My Back to School Lesson

So here I am.  My thoughts are now finding their way out of my mind into my fingertips and onto your computer.  I must be careful with what I say as it will now have an everlasting "life" in the PC/ Mac world.  I'm a PC by the way.  The current thought on my mind is the anticipation of the first day back to school.  My children will be starting 4th grade and 7th grade respectively.  My daughter, Naomi has to have all school supplies new, labeled, organized and is thankful for each and every one of them.  You could say she gets the "fever" for back to school from me.  Ahh, the smell of new crayons, pencils and clean, crisp paper was enough to make me at age 9 get a little woozy.  I loved it!  To share that love of back to school fever with Naomi is priceless to me.  She gets me.  My son, Elijah... let's just say he likes to keep it simple.  He's a man's man.  For him going back to school shopping just gets in the way of him doing what he really wants to do and that's play video games.  Urrghh!  However, it was while I was attempting to rub off the "fever" on Elijah that he told me something that just stayed with me.  Well, he told me two things.  The first thing is "Mom, I really don't need new pencils.  I can just use the pencils that are under my bed!"  I couldn't help but laugh.  The second thing he told me is "Mom, it's not that I don't care about my education, I do.  I just don't care about things."  There you have it ladies and gentlemen.  Out of the mouth of babes.  My soon to be teenage son who should be focused on material things focused on the thing that really matters this back to school... education.  While it's great to get excited for our new things we need to remember that many families will not be able to buy their children new school supplies or school clothes.  They will use last years supplies and their siblings hand-me-downs to get them through this year.  Let's remind our children the privilege and the honor of getting an education.  For this I am most thankful for my son for reminding me.  However, please don't look at me funny if you catch me in the supplies aisle smelling a brand new box of crayons.  That's just nostalgia.  Happy Back to School!