Bribery 101:

Last night, well after dusk, L~ was begging someone to go have a catch with her. She is a budding softball star and lives, eats and breathes softball now.

It was already quarter to nine.

I had been begging everyone all week to go clean the downstairs so Z~ can have friends over for his birthday.

So I stopped doing the dishes (which have never been fully caught up since the beginning of April) and made L~ a deal. "I'll come play catch with you for five minutes if you will immediately go downstairs and help clean the family room until 9:00."

She enthusiastically agreed.

What she didn't realize is that I came out on the best end of both sides of that deal. I got to play catch with my daughter. (I'd forgotten how much I loved to play softball. And my daughter can be a lot of fun to be around when she wants to be.) And the family room is clean (well, after a fashion).