Over the past few weeks our sweet, lovable, HIGHLY ENERGETIC children have been, shall we say, getting on my nerves (and I mean that in the best possible way).

This condition seems to occur most often on a quiet Sunday and on a Monday night for family night. So, a few Mondays ago, we chucked the usual family night plan of discussing more effective chore completion. In a moment of pure inspiration/desperation, my husband and I announced the pending arrival of ... The SuperVisor.

I shared with the children that each child would have a zone to care for during the week. This included a quality assurance level that must be met in order to achieve the ultimate prize — Iceberg shakes. Move over Pavlov, the kids were salivating before we even hit the word shakes.

After sharing the new plan, suddenly, to our surprise, in came ... The SuperrrrrViiiiisor (think Jazz game announcer — "Are you ready to rummmmble?"; cue the background Superman music; prepare for a vision.

My willing and brave husband came flying/dancing/spasmodically moving through the room with a super cape and white visor (hence, SuperVisor), carrying a heroic grin and SuperChecklist.

In a commanding voice he outlined said chores, set the timer, and off they ran. Rather than counsel about efficient chore methods (translation: mom and dad "blah blah blah" about vital subjects and children move about the room like popcorn in the microwave), this fabulous SuperVisor showed us how to get in, get out, and get 'er done.

I was happily shocked that not only did this method work for more than one evening, we were able to stretch it out for three weeks, making those shakes a really big, gnarly deal.

For us, this kind of consistency was a major shock. But the great news was that it wasn't perfection. Some nights The SuperVisor got caught in traffic (must have been the cape), or was really worn out (all that flying at high altitude), so we were able to get SuperVisor Junior to step in (our eldest son). Of course, this replacement happened to be the most stringent of all, and was quickly replaced the next night by popular consent.