Inspire: It's School Season

The school season is upon us… and I am not ready.

I keep thinking the stores are putting their stuff out early and I need to wait for it to go on sale.  I keep thinking I have a whole month to go before my kiddo starts 6^th grade and his first year at Middle School.  In real life, school starts on August 18^th.   I only have a few weeks left before the daily rigor of classes start again. 

I remember when I was a kid, I got a few new clothes, new shoes, and new supplies.  I loved and hated school supply shopping.  I knew we didn’t have much money and so I would pine for the nifty supplies and would only ask for the basic necessities.  My grandma would often let me get a couple neat folders, though.  I think my obsession with stationary supplies stems from this. 

When I go shopping for my kiddo, I tend to do the same thing.  I let him pick a couple neat folders or notebooks but we keep it cheap because I’m normally broke.  But, being crafty, I normally like to do something special for him.  In his old school, supplies were shared so there wasn’t much to be crafty about but not so in him new school.

Last year, we grabbed a binder from a garage sale and covered it in duct tape and a Naruto picture. And  I made him a red and black pencil pouch.  This year he needs a pencil pouch that can clip into a binder and gym clothes.  While I don’t plan on making gym clothes, I think I might make him a biohazard bag to hold them.

Are you ready for the school season?  If you don’t have kids, are you psyched for the sales?

Inspire: Back to the New

My son starts school in a week and a half.  Don't ask me why they start on a Thursday, because I don't understand it.  It's a new school and the earliest he's ever started.  The kiddo will also be in a regular classroom for the first time since kindergarten.  In his old school, he was in the multi-age program which was is two grade levels in one classroom, the older students helping the younger, and much more hands on and active.

So, he isn't really "going back to school" this year, he is "going back to the new" or "going forward to school."  New school, new rules, new patterns and habits.  It's a turning point, like every year is, but this one holds the potential to be so much more.

It has made me think about my patterns and what new habits I want to create.  I haven't changed anything but my location - still going to the same work place, the same events.  But I feel that I am ready to change, and have begun to change.  Like junking my broken down car and riding my bike to my vanpool site.  Now I just have to remember that summer is always sucky weather and that doesn't give me a reason to grab a ride all the time.

Our Inspiration for this week is moving forward with new habits or in a new way.  How are you changing?