My Back-to-Writing Supply List

It was back-to-school for us last week. My daughter is in 7th grade, and in our school system that means it’s also her first year of middle school. She’s been so excited to start this new phase of her life.

And back to school for her means back to writing for me!

Don’t get me wrong—I love spending the summer with her. I embrace the whole ‘18 summers’ motto. But I also crave consistency and organization.

I did do some writing over the summer, more than I’ve been able to accomplish in the past thanks to my daughter’s long list of activities, but not on a consistent basis.

I will say that there’s one thing my daughter gets in her back-to-school ritual that I’m jealous of—supplies!

I think I have a bit of an addition to office supplies. I did break down and buy myself some new pens.

Although, one could argue that I already have enough pens and pencils...

I did refrain from buying a new journal. Like pens, I already have a lot of (unused) journals and they take up a lot more space than pens.

It was hard to resist though. They are so pretty.

If I could distribute a back-to-writing supply list, here’s what I’d put on it:

- Pens: Preferably the fine tip gel pens in pretty designs and multiple ink colors.

- Journals: Lined, inspiring, colorful

- Chocolate: Whatever format. All chocolate is good.

- New laptop: Yeah, the one I have works fine. But it’s big and difficult to write on the go.

- Wine: Preferably in the blush variety.

- Kleenex: My books even make me cry.

- Distraction Zapper: Okay, so I don’t think this exists, but if someone could invent it that’d be great.

- iTunes Gift Card: It’s always good to have some new music to write to.

- Ream of Paper: Need to prep for printing out that draft.

- Toner Cartridge: Might as well throw this in if I’m asking for stuff.

- Glue Sticks: I’m not sure why I’d need these, but every teacher seems to need an industrial-sized pack so I figure I should have some too.

What would be on your back-to-writing supply list?

~ Carrie

Hester Prynne, Jay Gatsby, Ethan Frome. Oh My!

Ahh yes. September. It’s time to go back to school! Fresh pencils, crisp loose leaf paper, immaculate folders and binders, and of course… new books! I’m sure many kids (current and former) had a love/hate relationship with back-to-school time like I did. You get to see all your friends, but you have homework, you aren’t bored, but you do have to sit through that one class where you don’t know anyone, you get to goof off in study hall, but you have to run laps for gym class. Summer reading was behind you… and a whole year of new reading material was ahead… wait. Who am I kidding? I LOVED both of those things!

While many of my classmates were still recovering from the near fatal speed-reading of the summer reading selection I was eager to crack open the first book of the school year, whether it was a novel or a textbook, it didn’t matter to me!

Each year there was always something I was looking forward to reading.
My biology textbook (yes, I was THAT nerd).
The Scarlet Letter.
The Great Gatsby.
Ethan Frome. ….What the eff?

Because of my epic nerdiness I never truly understood why many of my classmates hated school reading. But then I was forced to read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton in 10th grade English. Oh. My. Gosh. All I could think about during class discussions was “What have I done to deserve this?” And if I was struggling with boredom how were my normally bored classmates still breathing?  Why would anyone think it was a good idea to make teenagers read this book in high school? Not only that but the teacher dragged it out for two weeks! I’m pretty sure we watched a movie adaptation starring Liam Neeson, but the details are fuzzy...

Thankfully To Kill A Mockingbird was next…

Which required reading books did you love? Hate? Which ones did you just totally skip out on? Have you gone back to reread any of them to see if they were really as good/bad as you remember?