Yesterday was one of those blissful happy days when everyone gets along, and the older kids help the younger kids without being asked, and no one has to be reminded to be flexible or be gentle or be kind.

Today, by comparison, felt more or less like a disaster. All four kids woke up a little bit cranky, a little bit argumentative, a little bit—dare I say?—oversensitive. One kid having a day like that is no problem. Four kids in that same mood, in an enclosed space for an entire day… is not pretty. (And yes, it does sound like they needed to get out of the house, but an outing would have required them all to be dressed and have shoes at the same time, and that was not among the things that happened today.)

Apparently there is a cosmic law of averages that pairs up the easy days with difficult ones so we don’t get complacent. Or something.

Luckily, all that bickering and having repeatedly hurt feelings (because: she doesn’t want to play the game he invented! and he doesn’t want to read the story she picked! and why can’t she take the toy her sister is playing with? all! day! long!) leads to exhaustion and early bedtimes, which leads to me baking brownies at 9:00 at night. Which leads to the realization that we’re out of cocoa, which leads to Dane running to the big ol’ chain grocery store that’s open until midnight.

All of which leaves just one question: should I whip up some chocolate frosting for the brownies? Normally I’d say yes, of course, anything that can be frosted, should be. But see above regarding the long day and the prevailing exhaustion. Plus I did put chocolate chips in the batter, which isn’t the same as frosting but still makes for fairly good brownie eating. Hmmm.