not a typical friday night.

(here)

we finally did it. well, sort of.

my goal for a night unplugged finally happened, and rather organically.

i've been talking about how i want to get rid of cable if something doesn't change. having a husband who only wants to watch tv for fun officially wore me out on friday and i asked if we could go out for dinner and spend time without the tv on.

this was easy for me, hard for him. he kept rushing me through things. we were talking and he said "when are we playing scrabble?" he even asked if we could watch a movie afterwards. i love this man, but this need to always have a tv on is driving me crazy!

after hours of talking, silliness and 2 games of scrabble (1 regular and 1 speed round) i gave in and let him pick a movie.

this little experiment on friday really showed me that my husband needs to find other things to do besides stare at the television and i need to find ways to help him do that. it's easy for me, but hard for him (which is okay).

i'm determined to keep this experiment going. there is no more tv on unless there is something specific that wants to be watched. i know it probably seems like i harp on this on my blog but it's a real struggle around here, and i'm being honest.

i don't think we need a specific day where we aren't allowed to use the tv, laptops or phones, but some time every now and then is probably good for our brains and our relationship.

consider this my last post about the stupid television. more to come about simple and clean living, crafts and holidays!

the stupid box.

friends, how much tv do you watch? do you feel like it’s too much? we don’t really watch that much tv (maybe 1 or 2 hours a night), but i noticed that slowly our time in front of the tv is increasing, and my satisfaction with my day is decreasing. i hate feeling like a blob on the couch that has done nothing useful that day.

i have tried persuading ben that we don’t need cable, that we’d be fine without it. i have lost that battle as hard as i have tried, but that doesn’t mean changes can’t be made.  i’ve suggested focused tv-watching. this means that we’ve picked out one thing to watch (or ben has picked something because generally it’s him watching and me half paying attention half on pinterest) and that’s it. we know what show we’re picking and when it’s over we’re done. no scrolling through to find something, we watch and we power off. i know i could simply cut cable and say “oh well, it’s gone!” but i want a happy husband and that means a compromise.

i've also thought of having a day where we're "unplugged". no computers, no tv, nothing. i think it would be really eye-opening for us, and provide a motivation to spend less time with the tv or our laptops. 

so, i’ve been trying to make more of an effort to have less tv time in order to have more productive time together with my husband, as well as apart from him so that i can paint, sew, draw, write, create. by sitting on my couch i’m missing so much of what life has to offer. there is so much going on especially in the summer, why sit inside or at least on the couch? we could be doing so much more. i want to learn new games, new crafts, and make our apartment feel more like home.  we’ll both be happier with more time to read, talk, listen, learn, and see.

consider this my reminder to myself to turn off the tv like my ballet teacher always said to. she hated tv and always called it the stupid-box or something like that. i need to remember her disdain for tv and use it as a reminder to do something more productive.