Adventure bags

I bought myself a new backpack at the start of the academic year this year, a JanSport Splice backpack. It was the first backpack I’ve purchased in almost twenty years. My old backpack, an older version of the JanSport Right Pack backpack (back before lap top sleeves were things people thought about), is still usable. I had a lot of academic (and other) adventures with it. It saw me through the bulk of my bachelor’s degree and both of my graduate degrees. But now I’m having adventures of a different sort and found myself needing more than just the basic three pockets that one had.

My current bag has two side pockets for water bottles and/or burp rags. It has two small front pockets with a camera and hanky in one and other first-aid style things in the other. It has a “lap top” pocket that is the perfect place to put two muslin blankets. It has a front pocket to keep books, hand sanitizer, sun screen, pacifier, and other smaller items. And it has a large pocket perfect for three sets of diapers, a changing pad, wipes, a munchie mug, a baby-wrap-carrier, and a few toys. My backpack has to carry not just my supplies for adventures now, but the supplies for three other people as well.

Iddo has a pack-pack that she carries for adventures too. On occasion I’ll pack it for her to make sure it has things she’ll actually want/need at our destination (like when we go to church). But mostly she just likes to bring her pack-pack because Momma and Daddy always take their pack-packs when we go places so I let her put whatever she wants to in there. Part of the fun for me is seeing what she thinks she’ll need on our adventures. Once that meant she brought all 18 of our crocheted rainbow sorting balls. Another time she brought all the contents of our ball basket. She brings books on a regular basis and that makes me happy too.

The contents of my new backpack are going to change over the years. It’s going to be fun to see what kind of adventures we have with it.