Day 2

Remember yesterday when I said that my children were relatively unfazed by the amount of time remaining in our screenless week?  Sometime this afternoon Ben decided that five days left was SIGNIFICANT.  Yes, we had our first meltdown this afternoon. However, it was short (especially for Ben who is a marathon whiner), and he quickly went back to business as usual.  I'm not complaining. I had myself geared up for constant requests and complaints this week, and they just haven't happened. I continue to be amazed.
Today involved a trip to the local splash park with some neighborhood friends, and it was definitely helpful to get outta the house for awhile, but the remainder of the day the boys were once again more than satisfied to entertain themselves and each other here at home.  A few hairy moments ensued around dinner time, and that's not unusual.  For whatever reason, that is the time of day at our house when all the crazies come out.  Usually there is much yelling (on both my and the kids' part) and general unproductive attempts at stamping out the fires.  Today I took a deep breath instead and dug into my dollar section back-up plans so that the rest of our time before din-din looked like this:


Thank you, Target.
(Notice the bat on the table. This was NOT being used productively five minutes prior to this photo.)


I realized today how much we've been operating on autopilot (at least, speaking for myself and I think for my better half too). But in the past 48 hours I feel like we've truly been interacting with each other and not just coexisting.  We're eating meals as a family, sharing time together in the evening (rather than the mad rush to just GET THOSE KIDS IN BED ALREADY!), and really observing what's happening with one another. And we're making room.  Room for conversation, connection, creativity (this grammar nerd just LOVES alliteration).  Room for God to speak and to direct our activities.
Nothing's perfect around here, by any means.  But I can't help but speak positively about what's happening so far.  I kind of feel like I just showed up to my own life (is that a song?). I have renewed energy, renewed love for my children, renewed interest in taking an active role in who they're becoming.
What else did I learn about myself today?  I have learned that I have a huge sense of urgency when it comes to communication/information.  I constantly found myself gripped by, "I need to look up that info on the internet RIGHT NOW!" or "That email needs to be written and sent RIGHT NOW!"  And it just isn't so.  One goal I have for myself when we return to "normal" next week is to continue to limit my computer activity to just a couple of specific times during the day.  Minutes and hours rapidly get sucked up when I give myself constant access and free reign, and those minutes and hours I'd rather give to the people in my life.
Speaking of people, I spent the loveliest evening with a special group of women in my life. We started out (the original group, anyway) sharing a career (educating) and a love for reading, and throughout the past nine years have also shared in coming mothers and raising our babies, changing homes, morphing life roles. Some moved on from the group, others entered in, but they are all incredible ladies, and I'm blessed to know them and continue sharing stories, both read and lived. Thanks for the laughter this evening, ladies, and for filling my night with REAL entertainment, not the screen-confined kind.