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.