The other day John came to me and was telling me about a dream he had. He was walking through the house and could hear me and the kids yelling, pleading for help and he was trying to find us. But as he walked through our house all the radios were on, the tvs, the xbox, and his phone kept going off with letting him know he had text messages. His focus was diverated from finding us to all the noise and entertainment around him.
He said that he felt God was telling him that his focus has been on things other then his family, our life, and most importantly God. I totally agree. And it is not just him.
For a couple of years now John has teased me(and sometimes gotten really mad with me) because there are times I get so overwhelmed with all the noise in our house from all the electronics that I can't cope and I turn everything off. Seriously there are times the tv will be on(which it is most of the time it seems), the kids will be playing xbox with the noise going, fans will be going(ceiling fans, standing fans, fans from the stove and bathrooms), and John will be walking around playing music on his phone and I will just feel like all the noise is overwhelming. I just want quiet. Not like everyone has to leave, but I want quiet from all the electronics.
Plus I feel that because we spend so much time in front of the tv, we don't spend much quality time with the kids or each other, and that our house suffers because we never seem to have time to do anything.
So we decided to limit the tv and xbox time for the whole family, as well as John and I limiting our time playing on our phones and my time on the computer. We talked about it on Monday and started it on Tuesday. The kids are not enjoying it as well. Livie doesn't seem to mind and Kennedy and JJ are pretty good at entertaining themselves with toys so they don't complain too much. But Alex and Ryan are not liking it.
We have been letting them watch tv for a bit in the morning while we are still laying in bed, but I have been making them turn it off by 9:30 or 10 and then it hasn't been coming back on late afternoon or evening when I let them watch a couple 30 minute episodes of something or maybe a movie while I do baths and such. But really I have found I don't like it on. Even now while the kids are in bed, I started to watch something and then was like, "I don't even really want to watch this," and shut off the tv. I find that once I stepped away from watching stuff, even stuff I didn't really want to watch, just because it seemed the thing to do, I really don't want to watch anything as much.
And except for letting Ryan play xbox for about an half an hour yesterday after he came home from his visit and I was still wanting to nap for a bit longer, the xbox hasn't been on.
Ryan and Alex have been kinda busy this week too, with Ryan doing visits with his mom and Alex going places with John and my brother, so that has helped keep them busy somewhat. But when they are home they will ask throughout the day, or complain cause there is nothing to do. But hey, I can remember going to my great grandmas and not having any channels to watch and only a few movies and we played games and did things to keep busy. That's why I love to do crafts, cause I started then so I stayed busy. They will just have to find stuff to do! Cause Mama loves not having the tv on all the time!!!
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