My latest purchases

Some women buy shoes, some can decorate a house, I buy books. I don't have to try them on, color shade doesn't matter, style is not an issue and they won't make me fatter.

Every March I go through the same thing...a mega trip to the library to get books on butterfly gardening, vegetable gardening and insects. Yes, insects. And you wonder where my children got the idea to start a bug collection. Somewhere there is a picture of me about kindergarten age lining up snails on the fence for a race. It wasn't a one time thing!

Anyways, on our bike ride last week Daddy found a caterpillar on the slide and we lovingly carried it home and tried to identify it. No luck. I wasted way too much time on the internet trying to figure out what it was...so I could give it the proper food so it would turn into a butterfly :) Eventually I ended up at the library but there aren't very many books about caterpillars. Instead I came home with dragonfly and butterfly books and books about butterfly gardening and garden crafts for kids...the same books I check out every year. But I was still upset about not being able to identify my caterpillar. So it was time to move on to the bookstore.

This is not a good thing. I LOVE THAT PLACE!!!! I need a huge monthly allowance to keep me happy. Thankfully it's like childbirth...I only do it every so often and then I forget about it (that was a random comparison!). As long as a I stay away I forget the temptation. I sat on the ground checking every insect book for my caterpillar...couldn't find it. Instead I found over $100 dollars worth of field guides and butterfly books I really wanted. Sigh. Then I started the rationalizing...I'm very good at that!!! Thankfully I was on a time schedule and ended up writing down the titles of the books I wanted and escaped with the two cheapest but FABULOUS books I could find...rationalizing that we're just starting in on bug collecting season this year and I really want to the girls to learn to identify and know all about the bugs they collect and it would be nice to have a small book in the car to help with identification. Although they have been catching all sorts of bugs, dragonflies and butterflies are by far their favorites, hence my purchases. I came home with slight buyers remorse for just a few minutes (I RARELY buy stuff other than a few craft supplies here or there) but woke up so happy to see them on the counter in the morning and to know they are MINE! Life can be so simple, and I am happy :)