Bubblegum Blessings

The public schools in our area started back up today. The school bus zoomed by our house as my little bedhead monsters stumbled down for breakfast.

We started our school year last week, so the significance of the day did not immediately hit me...not until the day was smoothly in motion, with Tootsie watching Sesame Street and both boys quietly working on grammar and silent reading at the kitchen table.

In that sweet controlled silence, it happened. There was a sound similar to the pop of an air gun, followed by cackling and chaos. Apparently, my youngest man child was trying to blow a bubble when he literally shot his bubblegum from his puckered lips onto his reading book. He quickly returned it to his mouth, but the quiet order of the room would not return.

 I realized that while some mothers were shedding tears because their babies were spending the day in school, I would be a complete idiot not to embrace the splendid immature antics in my kitchen classroom. And so begins our year. May it be full of unexpected simple joy and interruptions and smothered in snorts and belly laughs...