Screen Time... Or Lack Thereof

This week we did a little screen time "fast". Fast, as in, abstain or refrain. Not, hurry up and watch the screen. Ha! It was good, for all of us. See my friends and I are doing a little challenge (more on this later) and this week I decided my kids should join in on the challenge.

Let me be honest with you. We don't have cable. We have an antennae in our window that picks up some channels for us. Let's say, maybe, 12 channels. And we love chanel 7 (PBS kids!) and channel 34 (qubo). Qubo, is a 24-hour cartoon channel and I'd say there is probably only one show on it that we don't let our kids watch and it's on at like 2am. It's He-man. And honestly I'm not sure exactly why we wouldn't let our kids watch it since Ben and I grew up watching it and we turned out ok...but it's on at an unordinary time anyway so mostly our kids could watch Qubo any hour of the DAY and be ok. Therefore... sometimes they watch it a little too much. What's too much you ask? Well, one of Titus' first words was "show" - I think that might indicate the amount of watching. So, yeah, during the winter I pretty much forget the whole rule about screen time that webmd.com and healthykids.com suggest. But with spring just popping it's head into our neck of the woods, I thought to myself, "Self, this is a great time to do a family screen time challenge."

Monday, here's how things started:

Me - Hey kids, we are going to do a challenge. We are not going to have any screen time for a whole week.
Kids - (silence, looking at me like I'm an alien)
Me - Yeah, it'll be so good for us! We'll get fresh air, play lots of games and yeah, woo hoo!
Kids - Like video games?
Me - No, like board games and stuff. This is going to be great!
Kids - Ok, so can we play our DS's?
Me - Nope
Kids - Hmmmm, do we get to watch cartoons in the morning?
Me - Nope
Kids - Are you and dad doing it too? No computers or phones for you guys too?
Me - Yep
Kids - Ok, we are in!! (high-fives around the table)
Me - (silence, looking at them like they have just told me a truth about myself that is not so pretty)
Kids - Maybe we could celebrate at the end of the week with family movie night.
Me - Totally, that would be so fun.
Kids - With popcorn and candy and ice cream?
Me - Yep, let's do this.
Titus - Show?

So reality slapped me hard in the face. And here I am reflecting on it. We do so much on our electronics, it's just crazy! For me my grocery list, to-do list, procrastination tools games, work schedules, email, calendar, weather report, news, music, running log, coupons...all these things are on my PHONE. So I am constantly looking at it. Luckily, a month ago I clued into taking facebook OFF my phone, at least then it's not as easily accessible to, once again, take my eyes off of the kids and onto my phone. But there is still so much to look at on my phone. It's becoming ridiculous.

My kids have noticed.

Thus the fast. The abstaining. The refrain.

I still had to use my phone this week. But it's been much less. And honestly Titus and Alena did watch 40 minutes of Sound of Music so I could run on the treadmill (at someone else's house, so really it was my only choice of entertainment)... but Ben and I have not been on the computer nearly as much and none of us have watched any TV or played any games on the Wii or DS. Amazing. (I found out on Friday night that someone did cheat BEN! and played a half of a game once this week.... geez what do I have to do to get some loyalty around here....kidding babe)

Below is a list of things that we DID do. SOME of the things would have happened with or without 'the fast', but most of them happened when we would have normally been watching TV, a movie, or I would have been doing FB or some other non-necessary thing on my phone/computer. I love this list and will treasure it for a long time. We just might do this fast thing monthly....or maybe quarterly :)

Read books
Pet the dog
Went to bed early
Made actual phone calls (instead of texts)
Watched soccer practice
Took bubble baths (the kids and me too!)
Looked in real cookbooks
Cleaned the boys' nasty bathroom
Pet the cat
Made cookies
Got caught up on laundry and organized the laundry room (!!)
Wrote actual emails (instead of texts)
Said "no" to Titus a bazillion times when he said "show?"
Read the news
Looked at a magazine (this was FOR work, not necessarily enjoyment)
Played board games
Pulled "weeds" out of the flower garden (I couldn't use the internet to find out if they were weeds or not so I just pulled out all the ugly stuff)
Made earrings and bracelets with Alena

On Saturday night we took the kids to an actual movie at a theater. Don't mind doing the math for how much it costs to take 6 people to the movie, we recognize we probably could have paid off all our college debt, but we spoiled our kids instead and it was SO fun! We even took them out to dinner afterward! It was such a great family time - and get this.... No one wanted to watch cartoons this morning! Well, except Titus. But we'll work on that.

Try a media fast, it's good for the brain and for the soul.

~Ms. Simplicity






 

Nines!

The boys turned 9 about 2 months ago.

I forgot to blog about it.

I'm not a bad mom, just a little....slow.

I do have to say that I realized this is the last year before they turn double digits. So it could be one of the last times I can actually blog about their birthday and post all the pictures online without them being slightly embarrassed. They still let me kiss their cheeks at school for now too.

 We went to Tacoma for their birthday and then did a small dinner here with two of their friends.

The boys soooo enjoyed seeing their old friends:

Boy Power!

Get food fast...

eat food...

with friends...

awesome time!

Alena also got friend time:

Jubilee is teaching Alena how to read

I only lost Titus once while we were in Tacoma. I won't tell you exactly how and where because you might turn me in to CPS, but thank goodness for Jakey-bee saving the day!

Ruby and Titus always get along

And I got a dose of this cutie pa-tootie:

Hailey

All in all, the boys so enjoyed playing baseball with their friends and turning nine with just a few presents and a lot of driving :) Somehow old friends AND new friends bring comfort -- that is a wonderful thing. And, it is worth celebrating.

Life moves on, quickly, and yet, there are some things that stay seared in our minds always ~ Friendship is one of them. ~Ms. Simplicity

Nate and Reed (Spokane dinner)

Adam and Caleb (Spokane dinner)

Happy Birthday my big boys! Your mama loves you from your hearts, to the moon, and back.

Being Real

If you haven't read Heart Challenge, maybe do that first before reading this blog post.

I just want to be real.

Loving the poor is hard work. I think in my last post I made it sound like it was going to be easy. And yet, I have been scared, worried, and frankly sorrowful this month. It's SUPER EASY to buy the granola bars. But it is scary and anxiety-producing and hard to actually give them away. It is a little easier when it's just me. It becomes a bit harder to do WITH the kids. Why?

Example : Alena sees the man on the corner of the street. I ask her if we should give him a granola bar. She says yes. We pull over into a parking lot. She doesn't want to get out of the car. I am nervous. She is scared. I wonder if I should make her get out. Or do I, again, go hand the granola bar to the man by myself. See, it's a little easier to walk over and do it on my own. It's a bit harder to take a child who is scared.

And the debate becomes, do I help her heart break through and DO it? Or do I let the Lord bring her to a place of that in His timing? .... I don't know the right answer. But I made her get out and walk with me. She saw him, she wanted him to have a granola bar, so I made her come. ... Have we passed the people on the corner one too many times in her 6 years of life? I don't know, but we held hands and did not pass him up this time. We were both nervous and scared but we did it. Oh Lord, give me the strength and boldness to always proclaim your love, and not miss opportunities, open my eyes!

In other news, the boys' penny drive was a HUGE success! Their class got second place in the whole school!!! They get a Krispy Kreme party this Friday to celebrate! So amazing!! And yet, I do have this ache in my heart, that kids get cancer, and we can pray that those pennies do all they can to further what is needed to help kids not get cancer. But kids get cancer. Help us to raise kids who want to help other kids. Always. Even when they don't win donuts.

So life - it proves difficult, when I want it to be easy. And sometimes this is because we have to choose to break through and sometimes it is our own trials that become a block. But trials, they are tricky things. They mold us into who God wants us to be. I am learning we must embrace the trial. Embrace the circumstances and ASK God what He is trying to do in our life. I don't want trial, I don't want pain, but I believe the biblical equation goes something like this:

Suffering = Perseverance, Character and Hope

And Romans 8:18 says "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

So Lord, help me reach into other people's sufferings and not be afraid of what I might see, be exposed to, or how I might be affected. Give me wisdom to allow my kids to reach in too and help pull people out of their fires. Allow me to see that perseverance, character and hope come from suffering and that there is an eternal glory to be revealed that compares to NOTHING ON THIS EARTH. And let me show others this eternal glory and hope that there is in Christ alone.

On this journey together ~~~ Ms. Simplicity

Heart Challenge

Have you ever been stuck? I'm talking stuck in the snow, stuck in a ditch, stuck in a small space, stuck inside a sleeping bag and someone is sitting on the opening and won't move?? (That happened to me once by my brother an unnamed source, it was scary.) Anyway, what do you do when you are actually stuck? I'm of the type to panic. Freak out. Get all crazy in the head and start to reverse, drive, reverse, drive, shift to 2nd gear, reverse, drive, reverse. Sometimes I get out of the stuck spot and sometimes I get myself deeper... Sometimes I just need someone to help me GET OUT, and sometimes I just need to calm down. 

Once, I was stuck on the side of the road. I had decided to go grocery shopping late at night and I was driving to the Winco in Federal Way, and my tire blew. Ben had to come and save me. And guess what? I went on to Winco and he went home. We must have really needed those groceries. Or maybe, if I remember correctly, Caleb and Nathan were 3 and I needed some "time."

Anyway, on to the real reason for this post. Since moving to Spokane, settling in, moving to the country, settling in, raising chickens, raising kids, making new friends and helping the kids make some too, I was getting a little stuck. I didn't really know that my heart was slowly slipping into the ditch of snow (read: complacency) but it was. And I'm not upset that it was going there, because all it meant was that God was going to have to do something to wake me up and help me GET OUT.

It's amazing how God gets us unstuck. His usual ways are: parting seas, floods/arks, knocking over giants, whale tummies, closing the mouths of lions, making the sun stop in it's place, healing when someone simply touches his clothes. Buuuuuut, I must be a really simple person, because for me it was none of the above. It was a text from a friend (read: Mrs. Bee) and a blog challenge. So here it comes....

HEART CHALLENGE--- What if Jesus was serious when He said... "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40

Here's how the Message Bible puts it:

"I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.....
Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me---you did it to me."

What if! What if...and my heart starts beating. Like, a wild crazy beating, like, oh man, I've been stuck and I see it now and what do I want to do about it? So for a few days I went drive, reverse, drive, reverse, 2nd gear (what IS this gear when you drive an automatic anyway??), and then I just decided to calm down and let Him GET ME OUT. But one thing I had decided was this--- when I get out, I'm bringing my kids with me. I want their hearts to beat with compassion for the least. I want their eyes to see and their souls to act. I want to see and to act with them.

So, readers, if you want, you can come on this journey with us! It'll be simple because my kids are involved and they make me keep it real. Simplicity with Power.

Here's how we are going to start. This is how Jesus is leading us out of the stuck place:

#1- Granola bars.
#2- Pennies.

Simple plan #1: Buy granola bars at Costco. Give them to the homeless people we see. Easy. The homeless are on all the street corners we drive by. And the kids always want me to read the signs to them, or give them the snack (sometimes half eaten) that we have in the car. Now, we will drive around with granola bars and give them away. I like this plan because it's who my kids and I see day to day, and we're building a heart of compassion! Awesome.

Simple plan #2: At the boys' school they are doing a penny drive for the Washington Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They came home with passion comparable to when they did the rubber ducky cookie dough fundraiser. So we are collecting all the spare change around the house. And, get this, they began by emptying their own piggy banks first! I love that they want to help and they want to know how they are helping and they ask questions about cancer and why the kids don't have hair. And although I see the tears well up in my boys' eyes when we talk about it, I rejoice in the compassion that is evident in those wet eyes.

So this month we might not be feeding the homeless under the bridge or praying for kids at the hospital, but we are taking baby steps to get there! Join us if you'd like and please, post in the comments what you do to take your kids on a journey to serve the least. I need ideas because I can't afford to get stuck again. Heart. Beat.

With urgency ~ Ms. Simplicity

Check out my friends' response to this blog/heart challenge! Here and Here

10 AmAzInG "things"

For those of you that don't know me very well. Here's a "Crystal fact": I'm kind of a hot or cold person. I'm learning to have warm and cool, but even as I get older (read: more mature), I find that hot or cold works for me. Black or white. Love or hate. A lot or none at all. Do you get the drift? Some people have called me passionate, some call me rage, but really my favorite word anyone ever called me was "vivacious" - this might sum up the whole of me and I'm ok with that.

In this blog post I have been challenged to show, with pictures (from my iphone, don't mock), the whole wide world, my FAVORITE things and as the month of LOVE wraps up, I think it is most fitting.... so here we go!

My first favorite thing is this:

 My amazing Benjamin. 

This picture perfectly displays why I love him. 

We are in a donut shop, drinking coffee, the sun is pouring in, he is wearing his warm up outfit and he is unashamedly kissing our youngest boy. Does it get any sweeter than this?

Thank you Donut Parade for this forever memory

#2
I LOVE RUNNING
I HATE RUNNING
I LOVE RUNNING
I HATE RUNNING

OMG, it's Em and Mrs. Bee!

 #3

Really, I love Alena because I honestly feel like she loved me first...
I don't know how or why, I simply feel she showed up loving me;
Following me with her eyes and wrapping her tiny little fingers around mine,
we were both, in the same instant perhaps, wrecked by love.
It's a beautiful thing really, mother-daughter relationships. It's fire and ice at it's finest.
For her birthday she asked for fake glasses so she could wear hers when I wear mine (melt...)

Seriously? Adorbs.

#4

We take our kids to the library, on average, once a week.

I so desire for them to love books like I do. 

To spend whole days wrapped up on the couch just to procrastinate a little longer finish a book.

Send me your favorite book titles! I want to read them!

(Mom, honesty moment, I may have faked sick a few days so I could finish Babysitters Club Books)

(ok, not a few, a lot)

5 of my favorites

#5

One thing I have NEVER mentioned on this here blog is that I. Love. Muscles.

See the muscles,  not the cluttered fridge. Mmmmkthanks.

Purposely, number 6 is Hazel. Our cat.
It's a complicated relationship, mine and Hazel's.

Much to my demise, I have to inform my followers (all 6 of you) that I have still been battling mice.

UGH.

I hate mice. 

(See the first paragraph if you have any questions about the word HATE here)

They were found again this month scavenging in my van.
Hazel spent the afternoon in the van.
And even though she found none, she is the picture of a mouse-free world to me. That is all.

She's a hunter at heart, I can see it

#7

Wine
Cabernet Sauvignon
Sing to yourself, "Red, red wiiii-iii-iiiiine." It's ok, just do it.
If, and when, you have four children, you will know why this made it to the top 10.
(Also, please read #6 and then, don't judge)
I am not too proud for two-buck chuck either. Paired with string cheese, it is delicious.

Yes, I'll take the Cab

#8
I adore kids who sleep. Is that bad? Should I want my kids to be awake and looking in my eyes and asking me endless questions and putting sticky fingers all over my fridge and running through mud and then through my kitchen and then begging for a snack and then a drink and then whining about dinner and then throwing a fit and then declaring that they are not tired?? For heaven's sake NO!
I love kids who sleep!!!

New big boy bed! Sleeps in it like a champ!!

 #9
Coffee - does this need an explanation? If it does, please don't follow this blog any more.

ShOuT oUt to KEURIG! For making coffee easy!

Last and certainly not least,
I love, adore, amore (say that with a French accent please),
worship, regard, respect, esteem, appreciate and revere
JESUS.
He turned my life upside down when I least expected it and I certainly did not deserve it.
He truly did unconditionally love me first and He rocked my world with that kind of love.
I was a lonely, sad, angry, fearful, anorexic chump and as His love has changed me..
He has blessed me with a new life and so much more...I could only list 10 things here,
hopefully over time, I will list many, many blessings on this blog...
Amazing Grace.

xoxo - Crystal


For more lists of amazing things my friends love, check out:
Em's Front Porch
Mrs. Bee in the 253

Love Songs

The month of love. February. Hearts. Dates. Kisses and hugs. Love. love. LOVE.

L-O-V-E

love love love


So readers, my dear friends and I are doing a challenge: 3 blog posts a month. First post - Love Song.

The person who thought of this post is a genius. Seriously.

Here's the deal. Ben and I got married at a crazy time in our lives. How do I say this without sounding too weird....we were...what's the word...hmmmmm....zealous.

So.. you know how you have a "First Dance Song" at your wedding? Well ours was "My Redeemer Lives". Ok, I know, it was about Jesus, so it gets some points but it's never been much of a re-live-the-moment-and-dance-in-the-living-room type of song. So we've been spending the last ten years playing Pandora - Love Songs on the Radio. And seeing if we can find one.

Here's some we've tried...for a time... but they didn't stick:

* LeAnn Rimes- How Do I Live
* Boys2Men- I'll Make Love to You
* Peter Cetera- Glory of Love (Theme from the Karate Kid)
* Shania Twain- From This Moment
* The Police - Every Breath You Take
* Zach Brown Band - Whatever It Is

There are many more - But over the years it seems we always return to this one....

I know, before you even see it and read the lyrics; I must be a country girl at heart. I'm proud.


Garth Brooks-  You Move Me
This is how it seems to me
Life is only therapy
Real expensive
And no guarantee
So I lie here on the couch
With my heart hanging out
Frozen solid with fear
Like a rock in the ground
But you move me
You give me courage I didn’t
know I had
You move me on
I can’t go with you
And stay where I am
So you move me on
This is how love was to me
I could look and not see
Going through the emotions
Not knowin’ what they mean
And it scared me so much
That I just wouldn’t budge
I might have stayed there forever
If not for your touch
Oh but you move me
Out of myself and into the fire
You move me
Now I’m burning with love
And with hope and desire
How you move me
You go whistling in the dark
Making light of it
Making light of it
And I follow with my heart
Laughing all the way
Oh ‘cause you move me
You get me dancing and you
make me sing
You move me
Now I’m taking delight
In every little thing
How you move me

I love you Ben Cochran, you move me.

If you want more gushy love stories or at least a funny story about a love song... check out my dear friends links!!

Some Things Never Get Old

Some things never get old...but some things do...

Like going to the dentist, it gets old. It's kind of like, come on already, didn't I JUST get my teeth cleaned? And now I'm getting this little postcard again, with a picture of Hawaii on it, reminding me to schedule ANOTHER appointment. That gets old. HELLO dental clinic, don't put Hawaii on the front of your postcard. Coming to the dentist is NOTHING like Hawaii.

But receiving flowers, that never gets old.  Ben got me flowers on Valentines day. When I couldn't find a vase, I think he made a comment under his breath, something like, "I should get you flowers more often, geez, if you can't even find a vase.." I thought, "Yes, getting flowers never gets old." (On a side note, he often brings me coffee, joy, time by myself...all things that make me not upset that I haven't had flowers in a couple months).

Vacuuming when you have 4 kids. That gets old. This is how it happens in our house. I vacuum at 10am. Ben gets home and after dinner he pulls out the vacuum to bless me because seriously the floors need it...again.

Some movies never get old. Some movie lines never get old. Like A Few Good Men. "You can't handle the truth!" Nemo. "Keep on swimming, keep on swimming." Facing the Giants. -The scene where he makes the kid do the bear crawl across the whole field.- I cry. Every. Single. Time. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Never gets old! RUDY. Ben loves it, never gets old. Barney Goes to the Zoo. Now that one gets old.

People get old. It's SOOOOO hard to think of my kids as little people...but they are, they are people and they are getting older. Alena turns 6 tomorrow and WOW! Seriously she is such a JOY! Ben and I vividly remember her day of birth and telling the story never gets old. She was born around 7am and the sun was coming right through our window at Tacoma General Hospital (which as we all know in February is a rarity). This is how she got the name Alena, it means light. And boy howdy, did we get that one right! She is like a fire. Bright and smart and heart warming. Seriously, she makes snacks for me and brings them to me just becasue she was making one for herself. THAT never gets old. She cleans her room without being asked. Never gets old. She is kind and patient beyond belif with Titus. She remembers stuff when I forget. All of this never gets old! Yet... she does.

One thing that will NEVER, ever get old about Alena is this. She LOVES to sing. For Chrsitmas she got a karaoke machine. She oftens asks, "Can I go sing my heart out?" Always the answer is yes. She sings and sings and sings. Ben made her  CD and it includes the song, 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.' Listening to her sing that never gets old... an old-y but a good-y. She sings 'Rocking Around the Christmas Tree', that one gets a little old, not her sweet voice just the Christmas song, when it's not Christmas thing. She sings Amazing Grace, that one doesn't get old. Really though, music doesn't get old. But that's another post for another time... for now I have 2 dozen cupcakes to make.

Good night and Happy Birthday to my generous, loving, bright shining light, Alena.