The kids and I stumbled into a new little game this evening. The Boy and I were playing cars, and I’d taken my phone with us to listen to some music. He made a request for “Kid A,” a Radiohead song that he finds amusing.

As the music played, I asked him, “Which of these cars goes with that music?” He picked one out, and we talked about why it seemed to fit.

And that was the game…

The Girl heard us and came into E’s room to join us. Some of the choices were obvious: a Billie Holiday song led to fingers straight to the ’40s roadster in the collection; Creedence Clearwater Revival pulled everyone to the pickup truck; a Gorecki string quartet led to the oddest car in the collection.

The real blessing of it all was not only that we were encouraging the use of musical and visual imagination but also that we were spending that time together — the three of us. It’s a rare thing these days with our crazy schedules.