To Pre-Pack or Not to Pre-Pack

     Today was the LAST day to purchase pre-pack school supplies for the 2012-2012 school year at LSA.  I know, a boring post topic and way too early to be thinking about it, but it has had me going back and forth all week. Do I save the trouble of searching 5 or 6 different stores for the right kind of supply that is also the cheapest?  Kenny says, Absolutely!  He tires of me holding onto receipts and taking back just one bradded folder to Walmart only to go to Target to get a different one.  Oh, and the time when Elijah needed a specific composition book, we had to go downtown to a Teacher Supply store only after we'd tried 4 other places.  So, with memories like that, the decision seems easy.  And almost EVERYONE I know takes that route.  Why waste time and gas when a pack of supplies on that first day of school can be waiting for you in the classroom?
     I always seems to have some traditional, sentimental reason for everything I do and it's usually the hard way,  and this ridiculous topic that I'm thinking about in June, is no different.  But here goes.  I love the hustle and bustle of parents and kids in school supply aisles. I love new folders and packs of paper and unopened pencils, and brand-new markers and pencil boxes and, you get the picture. I love taking all 3 kids' lists and making my own list and checking it off as I go.  I love the pile of supplies that sit in our kitchen for the weeks leading up to school and the excitement that builds.  And I love that when the kids go to school the first day their backpack is loaded with more than just their gym shoes and a change of clothes. I do. I love it all.  And that's why today I didn't send in my check.  And I'll be a fool come August when I'm running around with my list and loads of receipts.  But hopefully this long list of "I loves" about school supply hunting will resurrect itself and I'll hold onto that excitement and forget about the lost time and the mileage.  Be a dear and remind me, okay?