Last night was rough. As predicted, the “magic call” never came, and once the kids were in bed, it was just me and the apple crisp.

And, truth be told? I’m kinda all apple crisped out.

This morning I decided I needed a little TLC from someone who really loves me. So, after I got Chickadee on the bus and Monkey settled in at school, I headed to Target. You can’t be sad at Target. That’s a fact.

I was just in time to see the price team start to mark the backpacks down from 50% off to 75% off. This, my friends, is undeniable proof of God’s love for us. Do you feel it? I sure did. My pulse is still racing, a little.

My current deal with the kids is that at the beginning of each school year they get either a new backpack or a new lunchbag. This year they got new lunchbags (purchased on clearance, last year). But of course we’d gone to Target for other school supplies and each child had made their preferences for new backpacks emminently clear to me. And because I am the meanest mother in the world, I gently responded with, “Tough. You got a new lunchbag. Move on.”

But today? Brand spanking new rolling backpacks for each of them. The ones they’d already picked out. Well, that’s not entirely true. My children opt for “character” items, given complete freedom. I tend to shy away from character stuff because then when the next character comes along, the current one is thrown out of favor. Also, Monkey is into superheroes that make my eye twitch a little, and I may not be able to change the fact that he is cursed with a defective Y chromosome, but neither do I need to buy him licensed Spiderman gear. So I do “encourage” (read: insist) that they choose items with slightly more generic themes; bugs or flowers or something that won’t become uncool as soon as a new show premieres on Nickelodeon.

(I know someone is going to bring this up, so: Chickadee’s Hello Kitty backpack was puchased last year after hot debate, which Little Miss Chicky herself was able to settle by pointing out, “Mama, she’s just a kitty. Just a kitty, sitting there. How could I stop liking her?” And so far, so good. But her current obsession, Strawberry Shortcake, needs to go away very soon.)

So it was with much swooning and fluttering of my heart and trembling of my knees that I picked up the flower bag for Chickadee and the frog bag for Monkey and realized I was getting both of them for under $10 total. And should the children balk at these selections, next year? I will help them to see the light. As in, I will inform them that these are the backpacks we have and I am not buying any others and there are children starving in China so hush up, eat your pop-tart and knock it off, already.

I would have been happy with only that. But I am here to tell you that Target loves me so much, it never wants me to leave with less than a cartful of goodies. There were Dymo label makers for 75% off (how popular am I gonna be when everyone else is giving mugs and candles for teacher gifts and we’re handing out these?), and organizational folder bin thingies, and all sorts of Targety goodness. Thus my faith in the world was restored.

Because, sometimes–to quote my dearest Kira–shallow is deeper than me.