feel about back-to-school shopping time.  I love it!

And although I no longer have seven kids to buy school supplies for (thank goodness!) I can't stay away from the stores at this time of year.

I spent a good portion of this morning at WalMart mingling (and grinning) with mothers and kids, lists in hand, with shopping baskets piled high with all the new, fresh smelling, unblemished goodies needed for school, which starts in a couple of weeks.

I was shopping with my camera, mostly, and had to wait for people to clear out of the aisles so I could take pictures - very quickly and unobtrusively - of the fun stuff on display.

There were notebooks (we used to call them scribblers when we were kids) in all types and colors, 


...and binders...


...and crayons and markers - more colors than the standard 8 or 16 per box that we used to get.  I remember how exciting it was to get a box with 24 or the unimaginable 64 crayons in it.


...and more notebooks - fancy ones, colorful ones, in more different sizes - my personal favorite school supply.



...and of course pencils and pens, sharpeners and erasers, rulers and scissors - stuff dreams are made of!


...and backpacks to carry all the stuff in, causing permanent shoulder stoop.


...Ummmm - Post-it notes - don't get me started on Post-its.  I love them - all the different sizes and colors and shapes.  I use the narrow ones now to mark pages in my scrapbook magazines.


...and more pens.  Did I mention that I have hundreds of pens stashed in tin boxes around my house, and in decorative pails on my work table, and in pretty mugs, and holders.


...and markers - great for journaling on scrapbook layouts!

Kids these days are so lucky - they have such a wide variety of school supplies to choose from.  My favorite of all these supplies is notebooks.  I love notebooks.  I have a stash in my night table.  I buy them because they're pretty, or a convenient size, or just because.  I keep one in my purse, one on my scrapbook table, several by the phones, but they're mostly just kept in my drawer.  You never know when you'll need to write something down.


See that cute little one in the front.   Holly  gave it to me in June when I met her for the first time. It has a cute little owl on the front and a circle with the name of my blog on it.

And all that is why I think this is 'the most wonderful time of the year'.

Pat

14 comments:

Desiree said...

Your enthusiasm is so infectious I could rush out right now and stock up on supplies, except that it's close to midnight and I'm tucked up snugly in bed.

Holly said...

Aww, you still have the notebook. He looks cute in there all mingled in with the big guys. I'm a notebook freak too. I have a drawer full of them and can still never have enough. Also, I love, love, love the smell of crayons.

Michael and Hanne said...

I have a suggestion: you need to open a notebook store. Then you would be in seventh heaven!

Judy said...

Wow...so many options compared to what we had 'back in the day'! How fun to have a noteback collection.

Chatty Crone said...

You know it is so expensive to start school - it cost my daughter over $100 for my grandson!

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

It is an exciting time and I know all my grandchildren are looking forward to being back in school. Sure is different from when I went long a go.

Laeli said...

I'm sending my homeschooled daughter to school this year, her supplies are all paid for so I don't have to do any shopping BUT I miss it SO!
This post is just the fix I need:)

just call me jo said...

I love school supplies. Bouquets of sharpened pencils... Nice post. It is my pleasure not to have to worry about it any more.

Sush said...

This is the 'My Hand To Gawd' truth...just tonight I told my husband how I love the Wal-Mart commercial where they employees are tossing the school supplies all over the store to put in the bookbag. I said I would love it even more if they were doing it as a public service to encourage us to fill bookbags for needy kids. With all the unemployed people in our land I'm sure there are many families needing help on this front.

Hugs...and really wonderful pictures~

Southhamsdarling said...

Such an array of stuff there for going back to school. At the start of each school year, my granddaughter loves to get a new schoolbag and pencil case! Happy days.

BB said...

That commercial gave the Christmas song a new meaning didn't it? I love that commercial. My granddaughters will be doing their shopping soon. I wish I was there with them and buying their goodies. Some other time I guess :-(

TARYTERRE said...

Oh my. How this speaks to me. You touched my heart with this essay. I do the exact same thing. I thought I was the only one. Now I know I'm not alone. I love notebooks, too. Big ones, little ones. I carry 5x7 ones with an assortment of designs in my purse. I use them as journals, scratch pads, you name it. And I have to have color coordinating pens. I used to keep a closet full of supplies when my children were growing up. Now I have one all to myself.

Kath said...

Tho it was a hair pulling hour buying supplies when all 6 of the kids were in school I did enjoy it. But also like that I only have 2 to buy them for now.
I also keep a notebook in my purse. It full of all kinds of importants.

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