•7:20 AM
Just an update on a few things in the life of Mighty Oak Country School.
1. We just returned from another nice camping trip to Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park in the northern part of our state. It is a unique place, with hills, and a small canyon, or ravine, that is 65 feet deep, formed by the outflowing of ground water in the form of springs. The weather was perfect for half of the trip, and rain showers for the second half. This forced us to take a new view of camping and the use of our van, as we actually found ourselves preparing and eating meals inside the van for the first time, and spending more time in there than ever before. We managed, but we had to plan and be careful. There was much card playing and book reading. But it was a different way to enjoy camping, and as a family, we did better than I envisioned we would.
2. Little Son is sick right now, and perhaps Baby Girl will be soon. So we are laying low this week, hoping for as much improvement as possible in time for Saturday and all the violin competitions. Little Son has had to master five separate pieces for three competitions, and Baby Girl has mastered two pieces for a single competition. I guess that means Mommy has had to master seven pieces, in a vicarious sort of way!
3. Some new convictions are forming within me regarding the use of electronic media in our home. I could post another time at length about this subject. We already don't watch cable or broadcast TV, and view about one DVD per week as a family. But other convictions have been forming within me about computer use, and the way some of the non-essential computer time tends to usurp the little spare time I have. In a way, it isn't much different than TV, and I need to take a new approach to limiting it. So for now, I am considering a self-imposed moratorium on Internet use for 3 or 4 days out of the week (Wednesday is not one of them). These are, indeed, important days in our lives, especially at this stage of our children's lives, and I want to grab life by the horns. To the extent that screen time is stealing from what could be better for us, I don't know, but I will only find out if I try a change.
So the result is that posts to this blog will probably be less often (one or two days a week, such as has already been this month) and hopefully of greater quality! Hope you understand.
1. We just returned from another nice camping trip to Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park in the northern part of our state. It is a unique place, with hills, and a small canyon, or ravine, that is 65 feet deep, formed by the outflowing of ground water in the form of springs. The weather was perfect for half of the trip, and rain showers for the second half. This forced us to take a new view of camping and the use of our van, as we actually found ourselves preparing and eating meals inside the van for the first time, and spending more time in there than ever before. We managed, but we had to plan and be careful. There was much card playing and book reading. But it was a different way to enjoy camping, and as a family, we did better than I envisioned we would.
2. Little Son is sick right now, and perhaps Baby Girl will be soon. So we are laying low this week, hoping for as much improvement as possible in time for Saturday and all the violin competitions. Little Son has had to master five separate pieces for three competitions, and Baby Girl has mastered two pieces for a single competition. I guess that means Mommy has had to master seven pieces, in a vicarious sort of way!
3. Some new convictions are forming within me regarding the use of electronic media in our home. I could post another time at length about this subject. We already don't watch cable or broadcast TV, and view about one DVD per week as a family. But other convictions have been forming within me about computer use, and the way some of the non-essential computer time tends to usurp the little spare time I have. In a way, it isn't much different than TV, and I need to take a new approach to limiting it. So for now, I am considering a self-imposed moratorium on Internet use for 3 or 4 days out of the week (Wednesday is not one of them). These are, indeed, important days in our lives, especially at this stage of our children's lives, and I want to grab life by the horns. To the extent that screen time is stealing from what could be better for us, I don't know, but I will only find out if I try a change.
So the result is that posts to this blog will probably be less often (one or two days a week, such as has already been this month) and hopefully of greater quality! Hope you understand.
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4 comments:
Hope everyone is feeling rested and better in time for violin competitions!
(And yes, computers and internet can be a huge time drain. I struggle with balancing these things in my life ALL THE TIME).
I applaud your efforts. And envy. We are not big TV watchers in my home. At least that is what I like to say. I hold my head up high and look down at people who say there kids watch TV all afternoon long. "My kids don't sit in front of the TV like that!" I say and feel so proud... and then I am quickly knocked down, pride goo smashed all over my face like egg. My kids and all of us here are videogamers. We don't veg in front of a tv flipping channels, we veg in front of a computer screen playing video games. So is that any better? I would say not. We've had some construction work going on in our home recently and it has taken 2 weeks longer than expected and I am starting to see the results of electronics withdrawal. We are passing through the irritation faze. I wonder if we will be disciplined enough to take advatntage of this mandatory break from video games and evaluate our screen time? This would be a good time to make changes. You are a great role model! Thanks for sharing.
We've had camping trips like that. Six people stuck in a pop up can get old after a couple of days, but it does have some fun about it.
Mommy has *definitely* mastered 7 pieces. When my oldest 2 were younger, I could dance their dances in my sleep...actually in real life, now that ws another thing. LOL.
I hope you all are feeling better.
I'm with you on the computer use limits. I need some new ones. For me, as I'm almost the only to use the computer at this point...I've tried only allowing 2 or 3 days a week. I think I need to do that again. To make it work though I have to actually disconnect my monitor and hide it up in the closet :/