Confession:

I am not one of those amazing homeschooling moms you might see on TV. I don't have a dedicated classroom and special study spots for my kids. There are no maps hanging on our walls and no one writes in a daily journal. These are all things I always think we'll do. Things I excitedly plan into the year...and they never make it.

I also don't take my kids to the library several times a week.

I don't really even know how to properly utilize Library Day since all that happens is my Oldest gets a million Star Wars books, the middle gets books on 50 different subjects that end up all over the house, and my pre-reader just sits at the library computer with headphones on and tries to yell his "whispers" to anyone nearby.

In fact, I can't even remember to turn my books in on time.

All these things make me very grateful one of my closest friends works at the library. Now I can borrow a few books and she's usually on top of my account, helping me get things in before accruing major fines.

Now when I hear about an interesting book I usually can borrow it and enjoy it knowing I have help getting it turned in. That is, until the move.

I was reading a great book in the final weeks of my pregnancy and carting it with me everywhere so I could grab any spare minute to read. I even packed it for the hospital when the baby was born...or I think I did.

It wasn't long after we moved that I realized it was lost. I was pretty bummed that I'd have to buy a new one, but knew it had never been unpacked so really was gone.

Until earlier this week when I mentioned it to my friend and she told me it had been returned to the library! Some stranger had found my book, somewhere, and returned it for me.

Such a little thing but it made me smile all the same. Someone went out of their way to help me out, or to help the library, who knows? But they did..and it blessed me.

Today I woke up cranky. Do you ever do that? Maybe for no reason what so ever you wake up just plain irritated at the world. Annoyed that you have to wake up at all.

I was cranky. I tried very hard not to act cranky and any poor children who happened to cross my path before my morning cup of decaf, but that wasn't easy since the day started with my 5 year old slamming open my bedroom door and waking both me, an the baby.

But, I digress.

So I was trying not to act cranky, drinking my decaf coffee and doing my best to pretend it was my favorite regular coffee when I realized that I had some things to finish up in the kitchen that got put on hold yesterday when my sink, literally, exploded. Yep. I was minding my own business, doing some dishes when something popped and water started pouring out from the cabinet beneath the sink...so my chicken separating and marinating never happened.

Remembering this I put the baby in her swing and tasked her sister to hang out with her while I finished up.

Then i heard the most beautiful sound...deep, true, loud belly laughs from the baby. If you are not a parent I don't know if I can properly explain how magical that sound is. It is the sound of joy that has never known heartbreak or disappointment. It is glee that has never been embarrassed or shamed. It is pure and lovely.

And it is magical.

It has the power to take a cranky, busy mom and make her stop in her tracks and forget that she still hasn't had breakfast, that her coffee is decaf, that there is something sticky on the floor, that the laundry is piling up in the bathroom, that she's behind in all she had planned for the week and it's only Tuesday, and that she hasn't properly slept in months.

Because her baby is laughing.

That cranky and frazzled mom will abandon the chicken and the marinade and for a few moments she'll be just as carefree as her precious baby...because mom is laughing too. With the same abandon and joy, mom is laughing too. And so are the big brothers and big sister. We are all sharing in this moment together and it's like a giant reset on the day.

We went on to deal with everyday stuff. The children bickered and pouted over chores, but my whole day felt lighter because i got to stop and relish in that laughter.