Little Things That Make Me Smile

"Don't you just love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address..."
--Tom Hanks in the movie You've Got Mail
I know I've used this before in a previous post, but it's honestly one of my favorite quotes of all time. And it's getting to be that time of year. Not fall yet, unfortunately, but since it's almost August, the stores are packed to overflowing with school supplies. As a kid, one of my favorite things in life was shopping for each year's supplies. I loved choosing a fun tissue box, a new pencil case sporting whatever I was obsessing over that year, and I still remember every trapper keeper I ever had. What's better than fresh pencils and crayons? Now that Jake is starting Kindergarten, once again I get to relive fun things through my kids. A few weeks ago he picked out a Batman backpack, and last week we got everything else on his supply list. I can't believe he's old enough that his existence now requires a batch of #2 pencils! So this is a fun new phase we're entering, but something I've been doing in August for years now is restocking our own personal house stash of crayons. You know how it goes...after a while you have a plastic shoebox size container of all broken crayon bits and pieces, complete with stray papers that have been ripped off the crayons along the way. Well, every August I stock up on 10 cent boxes of brand new Roseart crayons to last us another year. And hey, if you're feeling crazy, go for the 22 cent Crayolas!!