No More Teacher’s Dirty Looks

School is officially out for summer, as evidenced by the giant pile of gently loved school supplies I found dumped out on the floor. I’m never sure what to do with these, what do you all do? We save the re-usable things (rulers, pencil sharpeners, markers, etc.) and I tuck any artwork away in a box downstairs – but I usually just toss the rest of it into the recycling.

I can’t help but wonder if that undermines my campaign for Mom Of The Year?

Finger’s crossed! This year may be my year!

When I was sifting through the supplies I found about a dozen of these paperclip sculptures. I’m not even sure where he gets paperclips in the fourth grade, truth be told.

It’s a given that your kids will zero in on something that drives you absolutely crazy and then adopt that as a new life policy. In Nicholas’ case it’s his affinity for garbage – he hates to throw anything away. If there’s a box or container waiting to go out to the recycling bin it emits some sort of beacon that he can hear from miles away. We have to sneak things out under the cover of night.

What amuses me about all of these bent paperclip creations is that they were important enough to him that he let them float around in his desk all school year long, and then when faced with the task of cleaning out his desk at the end of the year he deemed them important enough to make the trip home.

I’m sure the cats will ferret them out at some point and wake us all up in the middle of the night by chasing them all across the house. But for now I’m going to respect their importance and leave them be, even though it makes me twitch to do so.

See? Mother of the Year.