Life without TV

We are now on our 4th day since we decided not to watch TV. I must say, I have really enjoyed our time together. Without the distractions on TV that wastes so much of our time, we have been given the opportunity to pray more and spend more time in the word. It also has given us the opportunity to spend time with each other.

On Monday, I came home from work at 5:00 like normal. Where I normally would have found Brendan probably still in his car seat sleeping, I was greeted at the door by my husband and baby. They had been playing together, and reading books. I love that my husband has the opportunity in the afternoons to spend time with Brendan and have some father-son bonding time. That night we just hung out, we ate dinner at the table instead of on the couch, had wonderful conversation as our son took a late nap. After dinner, we woke Brendan up, and just spent time as a family. We played and talked and loved each other. After we put Brendan to bed, Scott and I spent time with each other reading aloud to one another. It was a wonderful evening.
Yesterday, we also had a good day. Scott didn't have to work but still took Brendan to Day Care so he could get some work done. Normally, on these type of days, Scott would get all his work done in the morning, go to the gym and then come home to watch TV or a Movie. Instead, once he was done with the gym and his work, he went and picked Brendan up! He said that he realized he didn't have anything else to do, he might as well spend it with his son. So Scott and Brendan came to visit me for lunch. After work, we again had dinner together at the table while Brendan took a nap. We gave Brendan a bath together and then did some reading from the Bible and spent some time together focusing on and discussing Prayer and what it means.

Tonight is our girls night/guys night but so far this has been a wonderful week, I am thinking more and more of cancelling cable all together!

Too Much TV

This weekend, Scott and I realized that we do spend too much time in front of the Television. It reminds me of a book I used to read from my childhood, many of you may have read it before, The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV:

"...however it had happened, one thing was for sure - the Bear family was spending more and more time watching television and less and less time with all the other things they might be doing instead."

This is our family for sure. We are not really sure how it happened. Our first year of marriage we didn't have cable at all. We used to play games, watch movies every once in a while, sit and talk and even read. Now we just sit in front of the terrible TV for hours. We first got cable when we started watching the Angel Baseball games, we had to get extended cable to be sure we got all the games. Then when we moved to our new apartment, we had a TV room where the TV, video games, and cable were. This separated our "living room" from our "TV room" but we were spending more time in the TV room than in the living room. Then, when we set up the baby room, it all went down-hill. We moved the TV back to the front room and now with DVR, even if there isn't anything worth watching on TV, we have other shows recorded that we can watch!

There is no question about it, we are watching TOO MUCH TV! During church on Sunday, Scott felt convicted that we waste too much time that we could be spending time with God and spending time with each other. So we are "fasting" from TV this week, while contemplating just cancelling it all together. I agreed with Scott and so we are staying away from TV shows.
I will let you know how our week of no TV goes and what other options we find to do!

The Drive-in

Last Saturday night Scott and I were trying to decide what to do for the evening and what movie we wanted to watch, as a last minute decision, we decided jump in the car and go to the Van Buren Drive In. Did you know that there are only about 400 Drive-ins left in the United States? We are lucky enough to have an affordable place to see movies so close to us! We packed the car with blankets, pillows, soda and snacks, bought a pizza to share and headed down to get a good spot to see the movies.

This outing reminded me so much of my childhood. When we were little and living in a small town, my parents would often take all five of us in our Dodge Caravan to the drive-in. With not much to do in Lompoc, and being a little tight on money, the drive-in was a great, cheap place to go as a family, I think it was like $5.00 a car load! (Valley Drive In Theatre, Lompoc CA, now considered a "Dead Drive-In"). My dad would take the middle bench seat out so we kids could lie on the floor during the movie. Usually, we would watch the first movie and then fall asleep by the second and my parents would enjoy a quiet movie together. The drive-in is where I saw Disney’s The Lion King for the first time.

Not being a big Movie Theater-goer myself; the drive in is a perfect place to go and just enjoy the movies in the comfort of my own...Car. Scott and I discussed our future as we waited for the movie to start. We discussed what kind of movies we would let our kids watch and at what age. I realized that I am going to be pretty strict about the movies my kids see and Scott agreed! We hope the Drive-in will still be around when our baby gets a little older so we can take him to see some movies; although rumor has it that they will be closing the Drive-in and replace it with a Costco.

For this trip, Scott and I saw What Happens in Vegas and Baby Mama. We enjoyed the films, I liked the first one better than the second but both were cute, and of course pretty predictable! I love those kinds of movies! The price is very reasonable (although it has gone up since college). $7.00 for adults, and only $1.00 for kids 2-9.

I encourage all of you, if there is a Drive-in near you, to take advantage of such a great deal while they are still around! Two movies for less than the price of one! Who can beat that?