Crazy weekend

I spent almost all day yesterday buying things for Noah. School starts in a few days. My parents bought him some uniform pants and I bought most of his school supplies. Of course, my sister has two kids in school this year, so my parents bought Hannah's school supplies. Except for the bright pink Bratz lunchbox. She really wanted it, so I got it for her. She's going to be so cute in her little uniform, carrying her pink backpack and pink lunchbox. It's her first year of school and she couldn't be more excited!

Anyway, school supply shopping is really different now than it was when I was a kid. I clearly recall that when I was in sixth grade, they didn't ask for specific types of highlighter markers, pencils and pens. They didn't have requirements about the types of folders and the colors of the composition books. When I was in sixth grade, I bought a binder, some notebook paper, some great folders, pencils and pens. That was pretty much it. No kleenex, no dry erase markers, no chisel tip blue highlighter marker... they require twelve folders with pockets and prongs, assorted colors. They require two packages of graph paper (50 sheets) but I couldn't find two packages of 50 sheets so I had to buy one package with 100 sheets. I hope he doesn't get into trouble. It's crazy! I have no idea why they are getting so specific, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that they want to stamp every bit of individuality from these kids and turn them into mindless, identical drones. Well, they're not getting Noah, or Hannah for that matter. They are strong, creative kids with their own identities. I strongly encourage that in them, and I will continue to do that as long as I'm in their lives.

Anyway, it was an interesting experience to buy all the school supplies. It was actually sort of funny to listen to the complaints of the moms in Target, talking about how expensive it is to shop for school supplies.

Today, I didn't do anything at all. Nothing. It was nice. I did a lot of thinking about things, a lot of soul-searching and considering things in my life. Sometimes everyone needs to stop and think about life. I did that today, and I'm glad I did. I feel better about some things now.