Instead of my normal Saturday routine today, we decided earlier in the week that we would have a family adventure day today. There are times I need to remind myself that time together is time together. Its not always perfect (or picture perfect -- but I DID manage to get a good picture of all three kids together and looking at the camera at the same time. This is no small feat for my gang, lol!) I have these grand ideas of how the outings will go... we'll walk hand in hand, admire the beauty of God's creation, we'll talk with one another, you know, Hallmark style. The reality is: I have a moody 9 year old daughter. We have two little boys. Family adventure days interfere with nap time. We don't hold hands nicely, we drag. Adults get cranky. Shall I continue?
We drove about an hour and a half to visit Lassen National Park. We've lived here for almost 2 years now and this was our first visit. It was beautiful! We walked the 1.8 mile loop around Manzanita Lake, and only really saw a small corner of the park. I would have liked to drive around and do more exploring, but we'll save that for the next trip. I've learned that its best to set out with a small goal, and to be happy when its accomplished. When I try and force the kiddos into more than they can handle it goes down hill rapidly and instead of having an overall good experience, its miserable. No one likes miserable.
It was great to have this plan today. I did get a little internet time in this morning with my coffee before we left, and even remembered to start my timer when I was facebooking from my phone in the car. All in all, we had a great morning/afternoon and when we got home I had an hour and a half left for the day! I needed to sit down and write this blog entry and scope out the Safeway deals for my grocery shopping trip tomorrow. We're only 3 days into this challenge and I may not even use the full 3 hours of allotted time today. I am really feeling great about making a conscious effort to have less screen time.
Today's reading gives us a "Practical Application" assignment, to choose one small bad habit you want to reverse, or one good habit you can aim to implement in your life for the next 18 days. I need to stop my nighttime grazing. I am going to work on developing this improvement by setting a timer on my phone to go off at 10pm each night. When the timer goes off, I will brush my teeth and be done. Again, I feel this is one of those habits that might seem strange to people, like my 3 hour a day time limit. But believe me, this will really be a challenge (especially because there is still Halloween candy in the house!) I help my kids brush their teeth each night, but most nights I go to bed without doing the same and once we get the kids to bed it becomes a lazy free-for-all for me. I guess this is two-fold for me. I will pick a time to end my snacking, and brush my teeth.
Baby stepping to a better life!
-{ Today I am thankful for the beauty that surrounds us, and the ability to share it with the ones I love }-
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