Tonight, Mike asked what we would like to reverse about the parent-child relationship. Personally, he wished the kids would put US to bed early. Colin sighed and said he would reverse the whole work thing. After Mike said he didn't mind doing jobs around the house, Col said he didn't mind WORKING, but just the exquisite pain involved in getting kids to do one 5 minute job. Ugg, that brings my Saturday mornings back a bit too clearly.

My favorite comment on cleaning the bathroom was heard from Zach, running out of the bathroom after *almost* putting the cleaning wipe to the toilet: "MOM, that's PEE! Someone has left PEE on the outside of the toilet! I can't clean THAT!"

In a weak moment I ordered all the books my book club randomly recommended at our last meeting. At 99 cents / book at half.com, where's the harm in that? They all happened to come at the beginning of this week. And, it turns out, it could do a LOT of harm: they were all riveting, engrossing books. The tally of damages is just starting to come in. Complicated Wacker taxes due in 2 days? Untouched. Cub Scout announcements? Not in the bulletin. Peter and Jane? Forgotten. House clean? Well, of course: thank goodness for Miracle Music! My most successful morning was when I tossed my book at Jared and told him to hide it well before he left. Unfortunately on Friday, when Miri hid it, it only took me 10 minutes to find it.

On a more positive note, tonight the Colin Campbells and the Dixons came up with a new version of the carrot and the stick: it's: "The Candy or The Kick". To save time, Uncle Mike provided both: runts to the picker-uppers, and a well-aimed kick to the recalcitrant. It was amazingly effective: we did the whole post-Sunday-party-house in 8 minutes! We're working on a website to sell our idea.