Fame on the Day After Our TV Special

I am writing a blog to you all and I want you to know just what a sacrifice that is.

Because if I wasn't doing this I would be folding clothes and cleaning.

And the folding clothes is really an issue because no one even is looking in their dresser anymore.  And the cleaning is important because it is scary to see what might fall on you as you open our fridge.

But my loving dear husband has only said, "You've done a really good job making good meals this week," so I know he is willing to overlook the mess - a little - as long as I keep everyone well fed.

But the mess is making me crazy so as soon as I finish this post, it's off to work I go.

Making a good dinner.   THIS, in fact. It's my family's favorite and on this blustery cold sorta snowy day it should fill their tummy's with warmth and let them know I love them all. Because I do. And because the way to show love with them is good food. It just is.

Yesterday the boys went to school after their big tv special.  I told you how S4 had to change his pants SIX times before we left for school, and the pair he wore were literally his play ripped up no knees pull on camo pants.  You just have to go with it sometimes.

I was all excited to see how their day had gone.  Here are the reports....

S1 was asked for his autograph.  All. Day. Long.  He was totally mortified and also thought it was totally cool and extremely silly at the same time.  They watched the news special in his class and the were impressed I have a mac book pro - well, that was thanks to Fox 17 giving me one and the only way I could have ever gotten one.  Truly.  And further evidence why I love Fox 17 so.  When he got home from school, S1 went to do his homework, giving the deer hunting a break for the evening.

S2 was a star all day and beamed with pride from it.  At the end of the school day we had to turn in his football gear and he got his football trophy and football pictures.  He was told not to smile for the picture and so it is the ultimate in seriousness.

 Once he got his trophy he beamed, and for the rest of the day light he played football or was begging his homework laden brother to play football with him.

All night he looked at his picture and his trophy.  Happy or proud is still not a good enough description of him.

S3 said people told him all day that they had seen him on tv.  He just grinned.  At home he just wanted to bug his brothers.

S4 came home and was shortly thereafter sent to bed because he couldn't stop crying.  He slept for nearly three hours.

Then we all ate meatballs and mashed potatoes and the boys all went to bed at seven thirty because they were all that tired and Daddy and Moma snuggled on the couch with a movie.

I spent the day with Sue talking about and laying out ideas for our Winter edition of Praise and Coffee the Magazine.  We drank our fair share of coffee and hardly stopped talking all day.  It was a great day.

People often ask us - with Morning Mom and with this too - what we "get" out of the deal.  They think we must be famous.

We get great friends.  The boys get to think they are the amazingly special boys they are even if they were never on tv.  We get people we run into every single day telling us the special was cool. 

We do it because we are happy to do this. It's a lot of fun, I'm not gonna lie.  We have so much fun with Fox 17 and we have so much fun as a family.  It was a great weekend for us - THAT was what we got out of it - cuddles in the morning, silly moments we are still giggling about, a pile of wood next to the outdoor wood stove and a pantry with a ton of canned pears from that weekend.  I have more people saying they are thinking of taking the digital detox challenge, and that is a win for everyone.

I am sooooooo very thankful that Sarah asked us to take the challenge on. I'm thankful we had enough adventures in a weekend for her to put a story together.  I'm thankful for a news station that is willing to take an entire month to focus just on relationships.

And with that I will end.  Because I have a house to clean - as I said before - and cookies to make for an afternoon snack for the boys.  Speaking of cookies, I made these last week.  They were huge. I had to HIDE them to make them last TWO days.  These boys, they can EAT.

Also, it's National Home Made Bread day. And I have to celebrate that.

That's a good thing though.

If you would like to see our digital detox story

click HERE. Enjoy!

Fox 17 Digital Detox Monday

I realized I never told you about Monday.

And since our story airs TODAY at 10 pm on Fox 17

I thought I'd give you a glimpse behind the scenes.

Here is my desk.

See the blue notebook?

ELEVEN pages of notes from the weekend.

I like to write.

A lot.

 I don't, however, know how to unclutter my desk.  So anyone who wants to send me tips, I'd appreciate it. I need to frame the pictures, I suppose.

It was soooooooo odd to not have the news on Monday morning.  Sorta like knowing you will have a test and not knowing what it will be on.  Sarah was headed to our house, and I had no idea what had happened on her four hour morning news show, no idea what the weekend news stories were.  Jake and I had both agreed that going a weekend with Digital Detox would be WAY easier than any week day.

Just before Sarah was to arrive, S3 and S4 got into a nice big argument.  I'm not sure what about.  I just know the house was full of lots of nervousness and they took it too far so they had to sit on the couch, hold hands, and think of five things they liked about each other.

 They were not happy with this arrangement but it totally worked.

And then Jason the camera man (who was WAY nice and I so wish I had gotten a picture of him with all of us because, really, he was just the nicest....) and Sarah were here and we interviewed again. (I hid the unfolded clothes in the laundry room).  S2 nearly bombarded Jason asking him all sorts of questions about the Lions game he had missed the night before.

 Sarah took a minute to take a few pictures with us.  Other than the fact that Andrew closed his eyes, I really like this picture.

 And here is Sarah and me and the scarf I should have worn the whole interview.

 Jake wanted a picture of the Fox 17 vehicle IN OUR DRIVEWAY.  He was totally bummed he missed all this and for some reason he wanted this picture and Sarah was sweet enough to take it for us.

It's been a few weeks since we did our Digital Detox and when I look back over it I was wondering if we had changed anything since then.  I do keep my cell phone on ring only at night so the texts/fb/twitter dings don't pull me away.  I do, however, still check it during the evening.

The boys made a fort with an old bench swing that has a canopy over the top of it during the weekend of our digital detox and they still will play with that fort until it's so dark I wonder how they can see out there.  They pretend they are surviving in the wilderness and that's all the shelter they have.

On Sunday mornings, we haven't watched tv.  This has also gotten us to church on time...and that is really kind of unheard of for us.

But movie night with my hubby when we are curled up on the couch together and the boys are upstairs watching an old VHS tape....still the best.  And this weekend all six of us crammed on the couch and watched Tangled (that is love because they know it's Moma's favorite movie).

The thing I MISS about the detox...the morning all the boys cuddled in bed with us.  Crazy, huh?  I guess because I know that this brief moment in our lives when they want to cuddle up with us is fleeting at best.  And I want to treasure that.

Our Story Airs TONIGHT, NOVEMBER 15th AT TEN PM on FOX 17.
You can see it HERE.

Fox 17 Digital Detox

TOMORROW our special airs.

I am totally a wee bit nervous.

I mean, even if it weren't bad enough you will all SEE what a Redneck Girl I am (which is bad enough in humiliation aspect...but this is my life too so if you know me, you know this already....).....

But we don't know what the special will show.

The commercials are airing and saying "Will they become closer or fight?"  S2 looks at me and says "What did they say about us?" and I shrug and say "I don't know."

Because I don't know.

Because we did both.

But you all know how we love Fox 17, you all know what great friends I consider them to be, so I am quite certain they will make us look good.  Sarah will take great care of us, I am certain, and she told me that she is happy with how the four minute segment turned out.

This morning on the biggest country station on this side of the state, they mentioned our story on air.  Then I am hearing throughout the day of more stations mentioning it.

The boys think they are soooooooo super cool.

And that, I must admit, is fun to watch.  I hope they think they are amazing cool when they see themselves on tv.

But I hope they mostly know that they are amazing cool EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

They just get to show off some coolness for tv.

But I must admit I am thinking....I never did take care of all that laundry, the boys did act a little crazy when the camera was on, I did get ticked at Jake that he thought four bushel of pears would be a cinch for me to get done, we were exhausted after hauling seven loads of wood, the cider was good but can they see the dark circles under our eyes?....

Stuff YOU all know about us, but lots of other people don't.  Hopefully they'll love us as much as you all do. 

If you would like to see the special, you can click on --> FOX 17 <-- here and it will take you to the home page, where you can watch it LIVE on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15th at 10pm.

(November 15th is also opening day of gun season...but you all should be inside by then drinking coffee and telling your hunting glory stories.  So there really is no excuse to miss it. :) )

If you would like to read up on how the weekend went...you can catch up on the posts I wrote AFTER the digital detox was over.

Could You Digital Detox?

Friday, the First Digital Detox Day

Saturday, the Second Day of Digital Detox

Saturday, the Second Half of Digital Detox

Sunday, the Last Full Day of Digital Detox

Surviving Sunday Night of Digital Detox

(You can view the story HERE)

Surviving Sunday Night of Digital Detox

Sunday night Hubs and I went back to canning pears.

And had a heart to heart.

I was amazed how differently we viewed the weekend.

Where I found the weekend relaxing, he found it stressful.  The keeping the boys busy all the time wore him out.  I found the no tv, no stress of answering messages was surprisingly stressless.  However, had I not had a notebook for therapy I would have gone a bit crazy I think.

Jake thought I was crazy for carrying around a notebook.

Which I literally did.

I think a person can not fully function in this society now without being digitally connected.  Whether you like it or not, facebook and texting is what people use to pass on a message.  Cell phone numbers are stored in cell phones...not home numbers.  My address book hasn't been updated in ten years.

My husband disagrees.  He thinks a person could be business savvy to survive just fine without technology.  I do not see this...he fully does.

I am all for doing this again - for a night.  I think it would be good for our family.  He disagreed...and  he is totally against doing another weekend like this.  He agreed maybe a night...if we could have a radio.

We had a long talk about technology and relationships....

I had recently read a link Diaper Diaries had posted about marriage...a post she had stumbled upon but found convicting...from Jon Acuff.  It's called How To Improve Your Marriage Instantly.  I had worked on taking it to heart, keeping my phone plugged in at night when Jake was home from work.  I could tell he was irritated when it went off.

And that said, I didn't harp on him if he was on his phone playing Angry Birds or checking some new app.

We use our smart phones and computer for totally different things...mine to connect with the blog and so forth, him for the techie stuff.  But both things pull us apart.

He sincerely believed this weekend he would prove a point.  He would hold over my head that I can get so much more done if I am not on the computer.  Shockingly, I got less done then either of us supposed I would.  

The book I am reading?  I only finished TWO chapters...how sad is that?

The thing that shocked us both the most in the same way, however, is that as much as we love the boys, as much as we wish we could keep them home with us all the time, as much as I hate to have them gone at school days on end, as much as we love them.....we liked the break we got from them.

We used the tv to babysit them.

This came as a surprise to us both.

Even today, I am writing this blog post on my first day off of the detox while it is all fresh in my head.  And the boys are watching tv.

But tonight?  Tonight I'm shutting it down and spending the night with them.

I was surprised how smoothly it went with them in some aspects.  I didn't forget to get them a drink, distracted by something else.  I could hear the argument they were having before the tattling began.  It was a good time to "just be" with our boys.  It was funny the stories they brought up to remind us of, the songs they sang - and most the 'songs' they sang were tv jingles.

This from boys who get to watch tv on the weekend only.  And live to play outside.

That said, next weekend they are going to my brother and sister in laws for the weekend and I am ECSTATIC to get my hubby allllllll to myself.  

Today, while blogging and reconnecting, the boys settled in to catch up on some tv.  And soon after they were bored of it and went out to play.  It wasn't as grand as they thought it would be.

I was overwhelmed when I opened up my computer and found all sorts of messages from friends letting me know how much I meant to them, how much they missed me.  I can thank Sue Cramer for getting that great gift of words.

It is hard to put into words how disconnected I felt from my friends.  How much tweeting and blogging and facebooking helps me share the time I am blessed to spend with my boys....and how much I need that girl connection when I feel like I am drowning in boyness.

I think, in the end, the digital detox is going to have a lasting impression on us.  I am curious what we will think of it in a week or two or three from now.

I wouldn't be surprised if we did it again....for a day. Only a day.

We're too connected to do it much more than that.

Our Story Airs on Fox 17's 10pm News on Tuesday, November 15th.


You can view the story HERE.

Sunday, the Last Full Day of Digital Detox

I woke up to my phone's alarm Sunday.

I had every day of the weekend.  I had forgotten to unset it.

As soon as it went off I quickly shut it off, shut the phone off...

And before it went totally off I heard the chirps and dings of unanswered messages.

Sigh.

I miss my friends.

Usually when I wake up in the morning I lay in bed for the first couple minutes waking up and checking updated statuses, what new messages I have and so forth.  The not knowing what is going on in my friends lives bothers me.  Not because I am nosy, because I honestly care.

Again, no cuddle time.  Boys are already filling up our bed.

And S1 was headed out to hunt before church.

 I started the coffee and tea and cocoa I make in the morning, I started the oatmeal and the normal getting around stuff while Hubby sent S2 out for the paper.

We needed our news fix.

As we started dissecting the paper, S4 caught sight of the toy catalog from Toy R Us.

 He was quickly surrounded by brothers.  A morning that we would normally never run on down to grab the Grand Rapids Press cuz we were too busy watching tv made for one of my most favorite pictures of the weekend.

 We hurried around to get ready for church....and here is one of the things that rather surprised me...we still had a hard time making it out of the house on time for Sunday school.

Even though....brace yourself....Jake MADE DINNER.

He did!  I had the roast all ready for the crock pot but he added it, he added the potatoes he peeled, he put the squash in the oven.

He was amazing....

And he let me know it.  When he was at church I was bragging on him, he followed it with "It was a piece of cake, I don't know why all these women complain about how hard it is to cook."

And yet I love him....

Being in church was odd.  We were hearing snippets of stories (snow? war? fire?) and didn't know any of it.  For someone who follows the news so much, it was odd to be on the outside of it all.

I felt like our family was living in it's own little bubble.

I also missed my friends in a bad way.  When S3 couldn't figure out my black nylons - whispering to me if they were socks - I thought it would be a great tweet.  My girls would appreciate this moment.

Boys don't get girls.  At all.

But boys get boys, no matter the age.  One of my friends dad's took pity on sports crazed S2 and offered to tape the Lions game for him.  It made S2's day, who had been totally devastated over missing it.

When we got home, Jake had S1 take a picture of us.

 I guess I forgave him for the mean "women complain about cooking" comment.

As we were getting the table ready for dinner, Morg stopped in.  I hugged her in complete joy.  A girl! My friend!  I had to find out if she was an aunt yet? How was her weekend?  What was she up to?

I missed being connected to her life.

After dinner we all took a nap.  Hello? Still exhausted from the wood and pears and all that.

Here are some of the notes I wrote from Sunday....

"Our phone hasn't rang since my mom called Friday." (Think about it, who has your home number anymore, it's all cell phone connecting now....)

"Without the computer on my desk, my desk is really cluttered looking.  Like, super bad.  I need a decorate-ista to come help me."

"Had to use a phone book.  ALL my contacts are on my phone or computer."

S4 said "There is pretty much nothing to do if you don't watch tv. But if you play there is really all sots of things to do."

"S4 has itsy bitsy spider stuck in his head. No one can think past it to give him another song. Argh!"

"The boys have found Jake and my secret stash of peanut butter cup pumpkins.  This won't end well."

"I like life to have a soundtrack."

"Tried nutella.  The boys and I were surprised we liked it.  Jake shudders and wouldn't even think of trying it."

"S4 just said to me from the toile he's perched upon. "I'm not blowing out poop, Moma, I'm blowing out little color things and you should probably come see this." Then, a little while later, "Is #3 diarrhea?"  That then led to the discussion that even if he didn't know he was going to be sick, God did so that's okay."

"Just had to yell "Hey, you are NOT kick-boxers!"  The boys find this hilarious. I am serious."

"Our house is suffering - it came unhinged.  Literally.  The cupboard door literally just fell off the cupboard.  Greeeeaaaaaaat."

My friend Korene called to see if we were still alive....and then I just gave up and called my mom.

I had to get a news fix.  "Just tell me the most important news...."

I'd missed word of a huge snowstorm.  What??? Yes. It had hit my friend, Karen, I'd find out later.

There had been a fire where my Dad works and they lost three barns.  I think I should have been called immediately with that news story.

A friend had had her baby girl and she was beautiful.

I felt so disconnected.


Our Story Airs on Fox 17's 10 pm News on Tuesday November 15th.


You can view the story linked HERE.

Saturday, the Second Half of Digital Detox

When we arrived home from cutting wood, Husband exhaustedly said "Let's just see what's on tv"...and then realized what he had just said as he went to turn the tv on.

While we waited for Jake to grill his famous cheeseburgers, S4 killed time for us doing animal charades.  He was absolutely hilarious.  Do you know how many different birds the boy knows?  Do you know how many guesses we had to come up with think of all the bird names?

And the best part was that S4 started the animal charades from telling us he loves pimple dogs.

Huh?

It took us awhile to figure out he meant PIT bulls.  

That would have been a great tweet/facebook post.

After a scrumptious dinner, we headed out to make cider.

The neighbors on the other side of us raise apples.  And if you come over and help them press cider, you get to bring some home.  This works great for us.

The boys immediately run for the hay bales, where they run and jump and have all sorts of fun.

Meanwhile, Husband gets to work making cider with the crew in the back of the tiny cider room.

The apples are dropped into a grinder and literally ground all up.  The apples are then dropped into the tin bucket.

Then it's sent into buckets....

Where it is dumped onto the press's heavy duty cheese cloth type material, where it pressed until it makes juice that we all love.

Here it is beginning to be pressed.

Jake told me to tell you it's like a snow plow motor, just keeps pushing up.  He figures the guys will understand this.  All I can tell you is it OUD and the shorter the tower becomes, the more juice you get until there is no more.

The room is so tight, it's hard to get any great pictures of anything that is going on.  The guy in the yellow rain pants heads up the operation.  It was his brother in law who started this tradition....it was his brother in law who died suddenly this year.

So this year with all the kids around making cider with neighbors was bittersweet.

The old man in the John Deere hat...I have no idea who he is but he is ALWAYS there.  And he has the strongest accent (Dutch maybe) and we just love to hear him talk.  I have never seen him not smile.

Here is the beautiful wonderful cider coming out of the press!

It's then run through something or another to this barrel, where only the man in the yellow pants is allowed to touch the cider or pour the cider.  Everyone brings their own jugs to get filled up.

Everyone loves cider time in our little farming neighborhood.

But you recall all we did earlier today, correct?  The seven loads of wood?

Yah, all that work and the cider had caught up with us.  It was all we could do to stay awake for showers and baths so we could get to our beds and pass out from exhaustion.

It was only 9:30 at night when we were all tucked into bed.

And that cuddle time hubs had promised me the day before?

Never happened.

There's always tomorrow.....

Our Story Airs on Fox 17's 10 pm News on Tuesday, November 15th.

Saturday, the Second Day of Digital Detox

Saturday dawned too early.

Way too early.

Because we went to bed early, the boys got up early.

And since they couldn't watch tv, they all - yes, all four - crawled into bed with us.

That cuddle time Hubs and I were looking forward to?  Gone.

Even when he tried to shoo them from the room with "Why don't you go do something - like homework?"

 You know they were all jumping over that idea.

Knowing I would have a flipcam on me during the day at some point, I decided I'd better do the whole makeup thing.  And since I had FOUR BUSHEL of pears to can, I figured I had better do the hair up today too.

Before I could do any of that though, Hubs thought it would be fun to flip cam me right away.

He's so sweet like that.

For breakfast, we all sat around and looked at the newspaper.  We were ecstatic with it's arrival.

That has never happened before.

We searched weather and news and sports...and comics, of course.

We are news geeks, we have concluded, as well as comic nerds.

We totally rock.

 When we found my husband's missing wood cutting helmet in my crock pot - no joke - I knew I would need much much coffee on this day.

 I also found out that with no distractions, little things irritate you more.  That said, you deal with them right away...and then it's over and life is sunny happy again.  It's an amazing thing.

Hubs and the boys loaded up and headed out to cut wood while I started on the first load of pears.

 I wrote this "The boys are all cutting wood with Jake.  The silence is deafening.  I can hear every click of the stove top, the fan running on low in the other room, the dogs steady snore, the chirps of the birds outside, the scratch of the chickens, the passing gof the vehicles by the house. The silence is deafening and the click click of the clock seems mocking."

I guess I don't do alone well.  I grew up in a loud house.  I have had a hard time adjusting to the boys all being in school.  If I'm home, the Pandora is on or the tv.  The empty house bothered me.  A lot.

I heard the squeak of the mail lady's breaks and here she drove up the driveway, delivering a gift from Rebecca in Texas.  I nearly cried.  Her gift could NOT have been any better timing.

Silence does weird things to you.

I started writing down the texts I would send my mom if I could...like "I miss you" and "I need cinnamon" and "did you buy bulk allspice".  I think in spices, I guess.

When hubs arrived with a load of wood, he had to snap a few pictures, thinking me adorable.

He's sweet like that.

When the one canner load of pears was done (finally), I had baked a cake and loaded up all the baked goods I could find in the house and drove over to meet the boys cutting wood with my neighbors.

It was odd to try to try to connect minus us being able to friend request on facebook or show off the blog.  It was awkward odd.  When she asked for the apple pie recipe, I had to write it down by hand and hand deliver it to her.

That said, Michele and Rod kicked butt helping us load wood - SEVEN truck loads of wood we hauled home and added to our pile.  SEVEN.

And we had a great time getting to know them more.

Sometimes, maybe a hand written note is better than any facebook message.

Our Story Airs on Fox 17's news at 10pm on Tuesday,  November 15th.


You can view the story HERE. 

Friday, the First Digital Detox Day

Sarah and camera man Jason arrived at our house around 9:45 Friday morning. Considering the news is over at 9am, I thought they made amazing time.  

And it was soooooo good to see Sarah again.

She did an interview with me at the dining room table and they shot some video of us shutting the tv's off - I mean, literally pulling the plug.  Literally.

When they packed up and left there was just silence.

Eerie Silence.

The boys looked at me like I had all the answers.

"Let's go grocery shopping!" I announced cheerily.

We drove the 20 minutes into Plainwell without a radio.  S4 declared this "so weird."

In Meijer I was searching for a lip stick that Sue had told me about.  It stays on all day, super cool....couldn't find it.

What I'd give for texting right then.

Heck, what my BOYS would give for texting right then because hanging out in a makeup isle is not their "thing".

We got groceries.  S3 thought it tiring and pulled this stunt to rest while we shopped.  Normally I would not allow this...I know it looks unsafe...but we had to get a picture and video before I bribed him with a donut.

That's right.  I bribe my kids with food.  It works.

 S1 found the COOLEST shirt for Daddy.  The boys have been playing Angry Bird marathons lately and they had literally woken up early so they could play one last game before Daddy went to work Friday.  I would have emailed this pic to Hubby for sure.

 S1 found his perfect shirt.  He's hoping to get "sick" a lot this fall.

 I had to turn my phone on once while in the store.  To check the time only.  Because we had to get to school before one.  S4 was about to get Student of the Month at school and I had been unsure how the day could be pulled off.  Well, it looked like it would all go perfectly smooth.

And it did.  He just thought he had to follow his class into the Clipper Room and then he'd get his school work for missing school Friday and Monday.  He had no idea he was about to be the kindergarten student of the month.

 The very best part? Because we technically weren't at school that day, all his brothers were there to see him.  And they all cheered for him.  It was the sweetest moment.

 I didn't think his grin could have been happier.....but it sure could get sillier.

 This is Blake.  He is one grade above S4.  And you know, we have to sing the "We beat you song" whenever we can to Blake and his brother.  I was so thrilled he was awarded Student of the Month too.

It is so something I would be facebooking/tweeting/texting/emailing/blogging.

The boys weren't sure they wanted to go home.  I mean, what did they have to do?  You know, other than homework.

S1 settled into a good book.  I started the never ending laundry.

 The boys brought in Bunny and Whiskers.  Shortly after this photo was taken, Whiskers got lost.  We found him (finally) behind our tv.

You know, the one that was unplugged now.

Another bit of information I would have been tweeting "Whiskers the bunny lost in our house!"

So when the boys were super tired (they were up very late the night before, knowing they weren't headed to school the next day) and cranky...I was so wishing there was a movie I could turn on for them to veg.

 Instead the bickered and complained.  Whiskers got left on the table to oversee the chaos.

That's when I got the notebook out.  Here is what the boys had to say....

S2 "This is going to be kinda sad and kinda fun.  We aren't usually watching tv so it's fine, but I'd really like to play Angry Birds."

S1 "It sorta feels like I am being punished."

S3 "It's going pretty good."

S4 "I'd be playing football with my stuffed animals and bunny either way so either way it's fine."

But it wasn't fine.

Soon they had cards all dealt out and cocoa made and it was very apparent that Moma was the person to entertain them for the next who knows how long.

But Moma was tired from a late Praise and Coffee the night before and an early morning getting ready for the day.  We opted for a nap...which only worked for an hour.

My mom called me to let me know she was out shopping and had nearly texted me numerous times.  I missed her - and all connections I had with friends right then.

When Daddy came home (seven phone calls later, he mighta have become used to text as much as me, even if he didn't admit it), he commented on how quiet it was.  

Here the boys are yelling and screaming through the house 

and we are commenting on how quiet it is.

But gathered around the table to learn to play Rook for the first time, we learned that S2 doesn't know how to spell S1's name.  S1 began to recite "Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a Bear" and all the boys found it so funny they nearly fell out of their chairs.

I figured music makes us all get along better.  Because Fuzzy Wuzzy isn't really something you want stuck in your head.

We gave up on cards and I settled in to read - READ, the one thing I was so looking forward to this weekend - but husband finds reading as thrilling as watching paint dry so we all just gave up on the night and went to sleep.

I think the knowing that we had no digital-ness for a weekend was the worst part of Friday.  It was FRIDAY....and we had the whole weekend to look at.  It seemed long. 

So

Very

Long

And as my exhausted head hit the pillow I mumbled to my husband sleepily, "I missed hanging out with just you and cuddling tonight."

"Tomorrow," he promised.

Our Story Airs on Fox 17's 10 pm news on Tuesday, November 15th.

You can view the story link HERE.

Could You Digital Detox?

A few weeks ago, I got a tweet asking if someone could give me a call.  She had a "story idea".

So, Sarah gave me a ring and I signed us up for her crazy idea.

A weekend of a Digital Detox.

You all might remember Sarah - and Mike, Jon, Rob, Emily, Mike Davis and the gang - from Fox 17 and the fun we had when I was Morning Mom.  I think you all know how much I love them all so it was a pretty easy decision to do a story with them.

I mean, really, how bad could a weekend digital detox be?

No TV, no tv being DVR'd, no radio, no pandora, no itunes, no computer, no cell phones, no facebook, no twitter, no blogging, no texting....

What

Had

I  

Agreed

To?????????

We went between this "it'll be great fun!" to "oh my goodness....what have I done?"

We would be flip cam-ing the whole weekend for the story.  It would document all we did.

The boys thought this was great...until they thought that the fridge and stove were being shut off and how on earth would they eat?  (Notice no thought was given to bathing.)  Once they realized the fridge and stove were safe, they were all about this experiment.

And we didn't think that the boys would have a hard time.  For them to give up tv would be rough on them...but they play outside all the time.  It would be tougher on Jake and I.

Huh, were we in for a rude awakening.

An awakening I am glad we had...but awakening just the same.

You all should know me pretty well by now...I kept a journal for the weekend.  I have twelve - Yes, TWELVE - pages of notes on this weekend.

Ready to take a Digital Detox weekend with us?

Our Story Airs on Fox 17's 10 pm News on Tuesday,  November 15th. 


You can view the story HERE. 

Redneck Girl

My husband can always claim he married a Redneck Girl...




For whatever cursed reason, I have a serious red neck.

Yes, I said Cursed.

If I feel stress, if I feel pain, if I laugh and am silly, if I eat anything spicier than ketchup - YES, ketchup - I get red and blotchy and it looks like I am about to break into hives.

Today I was sitting in my own house, at my own table, talking to a friend.

Except I had a video camera on me.

And I was thinking I was fine and suddenly....caught a glimpse of myself.

Red. Blotchy.

Greeeeeeat.

Soon, like on November 17th, the whole of West Michigan will get to view this great phenomenon because we will be on the news for a fun story that I can't wait to fill you in on...

We were on a Digital Detox allllllllllll weekend.

And survived.

But when you watch the interview with me, you will see what a red neck girl I am.

I thought you all should be warned.

Our Story Airs on Fox 17's 10 pm News on Tuesday, November 15th.