No T.V.

  Over the past almost two weeks, Iyana's school has challenged the students and their families to go a week or two with no T.V., video games or anything that has to do with a screen (which includes the computer...yikes!). We decided it would be a great challenge for us as we've noticed of late that our screen time has progressively gotten worse. It was time to get back to good ole family time. I'll admit, the no T.V. part for me has been a breeze.......the computer though....ugh.....I've had serious withdrawals. I was only allowed to use it for work purposes which kind of helped take the edge off, but when you're so used to checking almost everything out on the web, such as catching up with the blogs I read, email, facebook, news...etc...you start to realize really how much time you're spending there. I'll admit...I had a problem. My eyes have been opened to how I've been spending my time and it's not a good feeling knowing how much of it was devoted to this lovely little box. It's been great getting back into playing games with my family, listening to some old CD's (and I'll admit, some tapes too...I know they're out of date) and just plain getting stuff done and taken care of. I've gotten more work accomplished and feel like I haven't been wasting my days. While I was on the computer constantly, it never seemed like it was such a problem. It wouldn't be until the end of the day that I would realize that I really didn't do anything with my day and then of course I would deal with some guilt about it, but it was never enough to get me off my rear. This time though, with making the commitment to Iyana to support her in her effort (which by the way, she did wonderful), we've worked hard and have had some great results.
  So, after hearing a little bit about our couple of weeks (or really, my couple of weeks), I have a challenge for you. You don't have to go the full two weeks or even a week if you don't want. But try taking a couple of days to turn off all the screen time and instead, devote that time to your family. You might be surprised at how much this can impact your family. If you find yourself having withdrawals, then you know that you've possibly got a problem. Now that I'm back to being able to use the computer, I'm much more aware of the time spent there. I'm working really hard on only being on here for short times and as well as not being on at all (unless it's work related) when Iyana and BJ are around. I think over the course of time, it will improve our relationships as well as our time management. Let me know if you try the challenge and how it goes for you. I'd love to hear from you.

Signing off for now.......