There is a hole in my bucket

Do you remember the little song,

"There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza.
There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, a hole."

Poor old Henry is trying to get through his farmer day, but there is a hole in his bucket. So Henry calls out to very practical Liza and whines about his issue. Do you remember what Liza says back?

"Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry.
Then fix it, dear Henry. Dear Henry, fix it!"

Such sage advice from old Liza, I can just hear her hollering over from the chicken coop, "Fix the darn bucket Henry and get on with your life!"

Well there is a hole in my bucket. I have been whining about it for a while. Each day, I try to run through my life with a bucket that's leaking. So much seems to be slipping through the holes ( there is probably more than one.) At the end of each day, I turn around and look at a path of dropped balls, half finished projects and missed opportunities.

*** Okay I have to implant this illustration. Just now as I was typing "unfinished" I remembered that I was baking cookies. I ran up to the kitchen and the cookies are completely ruined! Fudge! Why am I making cookies you may ask? Well I need cookies for this weekend. Yesterday I went and bought a tray of two dozen cookies and apparently drove off leaving them in the parking lot. So I have to make cookies – now I have to make MORE cookies! Oh my goodness, need I say more about my scattered state!***

I don't think my bucket is irreparably broken, I think that it has just been a long time since I did any maintenance work in it. This weekend I am taking Liza's advice. I am going to try to fix my bucket – or at least take a good look at it. In one hour and 47 minutes my friend Bobbie is picking me up and we are headed to our church's women's retreat Two days, 60 + women, the quiet of the Colorado mountains and one great big powerful loving God. I can't wait and I look forward to sharing it with you next week.

*** Sidebar #2 in case you actually had to ask – Yes the TV is back on. We made it until this afternoon but it's on."

Two days into a TV free week …

Well I am very happy to announce that we are two days into being TV free and the tears have stopped. We have actually been having a very fun week and the girls have not even asked to watch a show, which just proves to me that I use the TV to babysit them. Bad mommy.

Last night Sarah and Pete had a daddy and me ice cream event at school, so it was just Emily and I at home. We took an hour long bubble bath together. I use to take baths with Sarah all the time when she was one and two. I had forgotten how fun it is. I had suggested we take a bath because I am suffering from a very yucky sinus infection and wanted to sit in the steamy bathroom, but the best medicine ended up just being with Emily, completely undistracted, to sing songs and make boats out of old Tupperware. It was great.

Tonight, the girls and I had a picnic at the park after soccer practice. It was a beautiful night out. We ate cheese sandwiches and fruit and wished all the things we saw a "happy earth day." "Happy earth day ants," "happy earth day tree," "Happy earth day squirrel." Then a HUGE swarm of flies came to our picnic and we decided that was enough happy earth day.

If you are looking for some fun and easy crafts to do with your kids, check out this online newsletter. I love receiving it. It has easy, practical and educational activities to do. The girls and I made the alphabet collage today and they really enjoyed it.

Happy TV free week to all of you!

The big turn off …

This week is National Turn off the TV week. I love this idea, it comes at a good time for our family this year. I have shamefully been using the TV as an electronic babysitter way too much lately. I use to have an unspoken rule of 1 hour of TV a day in our house. These days we are well beyond that. So last night, I announced in my very excited mommy voice, "This week is Turn Off the TV week!" There were spontaneous tears. "What does that mean"?" Sarah asked, completely horrified. I explained that this was a week set aside to do things together as a family instead of watching TV. I told her we were going to play board games, start planting our veggie garden, have dinner at the park … she kept crying.

Personally, TV is not a big deal in my life. I can truly live without it and not miss it. For the past two years I have not watched TV from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Of course the TV is on, because the kids watch it, but I don't sit down to watch my own shows. I have loved how it has freed up my summer evenings to write, read, work in the yard, and actually talk with Pete. I think it has been a really good thing for me each year. I'll admit by September I am ready to watch a new season of mindless reality TV, but for me that is what balance is all about, not letting any one thing take over my whole life.

This year, I have had it in my mind that I would like the whole family to unplug the TV on Memorial Day and leave it off until September. Pete is not too keen on this idea. He is my technology boy. I guess we will see how this week goes and go on from there. Hopefully Sarah and Emily will enjoy having time to do some different things this week, and the tears will not be a daily occurrence.

Any one up for joining me? I am going to post some evening activities throughout the week to hopefully encourage/inspire you to turn of the tube this week as well.