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.