a little bit of green

Spring is starting to pop up in around here. Temperatures in the 50's, 60's, and 70's for weeks on end have induced the grass and trees to begin thinking green.

One of my girls has also started thinking green, both literally and figuratively. She came up from the laundry room the other night with a giddy glint in her eyes and started asking about the bag of rice.

"Does all of the rice have to be gone before someone could use that bag?" she asked.

"Nope," I replied. "The rice is in a plastic bag inside the canvas bag."

"Ahhhh," she said, and disappeared back down. The next time I saw her she had the now-rice-free bag in one hand, and a large piece of green fabric and some batting in the other.

"Any chance you could help me make a new backpack?"

Well, I'll be darned. A backpack. Out of a rice bag. For a seriously fashion-conscious girl. Who would have guessed?

We lined the bag with green fabric, and added an orange pocket with a stick-on-velcro closure. The zipper came pre-installed in the bag -- I just had to be careful not to mess it up. We put a double layer of batting inside the straps to keep them soft with all those books pulling down, and over-stitched them onto the backpack at least half-dozen times, just to be safe.

And would you believe that all of her school folders fit inside the thing? Just barely, but they fit. This bag was meant to be a backpack.

The first day she wore it I asked if anyone had noticed she had a rice bag on her back. "Oh, everyone loved it," she said, tossing her hair out of her face and heading off for a snack.

Everyone loved it. My faith in generation-x-box has been restored. At least a wee little bit.