Peace mixed with insanity

The kids are out of school for two and a half weeks. I love when they are home and we can just relax. There is no set routine, we sleep in, stay in our pjs and just enjoy being home...well most of the time. This morning Elise has been quietly reading a book while her younger sisters have played dress up, dance class and made projects. All was fairly peaceful with the minor skirmishes here and there. I went down to the laundry room to work on the clothes when I heard all sorts of screaming and yelling. I went upstairs to find Cora and Adelle fighting over a fork they wanted to use for the play doh. There was no talking to them so I just sent them to their respective rooms to calm down. I went down stairs to finish the part of the laundry I was working on while they cooled off. When I went upstairs to talk to each child I asked if there was a better solution to having one fork than hitting each other and screaming. Adelle told me that she just wanted to use it, but then we agreed that with so many forks in our silverware drawer she could probably just get another one. When I went in to talk to Cora (the one who was doing the hitting) I reminded her that hitting is not okay - and I asked if she could think of a better solution. She told me "well, I told Adelle she could wait until I was done with the fork, she got mad and yelled so I hit her." I explained that while telling her she should wait was a good idea the hitting wasn't and by the way... don't we have a lot of forks that she could have got another one? She said "yes, there are lots of forks, I just didn't want to get another one dirty." So in the end it is my fault...I try so hard to keep them on top of cleaning up after themselves that Cora is staying ahead of the game by not getting stuff dirty. Oh well, I never said I was mother of the year...okay yes I did, but that was just a joke. It is good to have a little crazy mixed in with the peace, it keeps me on my toes.