How many more days until we can watch t.v.?

I hear this about 10 times a day from the kids. They are on a countdown now. The t.v. has not come on once in the past 1 1/2 weeks, not even for a split second. Nor have they been on the computer. I went on Facebook twice - mostly just to check up on a certain friend, which never took me more than about 2 minutes to do. Still I felt guilty about it and I was looking over my shoulder for the Facebook police to get me. It's amazing how when you eliminate something from your life you want it that much more!

I miss it. I will not lie. I miss Facebook. I also miss t.v. What do I miss about it? I miss folding laundry while watching/listening to the News. I miss knitting while watching The View. I miss Grey's Anatomy, however, lucky me, it was an old episode the last two weeks, so I didn't really miss anything. I miss 19 Kids and Counting. I miss MOVIES!! We like to veg and watch a movie just about every weekend from Netflix. So as to not let our Netflix go to waste, I ordered a Jillian Michaels butt kicking workout video - I hate her now.

I have gotten a little bit better at knitting in silence. I am really trying to tune into my thoughts instead of tuning them out. That's what t.v. will do to you....tune you out. It turned my kids into vegetables, and it overstimulated them at the same time. One minute I can't get them off the couch to set the table, the next minute they are cranky and agitated from too much of the magic screen.

This past weekend was a busy weekend, but I think boring for the kids and hard on us to find things for them to do. But I will say that all 3 of the kids have been getting along better lately - A LOT better! When kids have nothing to distract them, even they will turn to what they have, which was each other. We've been playing lots of board games ~favorites are Sorry, Catch Phrase and Pictionary. Gary has been reading the Far Side books with them - they love it! I've been trying to get down on the floor and play with them a bit more, especially Oly. The one thing that is our saving grace is our sports. If we did this experiment in the dead of winter with no soccer, baseball or track, I think we would all fail. We are gone most evenings and at least part of the days on the weekends. Thank goodness our kids are athletic!

Well, Friday is our end day. Really Sunday should be the final day, but Hannah and Odin will be gone all weekend and we know they will watch t.v. so we will give in and let Oly watch too, 2 days shy of the 2 week goal - oh well.

Day 4 and Counting...

An addiction is a persistent behavioral pattern marked by physical and/or psychological dependency that causes significant disruption and negatively impacts the quality of life of an organism.

Okay, I don't know if Facebook or the t.v. negatively impacts the quality of my life, but I would say it negatively impacts me and the quality time I have with my family and them with us. So maybe, that does impact my life somehow huh?

I have gotten all kinds of comments from people when I mention our experiment. From "oh my gosh, how in the world can you do that?" to "that's good, but I don't think I could ever do that!" I bet there are a lot of people out there that have not gotten "unplugged" in their life. It definitely is a challenge, and one that is more difficult than I thought.

The last two days have not been too bad. The worst part of the day for me is when it's just Olivia and I. We have about 4 hours alone together before anyone else comes home. And that's 4 straight hours that we spend together for the most part. Don't get me wrong, I love her and I love being with her, but there is such as a thing as too much of a good thing. We both need a break from each other. But t.v. is not the answer. She is learning to play again by herself. She used to be really good at that...now she is RElearning. We went to the grocery store yesterday - that occupied a chunk of time and then we scrapbooked together, that was really fun. She helped me pick out stickers and cut squares with the punch. We also did a lot of reading together. She is a new reader and just beginning, but she enjoys it. It takes a long time to read "I Am Having a Party"about 8 minutes for a 5 page book, but that's ok!

The evening was easy because we were all gone again. Oly had a soccer game (we lost), and Odin had baseball and then we had our church small group, so we were gone from the house from 4:30 - 8:30, and then home to put the kids to bed. So figuring out what to do with them in the evening was not a problem. Tomorrow and this weekend will be a different story.

I am finding what is most difficult for me is Facebook. Why the need to know what everyone is doing during the day is beyond me. Before I had Facebook I didn't know what everyone was doing all the time and my life was just fine! It's an addiction I'm telling you.

The other is my reality t.v. I missed Dancing with the Stars on Monday night and Tuesday I so badly wanted to know the result of the voting. Why? Would my life then be complete to know who it was that got voted off? Apparantly not, because when I logged on to check my email later in the evening there it was - "KATE GOSSLIN GOT VOTED OFF DWTS!" I said "oh wow" and then moved on. It did not alter my life, it did not change my life for the better, it did not make a postive impact on me. Only the Bible, time with God and time with my family have that sort of impact!

Time is the most precious commodity. And I seem to have a lot of it lately.

Last night Gary and I had a quite evening. We played cards and talked. It was very strange to sit in a quite living room without the background noise of the tube. I also forgot to mention that I fall asleep at night with the t.v. on. When I go up to bed I always turn it on - not to watch it, but to put me to sleep. Always have. Last night was a first (well, except for when we are camping or somewhere else where there isn't a t.v. accessible to me). It was soooo quite! I managed to do it though, it was easier than I thought it would be.

Habits are hard to break. Again, it was very weird to sit and read, knit or clean the house without noise. I had to turn on the radio again. But I did get a lot done today, I even managed to do some scrapbooking. I found that my evening walk with my dog was longer than usual also. No need to hurry home....it's not like I could turn on the news or jump on facebook.

Speaking of Facebook, I did cheat today. I peeked for about 30 seconds today and then felt guilty so I jumped off. This is tough! I feel like I'm missing out on stuff.

Yesterday afternoon we had a lot of strong winds. Gary said "do we have a high wind warning?" I said "I don't know, I can't watch the news." He said "well, I could check it out online..oh what's it going to matter it's not like we can change the weather anyway if there is a high wind warning." So true. I have been getting my news the old fashioned way - the newspaper.

The kids are doing better than I thought they would. Tonight was easier for them because they all had sports to go to so they weren't just sitting around the house trying to figure out something to do.

Day One - STILL

That. Was. A. Loooonnnng. Day. I have to say, I use the t.v. for a babysitter more than I would like to admit. Not for hours on end, but 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there – while I fold a load of laundry, start dinner or clean the bathrooms. Today I did not have that luxury. Today, I spent a lot more time with my youngest daughter. And it was actually nice. The laundry still got done, but today my 5 year old helped me. Dinner still got made, while my 5 year old and 11 year old (hold your breath) played! I found out that my kids still have an imagination - yay! The two girls made an obstacle course for their zuzu pet. They also painted nails. My stepson had a friend over and they played ping pong. It was good ol’ fashioned playing.

Now for me. Well, I found out silence can be a scary thing. This morning when the kids were all in school I sat down to knit. I love to knit and I usually knit while watching a t.v. program “The View” at 10:00 a.m. and I usually knit for 45 minutes – sort of my daily ritual and me time. Hmmm..I found it oddly strange to knit in silence. In fact, I couldn’t do it. I had to turn on the radio and listen to music. I had to have that background noise. Why? Not sure yet. I think when it’s quite my mind tends to wander, and then it thinks and then it analyzes and then it goes in directions I don’t really want it to go. I am a chronic worrier with high anxiety and silence allows for my mind to panic. I think I will get better at it, at not having to have noise, at least that is my goal. But for now, music is taking the place of t.v. which is taking the place of silence.

This evening we played Catch Phrase as a family. It went very well. Our family has always enjoyed board games – sometimes with a little arguing and fighting, but we do enjoy games. I have very competitive children. It’s been awhile since we played one. Between soccer, baseball, track and swimming that my kids are all in right now, and the brain sucking power of the t.v. we haven’t played games in a while. Gary read all 3 kids a story before bed….like I said before, we have always tried to read to our kids at night, but tonight was different. There was no shows calling our names, no internet to peruse, so our focus was 100% on our children with no thoughts of other distractions. It was different, but it was how it should be and how I want it to be. The kids are now in bed and my husband and I are going to have an evening without t.v. This will be the first evening in a very long time without me checking my facebook and for Gary and I to not have the t.v. as a distraction.

Day One....

Day one. It is 9:15 a.m. and I am already contemplating if we can do this. Here is a lowdown on the reason behind The Thorson Experiment.

1. I love my family. I love them dearly. I want our family to be the closest is possibly can.

2. Our family has a great time when we do things together. We love board games, doing silly family games such as balled sock wars, stuffed animal fights, even plastic Easter egg fights. Dad and the kids love to wrestle. I like to bake and cook with the girls. Dad takes the kids to the the school gym to play all sorts of things from jump rope to dodge ball and scooter boards. This is just a small sample of the the kinds of things we like to do as a family, there is much more than this but you get the idea......we have fun as a family and I like it that way.

3. Our family also loves t.v. and the the computer.

4. Our family sometimes loves the t.v. and the computer more than they love being with family. I don't know if they actually "love" those things more, but it's very easy for them to get wrapped up in watching a t.v. show and playing a game on the computer. It's gotten worse as the years have gone by. My youngest, who is 5, is now playing on the computer.

5. I knew it was time to cut back when chores were getting rushed, homework was sloppy and when my youngest didn't want to play with me in her room anymore because she needed to tend to her puppies on Happy Pets.

6. I am also guilty of too much t.v. and computer time. I grew up with the t.v. constantly on as background noise, and for the most part, that is what I do now. I do have my shows however that I love to watch and make sure that I am not interrupted during those programs - thank goodness for the DVR. But it has caused me to also rush through bedtime routines, reading to the kids and most importantly, spending quality time with my husband.

So we have decided that we need to do away with t.v. and the computer for awhile. We have agreed on a 2 week ban. No t.v. whatsoever, I even hid the remotes since it is so automatic to just turn on the tube when we walk in a room. No computer...with the exception of updating this Blog and Gary and I are allowed to check email once in the morning and once at night. No Facebook, no Craigslist, no Oregonlive.com, etc. My 11 year old daughter, Hannah, has informed me that her pets on Happy Pets will probably die and her fish in Happy Aquarium will probably die, and she reminded me that my farm crops on Farmville will probably die as well.

So it is now 9:24 a.m. and I'm done updating my blog. My youngest will be home from school in 2 hours and I need to gather materials for us to have an afternoon together as she will not get to watch her afternoon cartoon or feed her pets on Happy Pets. Oh, what is my goal in all this? To bring my family back together. If we cannot live without these things for 2 weeks, than I have serious concerns about my family. I anticipate that good...actually great things will happen from this experiment......I just need to make sure that I set my DVR to record Dancing with the Stars, Greys Anatomy and all the shows on TLC for the next 2 weeks.