TV Challenge - Days 11-13

We had a great trip to Austin. It was a bit tiring. We enjoyed sleeping in today, somehow it worked out for everyone to sleep until at least 10:30. That is a very rare treat for me.

Sus and Dan were great hosts. They took us to eat at Threadgill's and showed us a little bit of Austin. The highlight of the trip for the kids was a trip to Cabela's outdoor store. It is a bit like Bass Pro Shops. We all thought it was a pretty neat store to visit. They had several "museum-type" displays through the store, plus a shooting gallery, and a little aquarium. We got to swim in the pool at the apartments, which is is what the kids were looking forward to doing. It was nice. Junior got to try jumping off the side of the pool and he really liked it. Our city pool is usually too crowded, and I guess the thought of so many kids being around makes him too nervous to even try. He kept telling me to move farther back, and if you know how wary he is around the water, that's quite an accomplishment for him.

It was a quick trip, but we had a great time. We didn't get to visit the Dallas Museum of Art on the way home, mostly because Mom and Dad slept in on Friday, and by the time we left town, there was not enough time to go and really enjoy the museum, so we had to postpone that one. Maybe in another month or so we can plan a trip there.

Great news on our challenge, though! There was no DVD watching on the entire trip. I brought the DVD player along, even though that would have been a little cheat. But why have the crazy thing if you can't even use it on a 6-7 hour trip? It wasn't needed at all on the way down because the kids were sleeping. On the way back they slept quite a bit also, then they played silly in the back of the van. (We made them go to the back because they were so noisy!) The last two hours were the worst of the trip, but by that time we had almost made it, plus we would have had to stop again to set the whole thing up. Instead, we played the Guessing Game, the Alphabet Game, and the Quiet Game.

Today the neighbor kids came over. Laura and the older boy each have a toy microscope, so they were scientists. I think they mostly did experiments with mud and unfortunate bugs. Peanut also bought her daddy a rather nice racing jacket for his birthday. It was $5 at a garage sale. She found it and thought of that herself! It is nice, but it says Dry Clean Only, so I will have to take it somewhere on Monday...it will need a cleaning, but she had a very sweet thought.

TV Challenge - Day 10

We had a good day today. Everyone played so nicely...even me! We got some exciting news, so we get a little mini-vacation, thanks to Todd's work. They are sending us to see my Sussy! So that is cool. It will be a long trip, but a good trip.

Tonight it was very tempting to turn the TV back on, I admit. The kids got all packed and were so excited I thought they were going to drive me crazy. It was no where near time to leave, and they had their stuff carrying it around the house, like they had to be ready to go at a moment's notice. I made them put it at the door, and they did good. They only picked it up 2 or 3 times after that. Todd had to leave for a while, and I wanted to take a bath, but they were so hyper I felt like I had to stay right with them.

I went in the living room and they had wrecked it. So I told them we just couldn't go unless the living room was clean. You should have seen them. It did my heart good. Junior was running full speed to put everything where I told him to. Peanut had a spring in her step, too. And they got it done in about 5 minutes!! I have never seen them like that. Sometimes you just have to harness that energy, I guess.

TV Challenge - Day 9

I am still getting some flak from the kids, but it is sparse. Peanut asked me when was it going to be fun. I had to remind her of all the fun things we have done in the past week or so. (Not all of it was because of the TV Challenge, but it did give us more time to do fun stuff.) So she agreed, although I think she is still expecting me to do great and marvelous things to entertain her.

Today we met some people from our homeschool group at the pool. It was really hot, but fun. Peanut loves the pool, and it is even better when she sees one of her friends there. So she had a ball. Junior saw one boy he knew, and I think they spent more time out of the pool. This boy apparently knows some things about Spiderman. Junior is always looking out for boys that know some things about Spiderman, as he has never seen a Spiderman show. So he depends on secondhand information about what Spiderman can and cannot do, who are his enemies, etc. Poor kid. He cannot watch the Spiderman movies, of course, but I am on the lookout for some of the old cartoons that we used to watch when we were kids.

I was thinking I was going to have another ultrasound on Thursday, but I'm not. That will be in two weeks. The thing on Thursday is instead, a shot. That is kind of a downer. I am Rh negative, so I have to get these shots everytime. My zoology professor in college told me that means I do not have "monkey blood", so I guess that is a good thing. Which reminds me, I thought I saw that professor last night at Walmart. But I wasn't sure because she looked rather older. I got home and thought, well it has been nearly 18 years since I took that class, I'm sure she does look that much older. So that makes me feel older too. I saw this quote today: "Women should not have children after 35; thirty-five children are enough!" hee hee

TV Challenge - Day 8

Junior is doing much better at this. He got up this morning and did not say a word about watching a show. He just asked for his breakfast and after that he got dressed without being asked! He did ask me today how I decided that we were not going to watch TV. He thinks we ought to end it today, but I told him I thought it would be good if we stuck with our original 30 days. After all, there are only 22 days left.

Last week I mentioned the TV Free Challenge to a couple of other moms in our homeschooling group. One of them asked me how I ever was able to get my husband on board with it. I didn't really try. I told him what I was thinking of doing, and I told him that he didn't have to, it was more for me and the kids. He isn't that much of a TV guy, though. When he watches during the week, he will watch the History Channel, or sometimes one of those shows where they are fixing up cars or motorcycles. On the weekends, he watches This Old House and The New Yankee Workshop. He has been known to check out the old movie channels also. He said he would do it with us. I don't really know if it makes him much difference. It has probably been good for him, just for the fact that this week and next is the PBS pledge drive, and it keeps him from turning on the TV for his PBS shows and seeing that they are off the schedule. I know we seem grumpy about that, and we really are. It is twice a year that you will hear both of us griping and moaning about the same thing.


If you have a chance, please visit this site and say a prayer for Anna Jane. She is the 4yo daughter of a lady that I used to go to Bible Study with. She just had her second liver transplant because of cancer. You can find out more about the story on that site, but just pray for her and also that her mom and dad would be encouraged in the Lord!

TV Challenge - Day 7

This was a special day for Peanut, she was baptized this morning at church. Her daddy got to baptize her, so that made it even more special. Grandma Millie, Grandpa Charles and Grandma Mary all were able to come. Afterward we went for hamburgers and she got a banana split.

Today was not much of a challenge day for the kids, as we do not watch that much TV on Sundays. In the evenings, we will turn on Extreme Home Makeovers because Peanut likes those, but that is more in the winter. The kids played outside once it stopped being so hot today.

This was the first night I actually turned on the TV without even thinking. I turned it right back off, and felt a little embarrassed. I'm glad no one saw me. It was sheer habit, I had just kissed the kids night and tucked them in, so I went into my routine. My shows aren't even on tonight anyway, it is PBS Pledge-a-thon and they take them off for that. To be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing my shows tonight, because I feel kind of "bleh." Peanut started in on me tonight because I was busy looking for a lost book. She is not sure I love her since I never spend time with her, and did not stop until bedtime. It is just one of those manipulation games she plays, (Todd assures me that's right) but still...it is hard to hear over and over. It just wears on me.

While I wasn't spending time with her today - (ha ha), we had a lot of fun playing on the computer anyway. Peanut took a quiz:

You Are Fozzie Bear

"Wocka! Wocka!"You're the life of the party, and you love making people crack up.If only your routine didn't always bomb!You may find more groans than laughs, but always keep the jokes coming.

The Muppet Personality Test

Then we did a quiz for Junior. We just tried to pick the answers that were appropriate for him. This turned out so funny, we laughed and laughed:

You Are Animal

A complete lunatic, you're operating on 100% animal instincts. You thrive on uncontrolled energy, and you're downright scary. But you sure can beat a good drum. "Kill! Kill!"

The Muppet Personality Test

Then I did this one:

Who is your Jane Austen hero?

Your hero is Captain Wentworth! As an officer of the navy, he is a man full of life and ardour, with a fearless mind, intelligence and spirit. The journeys upon the seas have tanned his face and emphasized his features, his experiences have rendered him a confident temper and open disposition. Captain Wentworth has charming manners, brown hair and eyes and meets people with consideration and politeness. His severest fault is his unquestioning resentment of feeble character. Wentworth will love a woman with ever-growing attachment and with respect towards her feelings.
Take this quiz!








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Sigh! This one is true, I think. Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen novel, so I'm sure old Frederick would have to be my ideal. Who doesn't love Mr. Darcy, but I don't know if I could live with him!

TV Challenge - Day 6

The more busy you are, the easier this is. No one thought of TV this morning, because our friends were still here. Once they drove away, both kids asked if we could please watch cartoons. By then it was 11:00, and there is nothing much to watch at that time anyway.

Peanut and I spent more time cleaning her room. She and the girls had made a nice attempt to clean up. I noticed, however, that the dress-up box would not close. I decided to work on it a bit because it is not supposed to have that much stuff in it. I found wet towels, bathing suits, some dirty sheets (that have been missing for a month!) and Peanut's little throw blankets that are not used for dress-up. Quite interesting. I'm glad I found the wet stuff today and not in two weeks when the smell got worse and worse!

Overall, it was a good day. Junior practiced some more on his bike riding, and I noticed he is getting more cautious. He got in trouble last week for not paying attention -- so somehow Dad made an impression on him!

Now that Peanut's room is getting cleaned up, I had a good idea. We are going to take pictures of the top of the desk, shelf, bed, and dresser, for examples of how things are supposed to look. Then she can use that to go by to tell if she's done her job. I will try to post pictures of what we do.

TV Challenge - Day 5

Friday - This was an easy challenge day also. Things went so smoothly in the morning that it almost makes me think that Junior's whining on Thursday morning was for Grandma's benefit. (??) I don't know. She was an excellent participant, though and did not really give any sympathy. So if that was his purpose, it didn't work.

We had a fun trip to the library. Junior is used to getting a videotape or DVD each time he goes, and of course he wanted one this time. Even though I told him he couldn't watch it, he thought it would be nice to just go ahead and check one out, even though he wouldn't watch it. Habits are funny things. But he actually took the time to look for books that he wanted. Usually he plays computers at the library, but this time all the computers were being used. So we went to a card catalog computer and he told me he wanted to look at all the books about cars. So we found the number for cars - it is 629.2 (I will have to remember that one!) And there were three books right there about cars. One was even about race cars. So those are what he has now. He was excited to check those out and take them home. Usually when I tell him to go get a book, he takes about 5 seconds. He knows where to find Dr. Seuss books, so he goes and gets the most colorful one and he's done. I will ask him if there is anything else he wants and make a few suggestions, but no, he just wants the one Dr. Seuss. (And his tape of course.) So this was a big thing for him.

We ate lunch, then came home and got ready for our friends from Kansas City to come see us. Everyone had a ball. They played outside, had dinner in the playhouse, and splashed around in the kiddie pool until almost dark. We had a nice visit. It was so much fun having them. The girls put on a play for us before bedtime, which of course was extremely silly. The boys fell asleep pretty easily, but the girls did not go to sleep until long past 12 midnight. I could still hear them whispering when I fell asleep.

TV Challenge - Days 3 and 4

Yesterday was an easy "Challenge" day. We got up early to leave for Tulsa to meet Mom. Poor thing, she was up there with nothing to do but eat out and shop all day while Dad was in classes at his convention. Luckily, we came to save the day. We got there a bit after 10 AM and drove to the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks. It was a neat experience. We had taken Peanut about 3 years ago, but Junior was too little to come, so this was his first time. We liked all the exhibits. The shark tanks were a little bit of a disappointment. We had been there the first year it was open, and there were a lot of sharks and it was amazing. This time they had very few sharks, which takes some of the drama out of the whole thing.

After the aquarium, we ate a late lunch, then went swimming at the hotel. We ate pizza with Grandpa to end the day. We did not get back until past bedtime, so of course there was no time for TV that day.

Today was a bit different. Junior woke up and requested his usual breakfast routine of a TV show. That wasn't going to happen, so instead of whining for five minutes or so, he chose to whine for an hour. It did not get him anywhere, but finally I ended up getting out his marble set and putting it together. He had not played with that for a while, and he did marble races several times during the day. Watch it, though. He is quite a cheater on marble races. He tends to pick out "his" marble when it is halfway through the race and it is pretty sure which one will win. If he doesn't do that, he will start his marble ahead so that it has a better chance. He needs a bit of training on the race stuff. He does well with card games. When he first learned to play cards, we made a big deal of the end-of-game routine which consists of congratulating the other player whether you win or not. But this does not carry over to marble races, I suppose.

He also was able to show off his two-wheeler-riding skills to his Grandma and Grandpa.

Peanut worked on cleaning her room today. At the beginning, Grandma was here to help, so that was fun for her. When Grandma had to leave, she kept on going. We straightened another drawer, and then she cleaned up one of her infamous "corners." (I have those too, so I can't fault her too much.) I was proud of her that she stuck with it even after the fun person was gone, and the only one left was boring old Mama.

Tonight at about 4:30, we got an unexpected rain. It was nice and cooled things down quite a bit. It made the pavement slick and Junior took a little tumble on the bike. He scraped his knee, and it was not too bad a scrape, but he took it hard. He said he would just walk from now on and not ride his bike. Later he thought better of it and got back on, so that was good.

TV Challenge - Day 1

Today did not go too badly. We had already planned a morning at the park with some people from our homeschool group, so that helped. Junior woke up this morning asking for his "show" and when he did not get it, he was disappointed. But some of his Hot Wheels were still out from last night, so he started playing with those instead. No more complaints the rest of the day from him.

I spoke too soon when I said Peanut would not have as much of a problem with it. She really only expects to watch two half-hour shows in the afternoon, and a lot of times she misses half of the first one because she doesn't get her school stuff done. But she was really bored today. I think she expected me to entertain her 100% of that time, but I was behind on my work because we had been to the park. So I told her she would have to find something to do. She put on her pouty face and started to whine about everything she could think of. I tried the reasoning approach, which went completely over her head, so that was a waste of time.

So I started her on chores. She had to sweep the floor - with the electric broom. Which should be an easy job. Are you aware that when you make a child do work, it means that you don't love them? Well, I was made aware of this. Also, she had to wind the cord back up on the sweeper, which is clearly child abuse. I expect DHS to be by anytime.

Since the sweeping did not cheer her up, she had to wash all the dishes that I couldn't fit into the dishwasher. And what is more, she had to wash them until they were clean, which meant Mama would put them back into the dishwater instead of drying them and putting them away. Of course, this also means that I don't love her, and when I correct her like that it hurts her feelings.

But when that was over, suddenly life was a bit more pleasant. We got one of her dresser drawers out to sort out and put back in order. She said that she did not mind this job, since it was a fun job. I had Junior do one of his, and he didn't do half bad for his age. He liked folding T-shirts into squares like I showed him and he actually did two before running off to play with his cars. I made him come back and finish one minute later, and for some reason he had completely forgotten how to fold a shirt, and no amount of demonstrating and coaching could get him through it. It was like he had lost all use of his hands. Odd.

Now I have missed "Headlines" on Jay Leno, which is pretty much the only way of marking Monday nights for me. Oh well. It was probably a rerun.

TV Challenge

We are going to take the TV-free challenge that Nancy Leigh Demoss has been talking about on the radio. We're starting tomorrow, it should be pretty interesting.

It will be hardest for Junior, so you might be praying for him. He doesn't watch that much, but he is probably the most addicted to "his" time on the TV. Peanut likes a few shows, but if there is a fun alternative somewhere, she'll take it. I will miss my Brit-com on Sunday nights, but the next two weeks are "Festival", so it will get pre-empted anyway...for Doo-wop Senior Citizens or Old Lawrence Welk Stars.

It should be an interesting month. I will let you know how we are doing.