The start of school.

I was never one of those Moms that looked forward to the start of school.  It meant getting everyone up and out of the house early.  We tend to like to sleep in and take our time getting out and about.  It also meant time for Hyper Nag Mom to make an appearance.  Did you do your homework?  Is there everything in your backpack?  Did you set out your clothes?  Don't get me wrong, I like to nag.  I just don't like it to be a daily thing for 9 months straight.
Going back to school also meant dealing with the daycare and making sure they were getting my kids to school on time.  Having a back up plan in case one of my daughters got sick at school and so on.   I was lucky enough to be able to only work four days a week during most of my kids childhood and three days a week during most of the high school years.
I was also fortunate enough to have highly intelligent children that excelled in all of their subjects, except maybe P.E.  I could never fault them for that because my P.E. skills were always lacking, as well.
There were two things I always looked forward to before school started.  Clothes shopping and school supply shopping.  I still miss those things, so I make it a point to every year buy myself some new fall clothes and check out the school supplies.  I won't go into clothes shopping  for myself too much in this post because that's a whole other can of worms in my life, but we can talk about school supply shopping!
 I love school supplies!  There is nothing like adding some new colored markers, colorful spiral notebooks or folders with fun designs on them to my inventory.  Don't even get me started on talking about post it notes!  Yes, I am a post it note hoarder.  I have them in all sizes, shapes, colors and designs.   I also have many, many notepads also in all sorts of colors, designs, etc. etc.  This might lead you to believe that I'm a list and note maker and you would be right in that assumption!  Right now I'm surrounded by assorted notes.  I keep an appointment book on my desk with assorted appointments and tasks listed on it.  It is covered with sticky notes with some of the exact same memos to myself but I think I might pay more attention to them if they are also on a brightly colored note.  I have a grocery list, a Walmart/Target list and a to do list always within reach.  If I find a notepad or sticky notepad with a Hello Kitty design on it, I have to buy it!  It's a given.  I can't possibly understand why someone else wouldn't want a wonderful notepad or sticky pad collection, but that's just me.  Here's a very small sampling of what I'm talking about.

This is the second year I haven't had a child going to school/college.  My youngest graduated from college in 2012.  I don't miss that one bit.  Eventually, maybe, I certainly hope one day I will be a Grandmother.  Then I will be able to shower my grandchild with school clothes and supplies.  I will leave the school nagging to their parents, but I will probably nag their parents a little bit to make sure they've done everything a good parent should do as far as nagging goes. :o)