I love my children!

James came home today and declared that we were ordering out. We don't do that often-frugality and all that, but it's been a couple of months since we'd ordered pizza. We covered the table top with the various pizza boxes, and sat and laughed and ate.

The kids were in quite a mood! Okay, so Tori was dragging a bit with a cold that she's wading through, but even she caught Liza's exhuberance, and we had quite a silly songfest. Sorry Mimi, I don't seem to have taught them to NOT sing at the table!

These are priceless memories. I love the interplay, and there's a marvelous dynamic when Tori and Liza get together-especially when they include the twins.

The tonal quality was not Broadway, but the drama and expressiveness certainly were there. And the fun and laughter continued through our evening clean-up.

I don't remember if I've written about that before, but it's really working out well for us. A couple of months ago, James and I got tired of the fighting about whose turn it was to do dishes, so we declared a new policy: Everyone who is home will participate in evening clean-up. Sometimes that is only a three-member dish team, but when we have everyone home the floors get vacuumed or swept, bathrooms and the litterbox get cleaned, lightswitches and doorknobs get wiped down, spiderwebs disappear, etc. The rule is everyone works until the dishes are done, and you have to keep finding jobs as long as that takes. Order and cleanliness are spreading throughout the house, even with the disarray that seems an inevitable part of home improvement.

The fighting over chores has virtually disappeared. The kids are learning to see what needs to be done. And we're building wonderful memories of songs and laughter while we're working together.

Precious times!