The Bigger the Book Bag...

We walk into the library, twins in the stroller, a boy on either side, and tell the librarian that we have books on reserve. They don't even ask for our name any more. They know it's us. We're the ones leaving with half the contents of the bookshelves.

On each of our weekly visits to the library, we have been accompanied by our trusty book bag, a gift from our old library. Every week, we shove dozens of books into its canvas expanse, the braided straps pulling taut under the weight of covers and pages and ink. For as long as Tiny has been alive (which isn't really saying much), we've been toting our weekly reading in that bag.

It's had a good long life. And now, preparing to breathe it's last, we are retiring it.

This month...I bought a new book bag.

For those of you who think a designated library book bag is an extravagance, I beg to differ. We have other bags. That's not the point. But our library books live in that bag. We take a book out to read, we put it back in. It's the only way I manage to keep from losing books. I have a friend who has a shelf set apart for their library books. Unfortunately, due to the Man's and my assiduous book buying skills and the fact that we seem to lose a book shelf with every move, we're already rather short on shelf space. The bag system works. It also enables me to move library books from one room to another with little effort.

So, needless to say, I put a lot of thought into our new bag. It had to be sturdy. And it had to be at least the size of a small child.

After a little digging, I found what I was looking for and went ahead and ordered on Amazon. It arrived just in time for my flurry of summer reading (I've got to get my kicks in before Littles' starts school again). Considering that we get out about two dozen books each trip and we're at the library almost every week, it's proving a good investment.

And if I suddenly and mysteriously decide I hate books and no longer want to spend a good chunk of my free time at the most wonderful place on earth (where you can get free books), I can always recycle it by using it to tote the twins around from one place to the next.