Silence

So here I am, sitting on my couch in silence.  Silence.  That is not something that I get to experience very often.  In a house full of kids and dogs and husbands (well, just one of those), silence is hard to come by.  And I forget how relaxing it is. 

I am not a big fan of tv.  If I had my way, we probably wouldn't even have one at all.  It's not that I have a moral opposition to it, I just think that for the most part it is a huge waist of time.  And it distracts us from eachother (which I recognize that sometimes can be a good thing!)

I love declaring a "tv free night" like I did tonight (well, except that Nick & Vinny already had plans to watch the Vikings/Packers game with some buddies, so I allowed that...downstairs.  But it didn't last long because last I heard the Vikes were gettin annihilated so they apparantly lost interest and came upstairs).  Usually as soon as the tv goes off, the kids start talking.  I LOVE it!  They break out the games, and get creative.  They tell us about what happened at school (more than the "not much" that I got earlier) and they demonstrate the sweet dance moves that they are learning in phy-ed, as Napoleon - er, I mean Nick is doing now.  (Shhh, don't tell him I told you that.)

Sure tv can be entertaining, and there is a place for that.  It can even be a great time of family bonding.  But the large majority of the time the tv is just on to be on.  That's when the extraneous noise starts to get on my nerves and if my husband doesn't veto me, then I declare a "tv free night!"  The kids might whine and complain at first, but it always ends up being a good time. 

Or they start fighting and get sent to their rooms.  Either way, there's silence and I win.