My girls

Sometimes it gets really crazy in our house in the afternoons. Some people call it "the witching hour" and for good reason. It's in times like these that I am trying to pick up the day's mess and get dinner started and amuse my children at the same time. The only solution? Music. Very. Loud. MUSIC.

I don't know if it shocks them that it is so loud, or that they think I am some crazy woman because I'm dancing all over the place, but it is probably one of my favorite times of the day with them because we laugh and dance and all of the whining stops because, well, its music.

We listen to everything from U2 to Motown to Kelly Clarkson to The Cure to The Beach Boys to The Beastie Boys. Something you probably won't hear, though, is country unless it's The Dixie Chicks. Currently, Piper's favorite song is Hollaback Girl and she loves the "bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!" She always says, "play the bamana song, mama."

It makes a difference not only in them, but in me as well. It adds a light-heartedness that is not always so easy to accomplish when it has been a crazy day. I can't describe the joy I see in their faces, the energy that flows through our home, the imagination that creates before my eyes. These times, they make my heart overflow.