Tuesday, December 14, 2010

TV free Tuesday!

(Willow at her ballet performace. Not shown in picture is a strung out on candy, over-tired, public place hating Cedar losing it in my left arm while I took the photo with my right hand. This is her, "Cedar, it's ok" face.)

We made it another week!!! Wahoo! Really it is such a relief. This week we've all suffered a little bit of the sniffles so there was a little YouTubing action going on, but over all we survived another week without TV.

Some of what we did this past week:

-Snowflakes. Lots and lots of snowflakes now decorate our windows! Willow wanted to make them to "make snow come for Christmas". . . and it apparently worked. She is pleased with herself. I took a suggestion from Jean and used white coffee filters and am so glad I did. Beautiful results!

-We made a gingerbread house with a Wilton's kit. It took longer than I expected and there was quite a bit of whining from the munchkins about that. . . but it was fun and it's cute. Well, was cute. Yesterday I found Cedar on top of the play fridge eating the candy off of it. Naked.

- Lots of sword play by Cedar. Lots of running and screaming by Willow. And lots of reminding not to hit sister with wooden light saber (*doh! I should have made it out of foam!) and then putting said saber on top of fridge by this mama. I had to get creative; I took some of Daddy's old socks stuffed them with mis-matched socks lost in the basement and secured them with pony tail holders. Wa-lah! Nun chucks safe for chasing sister with!

-A good friend of mine came and spent the night with us. We all had a great time visiting Santa at the mall and eating french fries in the food court.

-I now know the full capabilities of one, just one, felted wool sweater. In one night I made two ugly monsters, one pair of mittens, one hat and one pair of leg warmers. Thank you gorgeously striped gap sweater. My family will be kept warm and have buddies to snuggle with thanks to your sacrifice.


This week we are hading to the kitchen! on the agenda:

- This amazing peppermint bark. I make peppermint bark every year and it barely lasts an evening. I'm estimating a 3 hour lifespan for this batch of Christmas-y sweetness.

-Yet another bark, this one more suited for the adult set. Well, except for Daddy Oak. YUM-O!

- This family should attend Hot Cocoa Addicts Anonymous. We have all mourned the passing of our Cocoamotion. I was over joyed when I stumbled on these last night. I think I'm going to top them with marshmallows from Sara's blog.

*On that topic, please pray for Sara's young daughter. Middle Miss is having some GI issues and is in the process of testing to determine the cause.

Daddy Oak and I are still glad we ditched the TV. We are using the computers a little in the morning while we wake up (Cedar's up at 5:30 everyday,and though I'm a morning person, I'm not that much of a morning person). We also finally broke down and bought a portable DVD player. Before going TV free again we had purchased Willow a DVD for Christmas, we also know my mom got her one, and she will be quite dramatically devastated if she has nothing to watch it on. We also seem to be on the road. A lot. With friends and family all over the state we tend to travel quite a bit. I always said I'd NEVER let my kids watch a movie in the car. Well, now aren't I eating my words. At 20 months Cedar still screams constantly in the car. I'm hoping this eases the hysterics.

I hope you all are having a happy holiday season!



6 comments:

  1. it's ok that your eating your words now... I think every parent does at some point. Atleast you can proudly say your children are not constantly watching tv, they don't have a show that they absolutely have to watch and know what time of day it comes on and have a set routine of that... they are pretty awesome individuals and just natural kids. xoxoxoxox.

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  2. Thanks Manda! I'm sure it will only be used for long trips, but it's actually a relief. Being in the car with the kids on long trips is sometimes super stressful! Thank you for your encouragement!

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  3. Thanks for thinking of my Middle Miss. We are thinking of you guys too right now. Hope we can visit when we are in the area.
    P.S I love that grown up chocolate bark- must must make it. I'm literally drooling here.

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  4. I know, I've been thinking about it constantly! Yes! I didn't knw you were coming up for Christmas! Give me details and we'll find the time!

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  5. Jess,

    We don't have TV right now either, Jordan would say not by choice :) But it's been really nice. It frees up so much time to do other things together. Although, I've really never been much of a TV watcher anyway. We do watch occasional movies and I do enjoy watching old TV season episodes I have on DVD...but it is very refreshing to not have "shows" to watch every week.

    Sounds like you are having lots of fun with the kiddos!

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