The Hoffman Family Adventures: DPP Day 14

I missed day 13. No excuse. In fact, it was a conscious decision. I was snuggled up with my family on the couch and chatting. I thought to myself, this would be a great moment to catch for the December photo project. I followed that thought with "but I don't want to move. Today I want to just be in the moment, instead of capturing the moment." I love this project and I have enjoyed the time taking pictures that I would not have otherwise never taken. But I have a long enough to do list and I refuse to have this be another thing I HAVE to do. I guess what I am saying to this blog photo project is "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit." That saying works well in so many scenarios.

So much to share from today. We had a relaxing morning. I got to go and get a facial today. A MUCH needed couple hours of only me time. It is a rare treat but just what I needed to recharge. I was ready to rush away from my facial to meet the family at Ben's last basketball games. I knew Rich had all four at the game and I wanted to give him a little help. He responded so sweetly to the text telling him I was on my way. He simply said he had things under control and to head home to relax. What a guy! See, what I know that maybe someone reading this doesn't know is that there is NO WAY he had it all under control. How do you manage a 3 year old, a bored 9 year old, and an infant in a 2footx2foot space with NO wiggle room? So he was truly just being sweet and giving this mama as much time as she needed. I am a lucky girl. Lucky for Rich, I had to get to the game anyway because I wanted to see the little man play. He is intense when he plays and it cracks me up. Made a basket today. Always looks straight to me, waiting for a thumbs up!

Today we kept the kiddos off screen time knowing we were going to have a movie night tonight. We realized that our screen time boundaries may have been getting a little lax. They struggled this morning. I think there is so much value in having screen holidays. They remember how to PLAY and CREATE. There is less bickering and more cooperating. I hate the whining and begging that sometimes has to be filtered through but the rewards are great. I would love to do a 2 week screen holiday coming up soon. So many less "I'm boreds" and "Do I have tos?" on screen holiday days. I had a mom of 6 in clinic once tell me that the best thing she did was to kick technology out of her house. She got rid of TVs altogether. All other screens were used minimally and only on weekends. She swore to me that her children were completely different and that life was calmer and better. It was after that office visit that I instituted a screen holiday. It is as much of an adjustment for Rich and me as it is the kids. We have to remember how to get them engaged in activities so that we can get as much done as we would if they watched cartoons all morning. I found out from that first screen holiday, that it would become a reoccurring event in the Hoffman household. Today, there was a ton of playtime between kiddos, kids getting out books to sit down and read, arts and crafts (play doh!), and decorating cardboard boxes. Fantastic.

The sad part about today is that little K is sick. She kept getting warmer at basketball and ran a fever most of the afternoon and evening. Sometimes when you feel like life won't slow down, it forces you to slow down. So we had a lot of snuggles today.