It is that blessed time of the year for the MacLeish family. Time when I head off to WalMart and buy school supplies for the upcoming year.

Umm, did I mention I'm buying them for the upcoming YEAR? Yup, there's something about 10 cent notebooks that has an irresistable draw to me. They won't be this cheap for another year, so I better make sure I don't run out. Six cases hit the shopping cart, one each for my wife, me, and the three oldest (the two youngest can split a case...they don't use that much paper anyway). Crayons? At 10 cents a box, load 'em up. 20 boxes later, we're headed onto the pens. At 50 cents for ten pack, we can't buy with the reckless abandon we employed in our purchase of notebooks and crayons, but we're not gonna let these bargain babies go. Ten packages find their way to my little wire bargain bin. Shoppers rush to buy glue, scissors, and markers before we get there as I approach them with a gleam in my eye that strongly resembles that of Kirstie Alley at an all you can eat buffet. A half hour and a couple C-notes later, we're out the door with a cart full of school supplies mixed with groceries, as well as my oldest's birthday bike, casualties of the bargain hunting madness of Gideon MacLeish. We managed to restock most of our food staples and our school needs at the same time, and my wife is pretty excited to see most of the haul.

I'm still getting looks about the 20 pound bag of pinto beans, though. But hey, what can I say? We won't go hungry (shrug!)