Back to School

Okay, this is a completely irrelevant blog, just to warn you.

School shopping for four kids = total insanity. Any idea how many glue sticks it takes to get the Schnabel family back to school? About 40! Thank goodness Wal-Mart doesn't have a limit on school supplies or I would be in big trouble.

Crayons, markers, and colored pencils...it's just kindergarten for heaven's sake. They don't even know how to color in the lines yet. (Well, Alyssa does, but she's slightly OCD like her mom.)

Pencils x 20 x 4 kids = 80 pencils. Now I know why I had to take College Algebra...so that I would be equipped for back to school shopping! Pens, 10 each for the big kids, but they are supposed to be erasable?! If you want to be able to erase, use one of the 20 pencils I bought! And of course, the pencil erasers are not good enough. Each kid needs 3-4 large erasers and ten pencil tip erasers.

I blame the computer age. Have you ever noticed how many times you use the backspace button when typing? I challenge you to write a single sentence without backspacing, let alone an entire paragraph. Our dependence on the backspace button -that's why each kid needs three times more erasers than pencils.

And what about shoes? Seriously, I LOVE shopping for shoes, but there just aren't enough hours in the day. I have two in dance, so that's two pair of ballet shoes and two pair of tap shoes. Each kid has to have a pair of gym shoes to keep at school, so we're up to eight pair of shoes. Now they each need a pair of shoes to wear to school, so we are up to 12 pairs. Church shoes, make that 16. 16 pairs of shoes! Even the BOGO sale isn't going to save me on this one. And what are the chances we can get through an entire year without anyone outgrowing any of their shoes? Nil, that's what. Soon the banks will be offering home loans, car loans, and back to school loans. Sign me up!