I'M BACK

Our week with no TV, Nintendo and computer for the kids (and mostly for me) went better than I thought. Thanks for thinking of us and even praying for our media-free week. It was a little difficult considering that Katrina had just happened but I did get to see some coverage when my husband came home. The media-free week was mostly for the kids. I had no problems with whiners and complainers. Even my 4 yo daughter didn't whine too much. She only asked once or twice a day if she could watch TV. We hadn't started school yet so I had to fill the day with other activities. We had lots of fun and I learned a few things too. I hope to enlist my husband's help in getting up some pictures of "tent-city" in the boys' bedroom. My youngest played Candyland and Chutes and Ladders for the first time and we all learned to be good sports when someone else wins or when someone gets stuck in the Molasses Swamp. My oldest got tired of Monopoly Jr. so we went out and bought the original version and introduced him to this cut-throat game. The first game was a real trial by fire in that he kept landing on my properties with hotels and I never landed on his Boardwalk or Park Place until the last roll of the night. There was some crying but he did continue the game until the next day when he finally went bankrupt. He then proceeded to bury me the next game by accumulating lots of property and over $3,000!

The main thing I learned is something that's hard to confess especially for someone who homeschools. By nature, and I'm talking about the flesh here folks, I am not intentional about spending time with my children. I'm very selfish for my time and like to sink into a melancholy isolationism. By making myself be intentional about spending time with the children I realized how selfish and lazy I've been with the time I've been given. It's not my time anyway. But it was such a blessing to spend that time with the children. That is the good life. Doing things that seem unimportant and not exciting to the post modern mindset but things that will build a lifetime of memories. As I reflect back on this past week I keep thinking of that article Denise Sproul recently wrote in Every Thought Captive. I wrote about it here. It's in the small seemingly unimportant areas of our daily lives where we are tempted and tried, shaped and molded.

By the way, thanks for the advice concerning MOTH. After three days of implementation, I'm realizing that it will help for some parts of the day and hinder other parts. I'm finding that there is something in me that just rebels against having to stick to a schedule every day. I think that's a hindrance to me in the diligence department but not something I'm going to have a guilt trip over.

This week is going well for our first week of school. It's the first year of me teaching two so I'm needing to be more diligent with time. We are reading The Secret Garden aloud and loving it. And Play-doh is taking up a lot of my preschoolers time! Don't you love the smell of Play-doh?? Just don't mix the colors!

Blessings. (Hi Mom! I know you're reading this.)