Better get on with it

Life, that is. Monday night I took the kids out to eat and we snuggled in my bed to watch a movie. This has become a very rare thing recently that is only done on mommy is near meltdown 'very special' occasions.

This last two weeks has been really rough. Yesterday was the pantry shelf fall out. Still dealing with a bit of shell shock on that one (and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the tv. Still figuring out how to get two more boxes of peaches this late in the season without breaking the bank too. That is the only thing that really was effected in mass quantities. Which sucks, because they take a LOT of work... unlike jam... which is easy and fast. Like I said: shell shock.)

But back to the tv... Last week the kids had some sort of argument about something related to who gets to pick the next movie and the bigger one ended up stabbing the younger one in the eye with a fork. Yes. A fork. In her eye. It was horrible. Luckily her reflexes took over and thank God because that meant that we had two puncture wounds on her eyelid instead of sight problems to deal with. Between this and the numerous toddler melt downs (every day) that have been going on around "movies"... I have taken the tv completely out of the living room. Now the only one we have is the 19inch in the bedroom. The game boys are gone too. I have even had to limit my cell phone (as there is a game demo on there that Logan will freak out if not allowed to play).

It was out of control for a while. We have not had cable tv since we have had children... but we do have the tv box and the Xbox console and so we rent and watch movies quite regularly. Things have been slowly changing at my household with regards to screen entertainment from a 'fun pastime' to a 'frantic addiction'. And it had to stop.

So out the tv went. Into the garage, covered with a quilt, with a huge tuperware under it of the all Xbox stuff, gameboys, and video games. The folders with the movies in them went into the top of my closet, and that was that. All the media, out of the center of the house.

What is strange is the last few days have really not been bad. The first days were hard. Espically on Logan, who, not really understanding, threw more fits than usual... but the last two days in particular, I have noticed that he doesn't freak out when I say 'no' about the movies. Yesterday when he asked I said "Nope... sorry bud, the tv is all gone." and he looked around the livingroom and said "Ok, you play puzzle with me?" That was that. I am sold. I may never let it back in.

It has been hard trying to get through the moves, and homeschooling two older ones etc to not use the tv as a crutch for the toddler. But we are settled now, and it is time to get back into the routines and rituals that we had when we were settled last time. No tv on weekdays. "Get outside." That was my mantra whenever my kids said they were bored. (Well, that and "Well I have something for you to do... go pair socks." which they hate to hear and will vow never to say to their children. I think all moms have some of those don't they?) I will even say it in the pouring down rain... "Get outside" when it is raining is then usually paired with "You will not melt."

TV free evenings are a treat for me now. The rituals that we started when we first moved here have now come alive. All of a sudden Logan is telling stories outloud. Full on, long stories which always invlove someone dying or being shot and always include lots of sound effects... and yesterday, someone brushing their teeth. Funny boy. Cyan builds fairy houses in the back yard again. Alex has taken up reading again and even spent time in the library the other day looking up a new book series he has had his eye on... which he read the first of in less than a day. It is amazing.

The world is out there... better get on with it.