Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Christmas Joy!

My very own copy!! The library will be so pleased to get their copy back!! What am I yammering about? Why, Mason-Dixon Knitting, of course! I received my very own copy for Christmas and I'm one happy knitter!

I also was able to make my very first Big Yarn Buy. That's 10 skeins of one yarn! It's so soft and wonderful...and it will make a wonderful shawl/wrap...as soon as I finish swatching...because naturally all that yarn has totally freaked me out and I'm terrified I'll do something wrong once I get started!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

10 Christmas CD's to Knit By

Warm up the cider and grab your knitting....

1) Handel's Messiah
2) First Call "Beyond December"
3) "Christmas with the Rat Pack"
4) George Winston "December"
5) Glenn Miller Orchestra "In the Christmas Mood"
6) Mannheim Steamroller "A Fresh Aire Christmas"
7) Mannheim Steamroller "Christmas"
8) Michael W. Smith "Christmas"
9) Bing Crosby "Christmas Through the Years"
10) Nat King Cole "Chestnuts Roastin'"

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Life Without (Much) TV

It's been a full week now...and what I realize is that limiting the tv is harder for me than for the kids! I had already greatly curtailed their watching, mostly because I much prefer their DOing something to their just sitting and watching. What has hit me most in the last week is my own attachment to tv. I really love old movies!

We have moderately interesting conversations during meals now, and we can really work on 6yo son's table manners (ick!). This morning the kids and I played "animal lotto" during breakfast.

I have to find a new place to knit. My knitting bag has always sat next to my spot on the couch (the end closest to hubby's chair), but that spot is also directly opposite the tv. I swear it calls to me sometimes! So I've been knitting very little--I'm afraid to sit down there! I can't move the knitting to the bedroom, because the minute I sit down in there, I will have a cat in my lap. Cats and knitting are not mutually beneficial.

The bad thing about kicking the tv habit during Christmas: all those great Christmas movies. The good thing about kicking the tv habit during Christmas: all those great Christmas songs on the radio. And our tendency to play board games as a family during the holidays. And bake cookies. And get out and go look at Christmas lights. And do Christmas crafts.

Maybe by January, we'll be so used to doing other things....
well, I'll finish that sentence in January!!

An update as of April, 2007: The TV is not on all the time, but neither is it off all the time. The kids are much more apt to find something else to do than ask to watch something. We get a movie for "Family Movie Night", we watch the History Channel, and right now, a lot of Baseball! But TV watching is no longer the first option and sometimes we just read a book together! I think, all in all, we have benefitted from our experiment. It has made us THINK about how we spend our time, instead of frittering it away. And that's a good thing!!

Friday, December 01, 2006

The Great Experiment

Perhaps it's a combination of things. I've been reading 109 East Palace, about the physicists who gathered at Los Alamos to develop the atomic bomb in WWII. I've also been alarmed at my children's conversations and how they consist primarily of quoting or discussing movies or tv shows. Perhaps it's a combination of these things that caused me to turn off the tv this week. By lunchtime on Monday, it was off, and it has remained off since then (3 1/2 days and counting).

If this experiment had been conducted at an earlier time, maybe a couple of years ago, surely there would have been bloodshed in our home. But I've been cutting down on tv consumption since I began reading John Rosemond and it had already made a surprising difference in the attitudes and behavior of the kids. Plus, they're old enough to play together and keep each other occupied.

Then I picked up The Plug-In Drug, to bolster my efforts and reassure me that I was doing the right thing. Now I wonder if I'll ever turn the tv back on! I want something better for my family than sitting in front of the tube, watching dumb stuff just to be watching something, shushing the conversations, complaining when someone stands in front of the set, arranging LIFE around the tv schedule.

So I'll let you know how it goes!