On Monday, I took on my first supply teaching assignment and I survived. I survived the dozens of flights of stairs I had to climb. I survived the 1-hour drive home through rush-hour traffic. And I survived the tremendous discomfort of the shoes I once wore a couple of years ago.

When I arrived at my mother-in-law's to pick up my darling baby, who I had missed so much, my husband was already there. He told to me to call out to her before I entered the room to see if she would recognize my voice and react ecstatically, as she normally does. So I called out her name. She barely flinched. I called to her once more. Still, very little reaction. I entered the room and greeted her with a huge smile. That caught her attention for a second, then she turned back to her toys. To my utter disbelief, she didn't miss me. I was dying to see her all day long and worried that she would be missing her mother but I was apparently mistaken.

Until I picked her up. Then Madeleine went nuts! Nuts, I tell ya! She was slap-happy and grinning from ear to ear. Now that's more like it!