School Supplies

Okay,I'm sorry to talk about school supplies,but it IS that time of year.One thing I don't miss about raising school-age kids is the annual school supplies buying marathon.The lists of things they 'needed' was ridiculous. I would spend LOTS of time and money cruising through store after store looking for the specific notebook(Hilroy # whatever, not coil bound, 80 pages,not 120 pages, 15 for each kid, and they come in sets of 8 or whatever, 10 pencils each,etc,etc, and they wanted their name written on each item. I have 5 kids. Please.) For a long time I haven't had to buy school supplies at all now that the kids are all grown, so a few years ago when I saw a school supply list on the Ten Thousand Villages website(Mennonite Central Committee) for children going to school in poverty-stricken areas of the world I was intrigued. The list is simple(It's on the website) and the supplies are basic and inexpensive,if you hit the sales, and now every year I buy 5 sets,in honour of my kids, and because I remember how hard it is to afford school supplies. You take the supplies in to the Ten Thousand Villages store and they put them in book bags and send them to schools in different parts of the world.