do your kids eat their stationery at recess?

We got to the bookstore every week to buy stationery and more stationery. I’m beginning to think school kids eat their stationery at recess which is why they always need to buy them so regularly.

Just yesterday, we bought clear folders, ring clips, more pens, more glue… and 2 pairs of scissors? Well, that’s because I wouldn’t let the girls buy safety cutters because they can be pretty dangerous.

I do keep bulk supplies of erasers, correction tape, etc in stock to avoid making emergency trips to the bookstore on a Sunday night. Trust me, if we buy any more stationery, I could be opening a convenience stationery store myself.

the reluctant cook

My friend told me she bought a couple of recipe books from the Pearson sale last weekend. Suddenly I was reminded of all the recipe books I have in my kitchen drawer that I’ve barely touched.

At one time, I imagined myself to be on my way to becoming the Ratatouille of all time . You could find me in my kitchen cooking and baking up a storm almost any day of the week.

My kids were happy and my friends were happy to be at the receiving end of my culinary masterpieces . Has it been that since I turned out anything that even smells remotely like bread or cakes from my kitchen? Hmm, maybe it’s time to find my apron and dust out ‘em old recipe books, eh?

Pearson book sale

The girls and I were at the Pearson book sale yesterday. We’d been waiting excitedly for it since the day we found out about it.

You can’t blame us, we haven’t been to a book sale in months and our book supply has long since run dry.

They have a great selection – thousands and thousands of books. The only problem is they aren’t categorized so you have to plough through every bin.

I spoke to a couple of people who agreed the prices were pretty good too considering we’d have to pay three times as much at regular prices.

And what a haul we made yesterday ! 26 books in all! This photo shows only half our stash. We would’ve bought many more if the credit card system wasn’t kaput.

We had two boxfulls but when we got to checkout, the girls had to put many of the books back because I didn’t have enough cash to pay for all of them.

I think they missed out on quite a bit of sales there as lots of people were stuck with insufficient cash. Too bad. We might be going back there today to haul home some more.

label printing supplies

The amount of printing we do in the family, you’d think we were a print shop! Lately I’ve made it my mission in life to be on the lookout for all sorts of cheap printing supplies.

I’ve recently added PlanetLabel.com to my long list of bookmarks. PlanetLabel is an online store that specializes in laser and inkjet labels as well as preprinted labels.

See, these days, the kids aren’t just printing out project papers. They have art and craft projects that require printing on different types of labels including some I’ve never even heard of – like brown kraft labels and waterproof inkjet labels.

we need more stationery!

Raine and Skye bought new pencil cases last night and they’re huge as far as pencil cases go. They’re almost the size of a make-up bag with a zipper. Of course, my consolation is that they contain stationery and not make-up.

Yes, every weekend, we’re buying more stationery. Whatever for, I will never understand. There seems to be no end to it.

Me: Do you really need that many pens?

Them: Sure we do, Mom.

Me: And why are you buying more whiteout when you just bought some last week, or was it the week before?

Them: Because they’re on sale and you get a free beanie keychain with it. See, isn’t this beanie the cutest?

Me: Yes, real cute. And what’s this? Another mechanical pencil?

Them: Mine got stolen at school… or it just walked into someone else’s pencil case, I’m not sure .

Me: Yeah, right!

Well, it’s no use arguing really.

thank goodness for bookstores

I have to say bookstores are a heavensent to shopaholic moms. Sometimes when a group of us moms meet up at the mall with a combined total of anywhere between 7 to 10 kids in tow, we simply turn the kids loose into the nearest bookstore.

There we know they will be entertained for hours just soaking up all of their favorite books. They have each other for company and they know they’re not supposed to wander off on their own. It really works out very well for both the kids and moms .