Contrasts

3:30 in the afternoon.

Amazingly, sitting in Hans’ classroom after carpool, it was quiet. Puck camped out under a table in the reading corner with his spelling book. Heidi sat at her dad’s desk with her math book. And Joe sat next to me on the floor with the sequel to “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”. Puck and Heidi talked lightly back and forth about homework assignments, almost like two adults instead of two 4th graders. After all the loudness that usually reverberates through that building, it was amazing to hear the passing calm.

Two and a half hours later, the evening meal was less so. But also good. Between my three boys, they laughed loud enough and long enough to rattle the walls at school, from our dinner table.