Ashamed

Today I tried to do fun things with the kids, but I am ashamed to admit the tv was on in am for Mary Poppins on DVD (140 min.) And after lunch for a Magic School Bus DVD (about 50 min.) Then again before dinner for The Aristocats on DVD (80 min.)
That is 270 min. or 4.5 hours of tv. YIKES!

Plus each child played the computer for 1.5 hours today.
6 hours of screen time (although Josh played his computer time while watching Mary Poppins, so his was about 4.5 hours.)

How does this happen?

Boys got up at 8:30am. Put Mary Poppins on and went on computer. At 9am the little boy I watch on Thurs. came over. After Mary Poppins, boys played a bit with board games. Then we spent over an hour on cooking lessons. We made muffins from scratch and egg salad for lunch. After lunch boys did some schoolwork.
Then they watched Magic Schoolbus. Then they went upstairs to play. Jason did his computer time while younger boys played upstairs.
They also managed to do chores (Jason 12, Josh 7.)

We did not play outside, because it was pretty hot today and incredibly humid.

We also did a puzzle.

At 5pm when the little boy I was watching left I cooked dinner and boys finished up chores. I made corn on the cob, steamed squash, and rice and beans.

While we were eating we watched The Aristocats. Plus I made up some rice pudding.

Then after eating and cleaning up, I went outside and mowed the grass while Josh took his shower.

I feel like we accomplished a lot today, relaxed, and did fun, educational stuff, but still 4.5-6 hours of screen time is unacceptable. That is half our day. I don't have cable so we don't watch too much tv, but we still managed to do so today.

What we could have done instead:

read the Bible
rest for 60-90 minutes with reading
painted (this is about the only artsy thing they still like to do)
play outside (my boys do this a lot, but like I said today was hot)

My goal is going to be:
Mon.-Sat.
at least 1 hour outside play (since it is summer early in am and later in day)
1 hour reading daily
1 hour rest daily
1 hour tv*
1 hour computer/video games*
(*after all schoolwork and chores)

Sun.
No screen time at all

I will say this we have been driving around a lot this week since I was taking a little girl to camp, plus other things, so on those days we watch much less tv, if any at all. And I know Jason did not play any video games yesterday. So we do not usually have 4.5-6 hours screen time, I just was shocked and ashamed to discover that today we did. Especially after all the other stuff we did as well.

It is just a reminder to be more cautious of my time.

-Becky