I didn’t mean to miss it.  I had big plans for heaping piles of Ticonderoga pencils, 3-ring binders, and an endless stash of glue sticks.  After all, we’re out of glue sticks – my buying spree at last year’s back -to-school sales lasted us all year.  Until now.  Until the last, forlorn glue stick that I carefully used for the county fair projects, rationing out the tiny bit of glue left.  We need to restock, and I blew it.

Well, it wasn’t really my fault.  I wasn’t exactly able to get up and go.  Still, I’m peeved.  Back-to-school sales are like Black Friday for homeschoolers – deals like this only come once a year.   If you miss it … oh well sucker, gotta pay full price now!

Ouch on that.  I sound like an old fossil in the office supply stores muttering about the cost of 3-ring binders.  Since when is $6 cheap for a 1-inch binder?  The kids beg for the sparkly ones, the super hero ones, the cool 3-D ones, and I flat refuse because $15 for a binder is INSANE!  Want glitter on your binder kiddo?  Here, open up that flap and I’ll dump it in for you.  I guarantee you’ll never get that stuff out because of this cool thing called static electricity.

Dollar Tree, you villain – you let me down.  I can’t buy your 3-ring binders this year because you put phthalates in them that I don’t want around the kids.  Kind of like the asbestos in the crayons deal – not cool, guys, not cool.

Some people are probably shaking their heads and saying “just shop the clearance already!”  Yeah, if I needed ruled notebooks I would be all set!  If I want a set of $.15 folders in some form of cohesive colors, I’m out of luck.  I don’t even think the local office supply stores even put this stuff on clearance.  They just plop it back on the shelf and mark it back up.

Normally, I would be rejoicing that I can avoid the long lines and crazy busyness of back-to-school shopping.  That I don’t have a shopping list full of things like tissues and anti-bacterial wipes.  Not this year.  This year I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel and we’re running low.

You know what that means, right?  I have to get out the other stuff.  The yucky, messy, goes-all-over-the-floor stuff.   White glue.  What homeschool nightmares are made of!