no screens=crazy long post

so as i was preparing for my sharing time last week, i had the overall impression that our family was spending way too much time in front of technology and not enough time doing productive things.  so i told jared that i thought we should have a "no screens week" starting last sunday and ending with general conference.  we sat the kids down after church last sunday for our traditional nacho feast and asked them what they thought about doing a no screens week.  they all thought it sounded good until they realized i said no screens instead of no screams.  (they thought they were going to have it so good.)

it started after church on sunday.  the kids did awesome.  addy was so funny, she kept asking me when it was going to be general conference.  she did get a tiny bit of t.v. in when we went to ryan and darci's and she got to play the kinnect for a nano second.  then the next day when i picked her up from her playdate, i asked what they did and, in her complete innocence, she told me that they watched a movie.  she was in tears on the way home because she thought she had completely messed up everything.  she spent half of the ride home begging me not to tell dad.  the rest of the kids didn't even ask one time to watch t.v. or play the computer.

truthfully, i have to say, for myself it was one of the hardest challenges i have faced lately (i think i need to start setting my goals a little higher.)  i really struggle at night when i go to sleep, especially with this schedule we are on around here.  i usually sleep with the t.v. on.  sunday night i my final glance at the alarm clock read 3:30 a.m.  yep then i was up at 7:30 the next morning to get kids out the door.  monday my dear sister came over to help with a crazy project that i had set up for myself to start out my no screens week.  we mapped out, chalked out, taped up, and painted the ceiling in the girls room.  this was my project that started at 8:30 monday morning and ended at 2:30 tuesday morning.  it was so fun and i love how it turned out but my sleep habits were totally screwed up for the better part of the week.  braylie missed both mornings of choir and i had to tell carpool to move along two or three times during the week.  i did cheat one time and look on webmd for information on this crazy choking sensation that i have been having on and off.  after reading into it, i realized that it is an anxiety thing; which in turn makes sense if you know me.  (p.s. my doctor banned me from webmd because my anxiety will get the best of me.  please don't tell her)

jared struggled just as much, if not more, than i did.  he is really addicted to ksl.com.  he usually spends quite a lot of time researching and investigating the deal of the day in the classifieds.  he tells me that is how he winds down when he gets home from work and it is what he does in his hour of free time up at school.  sunday night was really nice for us.  we actually spent about three hours just talking on the couch and enjoying one another's time.  somewhere around tuesday or wednesday jared came home from school and told me that he cheated and looked at a trailer on ksl that his twin almost bought.  it was the same make and model trailer that we just bought a couple of weeks ago.  we got quite a laugh out of the whole thing.  jared found a coupon halfway through the week to golden corral and came up with a great plan to take the kids there on friday as a reward for their cooperation in the no screens week.  after our early 4:00 dinner at the corral, jared announced that he could not take it any longer and that he was ending this nonsense here and now.  when we got home he let the kids watch their newly purchased "tangled" and he got to work catching up on all the deals he missed out on during the week.

all in all, i hope we did learn something.  i hope we can spend a little time doing more important things instead of wasting time with technology.  i am not saying technology isn't good and for me it is awesome down time, but in this house things need to be turned off more often and what really matters needs to matter more.