The Saturday 7

1. We rang in the new year together at home. Levi got to stay up 'til midnight for the first time "to see the ball drop." It was anti-climactic to say the least. 😂 We toasted with sparkling grape juice and took this very grainy snapchat picture:

The girls both set reading goals for the year. Lucy wants to read 100 books (last year she read something like 65) and Lena wants to read 25. Now if only I could spark Levi's love for reading!

2. On Wednesday we officially started our 2-week digital detox. We broke it to the kids on Monday. Levi cried, but the girls hardly batted an eyelash! I let them download music and ebooks to their tablets ahead of time, then late Tuesday night I changed the wi-fi password so no one can use the Internet or TV. I did put the new password in for Alexa, since that's how Lena listens to music and Levi listens to audiobooks/podcasts. I also have the Internet connected on my laptop because I use it for work and for some of the marketing stuff I do for church - and blogging of course! Justin and I deleted the social media apps, games, and YouTube off our phones, but we have unlimited data, so we can still use them for stuff we need like email and calendars, etc.

3. The first couple of days were hard for Levi - he did a fair amount of whining "What can I doooo?" that left me wondering what kind of dummy does a digital detox in the dead of winter when I can't just send him outside. But he's adjusting. Mostly he's surviving on podcasts. Anytime he doesn't know what to do, he'll ask me to turn it on and then lay on the couch and listen for hours. Sometimes he'll start playing with his Hot Wheels cars while he listens, but he really does sit still and listen for long periods of time. His podcast of choice this week has been Snoop and Sniffy: Dog Detective Stories. There are a lot of seasons, so he has plenty of material to work through. 

4. I had high hopes that turning off the Internet would force Lucy out of her room, but she has yet to emerge. She's been reading like crazy, listening to downloaded podcasts, and doing puzzles alone in her room. Lena has no problem coming up with things to do. She's gotten really into Cat's Cradle, she's been deep-cleaning her room, drawing/coloring/reading, face painting, and of course playing games with whoever will play with her.

Headbanz 

Lena painted that giraffe on her face herself!

Guess Who

Reading time

Levi pushed our couches together so we could snuggle while listening to his podcast.

Playing catch with a stuffed animal

Justin and Levi spent a few days putting together a Lego Technic car, while I got sucked into another puzzle.

My turn to have my face painted - "I'm a beautiful butterfly!" (Name that movie!)

Then Levi painted Lena's face. Lol.

Stella loves Cats Cradle.

More reading. I got a "cat encyclopedia" from the library and Levi spent a good fifteen minutes flipping through the book saying "awww!" on each page. 

He's also spent a fair amount of time torturing the poor cat.

Couch snuggle time.

Snapchat may be cheating, but we did it together and it entertained us for a long time. Lol.

5. So today is day four . . . and my resolve is flagging. In an unexpected twist, the kids are handling it way better than I am. Lol. Don't get me wrong - they would gladly go back to binging their dumb tv shows, but they've done a good job of finding things to do. I knew today would be the biggest challenge since it's the first day without school/work to keep us busy most of the day. Levi was up at 6, and when I'd normally just hand him my phone I made him lay back down and listen to music. He drifted off and on for a while, and I finally got up with him at 8. Way too early for me on a Saturday morning. Neighbor-girl-Kylee came over late morning and helped entertain Lena and Levi for a few hours. That helped a ton, and I was impressed that Lena let Levi play with them. Then Justin took Levi to a roller skating birthday party from 4-6. So the kids did a great job today, but I have been bored and restless and ornery. I read two books earlier this week, but I just didn't want to read today. I want to scroll facebook and play games on my phone. I'm questioning why the Internet is so bad and wondering how it's any better that I'm flipping through magazines and wandering aimlessly around my house. Haha. Justin misses watching football (although we're making an exception for the Lions' game tomorrow). I think my biggest problem is that I like my leisure time. There are a thousand productive things I could do around the house, but I don't want to spend my Saturday doing any of those. I want to veg. And without the Internet, I can't veg and be entertained at the same time. Classic millennial problems that reveal my addiction and my need for the detox in the first place. 🤦 I do still believe in the benefits of reducing our screen time, so I just keep repeating them to myself. If nothing else, I'm getting more sleep because I'm so bored in the evenings when the kids go to bed that I usually just go to bed too!

6. I got this book from the kids' section of the library, but I picked it out for myself. I've been working my way through it for a couple days.

It's fascinating and mind-boggling. I love reading about how the first people spread out from Mesopotamia to settle the rest of the world. Can you even imagine leaving behind what you know to walk thousands of miles to a place where humans have never been? Or worse - to get in a boat and set off, not knowing if or when you'd find land? Our 21st century minds can't imagine what it was like to have so much unknown about the world. I'm also amazed by the ingenuity of mankind. So these people trek into a new land and then they have to figure out how to survive there! For some reason they decide to dig and they find metal. For some reason they decide to heat it up, and they discover it's moldable. So now they can make tools and weapons. And then they figure out how to grow crops and create irrigation systems and waste systems, and all these important things that contribute to their survival. After hundreds of years, they've developed religions and governments and art, but then another country swoops in, wipes them out, and takes over! It's crazy to look at the dates and see these empires that existed for hundreds of years. They probably felt invincible and enlightened. But they all eventually crumbled. It's weird to realize that the United States is less than 300 years old. I feel like we think of our world today as so civilized. All of the land has been discovered and claimed. Boundaries are in place. We don't just decide to take over other countries anymore, right? But history proves that's probably not a guarantee for the stability of our future. 

7. I have a confession to make: Meijer was out of Dr Pepper this week, but Pibb Extra (formerly Mr. Pibb) was on sale, so I bought that instead . . . and I'm not sure I could tell the difference between DP and Pibb in a blind taste test. 🤯 I need to get a can of Dr Pepper and try it this week. Stay tuned.