Moments of Sanity--Third Time's a Charm: No tv, no computer games, no problem.

No problem may be a bit of an optimistic statement.

We have a lot of looooooong car trips ahead of us.

June 15th...8-9 hours to Great-grandma's 90th birthday

June 20th...8-9 hours home

June 29th... 13 hours to South Carolina

July 7th... 13 hours to Ohio (my family has a reunion on the 13th, so we are just bypassing home)

July 15th... 10-11 hours back to PA

That's a lot of car time in a month long period.

So I came up with this brilliant thought that the movie player and video games would be much more entertaining in the car if the children were hungry for it. June 1st we eliminated all tv and all types of computer games. They are allowed to play on the computers at the library and allowed to watch tv in the Kids Club at the gym. That's it.

The first day was a bit tortuous. For me most of all. I realize that I use the tv and computer games to get things done, to diffuse bad moods, to break up fights, and sadly, to ignore the children (a little artificial nap time built in each afternoon).

But I am lucky. My children really enjoy playing with each other. And they can do so for hours. It's just the in-between that's tough. We've been reading a lot more...which is saying something. I realized that Lily can read much more fluently than I realized. We've been coloring and writing. Playing lots of games and doing our puzzles. We've been playing outside and in the basement. I've cleaned up a lot. If I'm busy with a chore, the kids tend to play very nicely together. So the garage is cleaned out and the basement is started. Jeff may just throw the tv out, I'm becoming such a productive stay at home mom.

This weekend was fine. Saturday we were moderately busy. We filled the empty afternoon time with bucket swimming. Sunday was wide open. So we went to our favorite covered bridge section of the nearby state park and played in the water. We mostly just caught minnows and threw rocks. Then a huge thunderstorm chased us off and we came home and had warm baths and played Attack UNO. Not too bad of a day.

The water was a bit high...this beach is usually quite wide and not so muddy.

Posing.

Trying to figure out how to use that net

Michael before he sat down in the water. I forgot to bring towels or change of clothes. Fail.

I love the zoom capabilities of my new camera.

Big rocks are fun...until you drop them on your foot.

These two are looking more and more like twins. It will be weird when he passes her and people assume she is the youngest.

Pure Michael. Notice how wet he is now.

Michael and I left the creek a bit early so he could dry off and have a snack. He was watching Jeff, Andrew, and Lily across the river. Man, I love that covered bridge.