Buried in a Notebook

We're cleaning out school supplies this morning.  And I don't mean "cleaning out" as in "throwing away".  I mean going through everything to see what can be used again this year.  I just can't take a mostly unused notebook or a clean pocket-folder with sturdy corners and pitch them just because they're a year old.  The thought of all those trees that gave their lives... I just can't recycle then until they're fully used, so I glean the unused paper out of them for loose leaf paper.  The frugal woman in me actually washed off a marked-up, but otherwise unused big pink eraser and I fully intend for a child to use it this year.  One year I even cleaned up water-color paint trays for additional use, but quickly realized it wasn't worth the effort.  I even keep the handouts that the children bring home and use the black side for scrap paper.  But, I draw the line at sending in pencil stubs and used markers.  Though if I could see how much ink was left in the markers, I just might.

It's odd, I have a tray of uncooked chicken in the fridge that I have to throw out because I didn't cook it in time (and I don't want to risk it).  I have no qualms about that, but school supplies with life in them give me agony.

I find interesting things while gleaning through the notebooks, though.  In one of Emma's notebooks today I found this second entry for her "Poet Laureate of the Northwest Bedroom" status.  It was a rough draft "about the author" paragraph for one of her 5th grade projects.

"Emma Dailey, a 10 year old girl who has a hard life due to her 13 year old sister Tara as well as her 9 year old lookalike sister Kay.  She was born on June 17 2000 (is supposed to be born on June 17 1999).  She has a family of 7 due to her grandpa and has bonded with her mother thoroughly and might make her mother go overbord sometimes and is known to be a machmaker.  She is a vampier."

*chuckle* 

Poor Emma and her hard life.  Maybe I'll go overboard today.