The stores have been PACKED with people buying back-to-school stuff. I can barely squeeze through to look at the clearance racks. I’m doing some shopping myself, but I’m also doing some NOT-shopping, which is very nice. My money: I like it and want it to stay with me.

Here’s what I’m NOT buying this year:

1. Whole new back-to-school wardrobes. I try to buy most of the kids’ clothes on off-season clearances, and with four boys we have a lot of handmedowns. “Being September” has so far not been a motivating reason to buy clothes. It IS a good time to buy socks and underwear on good sales—and in a few weeks, when everyone is done paying full-price for Being September wardrobes, some of the clothes will start going on nice clearances too.
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I’m not quite in the BACKTOSCHOOLOMG headspace yet, since my oldest kid is in year-round preschool and the other is still young enough to lustfully gnaw electrical cords if you don’t watch him, but I understand it’s kind of a Big Deal, getting all the supplies and whatnot. I assume preparation is exactly how it’s depicted on The Wire, where a violent criminal named Marlo gives children money to buy their school clothes, in order to create a lasting debt and sense of loyalty so he can better use them as pint-sized drug dealers? I mean, I don’t want to have to pay for these things myself, for crying out loud.

Anyway, in the back-to-school theme, I was thinking about lunch-toting products that might be useful to read about. We did a post on lunchboxes last year, and we also covered some BPA-free products—I’m thinking these subjects are two great tastes that taste great together, you feel me?

(God. Sorry. The Wire: ADDICTED.)

I’m still not super worked up over BPA, but my thinking is this: since BPA-free products are so accessible these days (and generally not more expensive), why not buy those instead? It’s a pretty easy choice for me, and I’m all about easy choices. Here’s a neat selection of food storage solutions—perfect for holding school lunches—that are all BPA-free.
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I took Rob and William, entering fifth and third grade respectively, to buy school supplies last night. My heart was pounding. My hands were sweating. It was difficult for me to let them choose their own colors/designs, rather than pressuring them into buying what I liked.

Relief came from the realization that I could buy school supplies for myself anytime I wanted to, even if I didn’t have my own list to consult. The nice thing about school supplies is they’re PRACTICAL. I bought two packages of Hello Kitty pencils, but I USE pencils. I bought a large package of many-colored Sharpie markers, but I USE Sharpie markers. I bought six 1-subject notebooks in assorted colors, six folders in colors to match the notebooks, a 3-ring binder with unicorns on it, and a Hello Kitty lunchbox, but I USE….uh.

Some more justifiably practical choices:
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All year long, I clip those little “Box Tops for Education” thingies, and the kids bring them in to their school. I didn’t know it until this school year, but the Box Tops program also has something called “Marketplace,” where certain online stores donate a percentage of your purchase to the school.  I’m doing a lot of shopping right now ANYWAY, so this is a nice way to help the school without having to volunteer to help out at the Winter Fair (*shudder*). Plus, as it turned out, it was an excuse to do a little giveaway, and I really like doing giveaways.
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My kids’ school (and I hope it’ll excuse me for saying so) is a big, no-fun poophead.  Every year I look forward to back-to-school shopping, every year I wait eagerly for the back-to-school shopping list—and every year it’s all “One box 24-count (NOT 48-count!) crayons, one box #2 pencils, two dry-erase markers (one must be black; the other may be red or blue or black), NO Trapper-Keepers, NO pencil boxes.”  Tell me this, then:  what can I do with all this awesome back-to-school stuff from Etsy?

Aqua retro floral pencil pouch.  I want to eat it on toast.
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Back-to-school preparation isn’t something that’s particularly on my radar yet since my kids are still mostly in the Anklebiter Stage of childhood, but I’ve been hearing a rumor that this most glorious time of year is fast approaching. 

With schoolgear in mind, today’s post features some cool lunch boxes I’ve found recently. If you’re looking to branch out from the tried-and-true paper bag, here are some excellent alternatives:
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When my oldest son went off to preschool, he needed a backpack.  I liked the idea of the Lands’ End and L.L. Bean ones, but why would I pay five times the price of a Walmart backpack?  So I bought him a $5 Walmart backpack, and it wore out in March when of course Walmart didn’t have any backpacks to replace it with.  I repaired it with packing tape and my crappy primitive sewing skillz.

The next fall, for kindergarten, I bought another Walmart backpack, but this time I got the one that was more like $8 instead of the one that was around $5—going for quality, you see.  That one, too, ripped before the end of the school year.  It was very frustrating.

So when my aunt gave us a gift certificate to L.L. Bean, I used it to buy L.L. Bean Original Back Packs for both of my older boys:  one for Rob, who was then going into first grade, and one for William, who was starting 4-year-old preschool.
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