Why didn't I do this before?

I have managed to live in the same house for nearly five years and birth three children without ever hiring a real babysitter. That has now changed.

JA came today. It was supposed to be her trial day, wherein I stayed in the house and did projects while the kids got used to her. But my friends M. and C. closed on their new suburban house today and I agreed to watch A. and E. for them while they signed paperwork out west. So JA stayed most of the day and entertained four children instead of minding a mere two. She basically did all the things that I didn't want to do: sit in the hot and sunny backyard and watch the kids scribble with chalk and play with sand, fill up water balloons with the hose and teach the boys how to use them, cut up hot dogs, wash fruit. It was wonderful. I should have done this years ago!

She's going to come every Thursday (except next week) for four hours to play with The Boy and The Girl so I can get things done around the house.