School Days

You know those light bulb moments? The ones where something that has been lying dormant in the recesses of your mind suddenly pops to the forefront and reminds you that an event (usually a big one) is just around the corner (and you probably should have been preparing for it before now). I had one a week and a half ago. It went a little something like this:

My Dad was assembling shelves in our spare bedroom, which also serves as my craft workspace/storage area. New shelves (like visits from friends) seemed like one of the few happy reasons to clean in which rather than grumbling about the task at hand, I would whistle. If I knew how. In an attempt to organize, I began clumping like-items together and ran across a stack of magazines - ones I had kept for inspiration for future projects. On top of the stack was a Pottery Barn Kids magazine. The back-to-school issue. CLICK! Bright lights! Audrey starts school in a week and a half. Kids who go to school have backpacks. Audrey doesn't have a backpack. Audrey needs a backpack. Have you seen the backpacks available? Small children walk to the school bus towing backpacks that make them look as if they have plans to hike the Appalachian Trail for a week. Chiropractors watch from their offices realizing there's a whole new client demographic they've missed until now. Backpack. Where can I get a preschooler-sized backpack? Look at the cute ones in the Pottery Barn magazine. I don't feel like driving to a store. You know, I am surrounded by fabric.

And that's how it began. A random train of backpack thoughts - that I kept to myself, mind you, since there's no reason to have one's perfectly sane father wondering just where his once-bright daughter's sanity has gone. But that moment I began laying out fabric and finagling together an Audrey-sized backpack. A fabric remnant, some felt scraps, a couple trips to the fabric store (guess there was some shopping involved after all) for the strap supplies, stolen moments of time here and there to put it all together, and we ended up with a bag just the right size. Well, at least until she decides to hike the Appalachian trail.

And as for school, it seems to be a good fit, too. Audrey loved her first day (she goes once a week for four hours). This time it was an abbreviated day: two hours to help the kids adjust to their new surroundings. Next week it's the full four hours, complete with lunch. She's going to need a lunch box. Hmm...