the sweet spot

right there in the middle of the February spending freeze.  (A little history:  we decided, in a completely undemocratic fashion, that February with its only 28 days, would be the first month that our family attempts to buy absolutely no new object.  No clothes, trinkets, toys, books, thread, cards, magazines, etc.  So far, aside from three comic books in NYC, we've been utterly successful.)  

This afternoon, as we drive home from French lessons in the ubiquitous minivan, after stops at two different public libraries in the quest for a Tintin book to satisfy the cravings of a finicky reader who insisted that we NEEDED to go to Borders in order to BUY a Tintin book, the interior is absolutely silent.  With their overhead lights shining, in the dusk between day and night, they've their heads bent over brand new library books, so absorbed that they don't notice the goofy grin on their mother's face as she heads toward home.