Back to School Soon!

We finally finished back to school shopping yesterday with a trip to Famous Footwear to take advantage of their 'Buy One, Get One Half Off' sale. Michael, like all boys, is ridiculously rough on his shoes and, as much as I love Walmart, I have to sadly say their shoes barely make it a month on Michael's feet before they begin to fall apart. I'm hoping that spending a little more on some better quality shoes will pay off in the long run by lasting him more than a couple months before I have to buy him yet another pair. Plus we hit the clearance rack and found a pair of Shaq Platinum basketball shoes that cost less than what I've spent on his shoes in past years at Walmart! Now that's a deal!

I have a stash of jeans and a few new Tshirts all ready to go for him, along with a new backpack and lunch bag, pencils, pens, erasers, folders, and book covers. Aaahhh...I love back to school shopping. I'm an office supplies junkie--you should seriously see my stash of pens, it's ridiculous. I have just about every color of the rainbow in ball points and gel pens, glitter, metallics and milkies. I could never buy another pen the rest of my life and still leave a good supply to pass along to Michael in my will (haha, and he wanted money!!) Fat, pretty notebooks also call out to me...I love to journal along with obsessive list making, so I have another good stash of half-filled notebooks from years past, tucked here and there throughout the house. It's far more tempting for me to walk through the back to school aisles than it is the candy aisles this time of year! I want!! I want!! But I don't need so I look, sigh a little sigh, and force myself to focus back on the shopping list at hand.

My not so little anymore Bug will begin fourth grade in a couple more weeks here. He's not nearly as excited as I am. I believe he could live an eternal summer break. But after three hot, sticky months of back talk and bemoaning boredom, I'm ready to have my house and schedule back on track once again. Hubby out the door to work, kiddo on the bus to school, then it's just me, the birds and dogs, and peace reigning for a few blissfully quiet hours...aaahhhh! Yes, I believe I'm ready.

And once life's order is restored to the Maurice household, my attention turns quickly to the holidays. I break out the Christmas planner at the end of the month here. I've already got a good start on shopping, having found a few good deals to snag throughout the year. But I have a favorite website: http://christmas.organizedhome.com/ that offers the list-a-holic a few different holiday planning guides, all with printable to do lists, gift ideas, recipes and more. Fantastic!! I used to dread the coming of Christmas every year until I discovered this website--I actually hated the holidays altogether! But a little headstart with good early planning has made it a much more enjoyable experience and now I always look forward to getting that jump on things every year! As Spongebob would say..."I'm ready, ready, ready, ready!!!" Haha!

Picture of the day: Phase Three of the back porch, the tile is all laid, needs grout and baseboards. Lookin' good!