Do you see this???

You don't?  Well, let me tell you, this is my CLEAN living room!  Now, it hasn't always looked this way.  In fact, most of the week it was strewn with toys and various coloring pages from the girls' leap pad/kid computer thingies.  (Lily and Leah have had runny noses all week, so we've been at home a lot to prevent infecting someone else.)  And, nothing I did convinced those girls to pick up their mess.  They'd do a little here, or a little there, but never would they get it looking completely neat.  Until yesterday, that is!

Let's just say that this week Elise and Leah are about to drive me up the wall with their bickering, and yesterday was no exception.  By the end of the day, the living room was a MESS, and they were playing with the toys instead of putting them away.  Finally, as I was about to lose my mind, a thought came to me (obviously from ABOVE), and I thought, "Oh, that isn't going to work."  But, then I thought, "Well, nothing else is either, so what do you have to lose?"  

SO, I said to the girls, "Who wants to play a really fun game with me?"  The chorus of "Me" and "I do" was deafening!  I explained that the way the game worked was, I would put on some music, and they had to pick up as fast as they could while the music was on, but when I stopped the music, they all had to freeze until the music started up again.  Surprisingly (Elise has NEVER gone for anything like this before), they were all really excited to start.  Thanks God!!  

I set up Cedarmont Kids to play in the iPod doc, and the cleaning began!  They were so dedicated.  I think that's the best I've ever seen them pick up, EVER!  I'm so excited, I'm doing my inner mommy happy dance!  When they finished, Elise asked, "Mommy, can we play that game every time we clean up?"  

VICTORY!!  Score 1 for God and Mom!!