My current work projects requires me to sit in on a lot of meetings. Luckily, the meetings include people statewide and many are teleconferences that I can join in from home. Still, with two kids in the house, it's taken some ingenuity to find ways to make sure that they aren't heard in the background from time to time.

Today I decided to recruit Christopher to my side. I had a one-hour teleconference and asked Christopher if he wanted to "babysit." I told him I'd pay him $1 if he could take good care of his sister for an hour -- that meant no loud noises, no fighting, no bickering -- just him being a good older brother and being a good leader and helping mom get 1 hour of quiet.

You know what? It worked! I came downstairs after the teleconference to find them on Christopher's bunk bed -- he got Cate a healthy snack and was reading her a book. Yeah, it would be nice if he would do that anyways, and sometimes he does. But when I need to assure just short periods of happy kids, it's pretty cool to realize that Christopher is old enough to help me out. I'm gonna have to keep this ingenious plan going......