Daily Details

121. My high capacity washing machine
122. A dryer that dries a high capacity load in 35 minutes
123. My dishwasher
124. Three kids who do about 75% of the household dishes load
125. My vacuum cleaner
126. A little bit of daily kid mess left out that results in kids doing chores on Saturday to earn their things back. (This is a blessing because they do the obscure chores--like washing windows and baseboard--every week. My house has never been cleaner or more organized!)
127. A home with lots of big windows, resulting in lovely light in my house all day
128. The cute squirrel that runs along my back fence about 500 times each day, flirting and teasing Pixie
129. A comfortable desk chair that allows me to work on my computer for hours without back pain
130. Parenting wisdom that comes from God when I am completely at a loss for what to do.

Two bickering girls. Both spread the Sunday paper all over the living room. Both pointing fingers, blaming the other
"It was Sunny's idea!"
"But Piper said I could!"
"But Sunny started it!"
"But Piper made the bigger mess!"
Two bickering, blame-casting girls, both 100% responsible for the big mess, must clean it up together.
"Mommy, Sunny won't help me!" (As Piper picks up the first piece of paper)
"But Mommy, I didn't even get a chance to help!" (As Sunny wads up a piece and throws it at Piper)
Piper screams in total drama, "OW OW OW OW OW!!!! You hurt me, Sunny!" (The paper bounced harmlessly off her back).
Both girls erupt into tears.
So Mommy gets creative, with the help of God. The two girls wore my shirt together and picked up all the papers. They were required to hold hands with their hands that were inside the shirt. They continued to bicker and fight each other, making their job difficult. When they finished the job, they were still grumping. I had them sit together in the shirt on the living room floor for 10 minutes. They still had to hold hands. After about 5 minutes, they were giggling and loving each other. Before I let them out of the shirt, I had them say five nice things to each other. That solved the issue. To make sure they had learned, I asked them to work together to clean up the Lego mess they had made in the Florida room. They did!