We celebrated Earth Hour on Saturday with the kids (well, it was really Earth half-Hour as we shuffled ‘em off to bed by 9.) But anyway, we lit candles and sat together in the living room and talked. There’s just something about the darkness that commands attention, and definitely eliminates most distractions. We used this time to talk seriously about our plan to visit a new church, and about getting picked last in gym- how that makes them feel, and how to be sure they aren’t leaving others out.

I think I’m going to institute more candle-lit Earth Hours in our home. It’s a great before-bedtime activity. I love it when you accidentally stumble upon tricks of the trade in parenting.

Like discovering Band-Aids work like currency with kids. They’ll do anything for one, and it will make anything better. Guaranteed. Especially if they are of the animated character variety such as Spider-man or Hello, Kitty. But in all honesty, plain old flesh colored work every time, too. In a pinch, they moonlight as stickers or are great stand-ins for the always-missing Scotch tape. And are much more economical than postage stamps.

I could benefit from weekly (daily?) massages and Gray has a lot of anger. I let him take it out in karate chops on my back. Such a winning combination. I tweeted that and got another excellent suggestion from my friend Keli: she tricks her daughter into giving her back scratches by letting her color on her white t-shirt with washable crayons.

I admit that the last time Ivy took a bath I handed her a scrubber and splashed pink bubbles on the wall. Let’s play “clean the tub!” She totally loved that game.

It’s spring break and I think it’s a perfect time they all learn how fun it is to mop the kitchen! No doubt they’ll probably fight over whose turn it is. Whoever does it best will win Band-Aids!

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .