RightFootFirst

Sunday, January 19, 2014

No television!? What do you DO all day!?

"What!? You don't have a TV!?" That is the response of most people after Chris tells them we do not have a television. They feel sorry for us (especially for Chris) and wonder out loud, "what do you all DO all day!?"

We just survived our second football season without a television. Chris is an avid sports fan. He follows mostly football and basketball, but I'm sure he knows a lot about baseball, too. I haven't heard him talk much about hockey or golf, but he also enjoys a good Nascar event. So how and why have we chosen to survive like this? Well, on some days (like the last day of the NFL playoffs, for example), Chris gets pretty grumpy. But I appreciate the fact that we do not have a television so much, and he loves me--so here we are.

When we prepared to move to California from Florida in early 2012, we donated and sold a LOT of our things with a vision of moving across the country with our SUV towing a U-Haul trailer. Chris proposed getting rid of our two TVs, and we made a deal: if we get rid of them (like he wanted), we don't replace the when we arrive (like I wanted). We were both satisfied with the result.

Fast forward to football season, which brought much turmoil and lots of smart phone ESPN browsing. There was a *lot* of talk about buying a TV. We even went and looked at TVs at Best Buy (flat screens with built-in DVD players)...but by the grace of God we survived without purchasing one.

I'm so grateful that we can continue to live without the morning news: traffic accidents; missing children; movie theater shootings and other crises. And we don't have to deal with commercials in which marketing professionals try to convince us that we need more stuff (toys, cleaning products--blah!). And I'm grateful that John doesn't have to see McDonald's commercials, so he still doesn't know much about the largest hamburger chain restaurant that markets their Frankenfood to kids. During the holidays, we missed all the commercials that make you feel like your life is missing something. I am grateful that I don't have a weekly date with my couch to watch Top Chef or even American Idol or [insert latest reality show that may or may not exploit people for money].

I'm grateful that during the Storm Before the Calm (see my previous blog post), I don't have the option of turning on the TV and telling John and Luke to just sit and chill. Sure, it makes life more challenging. I have to strategically arrange my showers around my children's moods (when they are peacefully engaged in something, I seize the moment). But it's worth it.

Thank you, Chris, for being so dedicated to your family that you make this sacrifice for us. I love you for that--and for everything else you do for our family.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

The Storm Before the Calm

I remember experiencing the calm before the storm in South Florida during the hurricanes of 2004 or 2005. It was eerie because we knew that the storm was coming, and we knew it was getting close, but it seemed so surreal because the weather looked beautiful outside.

Something that happens pretty regularly in our home has me wondering whether it happens in other people's homes, too. I call it the Storm Before the Calm. It's what happens right before our most peaceful, productive times together. I don't usually see it coming. It happens when I think I'm about to be productive and have some moments to myself. But then--BAM! Nope. It's emergencies left and right. It's sibling struggles and crying. Then someone is pouring something sticky on the floor--on purpose. Those are the times when I am not sure how we are going to make it through the day in one piece.

It can make me crazy if I get sucked into it. But if I can stay calm and ride it out like a patient, loving mother that I aspire to be, the Calm that follows is better than anything. It's when new, elaborate inventions come to fruition, when John teaches something to Luke with loving patience, or when I easily accomplish 3 or more things off my "list". The Calm that follows brings some of my favorite parenting moments.

Is there a Storm Before the Calm at your house?

Back yard science

indoor obstacle course

outdoor obstacle course

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Date nights

Our Meme (Chris's mom), is here for a week. She came to spend time with the boys and to give me and Chris some much-needed time alone with each other.

So far I think our week has had good order. Chris and I have been out-and-about together alone for 3 days in a row! That's definitely a record for recent years. We went shopping last night--got some clothes and a new bag for me (my aunt will be proud of my new bag, which was way overdue)--then we ate some amazingly tasty sushi at MoonCat (4 blocks from our house). Tonight we had yummy Vietnamese soup at Pho Lemon (5 blocks from our house). I have also logged several productive hours for my work this week, which is a secondary priority.

John has announced that he has had enough of our "date nights" and has requested in his not-so-subtle way that we refrain from any further "date night" in the near future. I'm flattered, really, but we are still headed to "date yoga" on Saturday morning, thank-you-very-much!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

More updates

I'm hoping this blog will be a place where I can better document our life together--because documenting this wonderful, blessed life that I have has not previously been my strong point. And I also have some topics I'm pretty passionate about, which I might ramble about here sometimes. This post is an update for our friends and family who can't be close to share these moments with us.

When we ride in the car, we often see jet streams. John has been excitedly pointing them out now for a while. Now Luke has joined in the fun. He pointed to the sky this afternoon and said "Jet! Jet!" Last week we saw the Thunderbirds (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_Thunderbirds) flying by our house in a formation. The boys were so excited.

John lately has been enjoying challenging his body with extreme balancing and twisty moves. He uses the handlebar on his trampoline to hang from and twist around. He hangs upside down and swings from his trapeze bar. It's fun to watch him constantly challenging himself with new positions. Yesterday morning Chris hung a rope with various knots in it from the rafters in the garage. All morning John was working on climbing up it.

Love the lighting here

The other thing John does regularly is build obstacle courses. Yesterday, he took all of the dining room chairs, the desk chair, trampoline, two short wooden tables, a hall table and a nightstand and arranged them down the length of the hallway. He and Luke had fun climbing over it all over and over. They also build obstacle courses in the back yard.

John has also in the past two weeks started drawing specific identifiable things. For example, he drew three people laying in a bed, and that's exactly what it looked like. He draws people, houses, suns and animals. This is new for him and has been completely unprompted by me.

Luke currently loves to read Go Dog Go (he asks me to read it multiple times every day) and he loves to push around cars or trucks on his knees. Just in the past two days, Luke has been putting two words together for most thoughts. For example, when he had been saying the object he wanted, now he will say the object and then "want".

Yesterday I went to the eye doctor for the first time in more than 8 years, and I found out I have 20/20 vision!! My glasses broke 3-4 months ago, and I have only felt like I wanted to wear them for driving at night since they broke (I *may* have worn them taped in the middle a few times). Well now I won't be needing them at all! After needing glasses for distance since junior high, this is pretty exciting news for me.