One night I was upstairs in my room in my pajamas, folding laundry. I heard people downstairs in my kitchen. They were talking loudly, laughing and generally having a great time. I was certain one of my kids had friends over. I needed to get more clothes out of the dryer but I was in pajamas so I went to sneak around the corner to see who was over to assess whether it was safe to come down. To my surprise there were no guests, no friends, no strangers. It was my 4 kids, just the 4 of them, all home together, at the same time, just enjoying each other. I didn't know exactly what my husband and I had done to deserve such a moment, but I'll cherish it.

My greatest advice is an old proverb of "Teach your children humor and tolerance ". When our 4th was born our kids were7,5, and 2. Humor was the cheapest form of stress relief we had. It can lighten up moods and situations. Tolerance teaches us to pick your battles, see each other through their own eyes