Feeding the monster

Josh has been feeding the monster in me.

The other day I decided that I need to buy backpacks while they are on sale. The idea was that I would bring them with us to Ethiopia so that our kids could have them for carry-ons for the flight home and so that they could just carry around whatever is precious to them on all the other days. I thought that in the midst of so much change and so many unknowns, having a few things that are important to them near by at all times might serve as a sort of security blanket for them.

I also decided I should buy school supplies while they are on sale just in case we bring home school age kids before the end of this school year. I talked with my sister-in-law and asked her to send me a list of what she suggests considering we won't know our kids ages for a while.

So off to WalMart I went. I bought tons of glue sticks. According to my sister-in-law, kids just love gluing stuff together. I bought crayons, markers, folders, paper, pencils, etc, etc. But then came the backpacks. Do I buy girl backpacks or boy backpacks? Do I buy little ones (for preschoolers) or regular ones? After a VERY long time debating, I bought 2 neutral regular size ones and 1 little one.

I came home, with $80 of school supplies in tow (and 2 mini etch-a-sketches for our kids to have for the plane ride home), and told Josh my dilemma as to what backpacks to buy. His answer: Buy one for every possibility and we will just donate what we don't use. So now we own 5 backpacks. (In addition to the 3 that we already own for ourselves. My school backpack. His laptop backpack. And our backpack for summer outings in the sun that stays stocked with sunscreen and such.)

Josh really should know better than to feed this monster in me!