The summer holidays are in full swing here in Australia, which means visits to the movies, lazy mornings with sleep-ins (yes!) and a generally relaxed lifestyle for weeks on end.

With a little under three weeks of holidays left, it also means it’s time to start thinking about the kids going back to school and making preparations for this momentous event.  Yes, I love the holidays, but by this stage of the long, long, llooooonnngggg summer holidays, I’m just about ready for those days where admittedly, the routine drives me nuts, but I do get the house to myself for a few hours each weekday.  As an added plus, the kitchen remains in a pristine state and I’m not interrupted with a question every ten minutes.

So we’ve started preparing for school, which means checking out the uniforms and replacing worn-out items, running through the school book checklist, buying new pencil cases and lunchboxes.

And the highlight of it all?  Stationery.  The back to school part of the year is stationery nirvana for me.  The department stores and supermarkets are absolutely full of pens and paper, notebooks and textas, a multitude of wonderful items that I can spend hours drooling over.  And don’t even get me started on gel pens – which are tantamount to my own personal crack addiction.