Repost – 2011 Year of Reevaluation – Family Time

Blog post originally posted on Petit Fours and Hot Tamales blog May 26, 2011.

2011 Year of Reevaluation – Family Time

By Tami Brothers

The Kid – – “Ummm, you really want to try this game?”
Me – – “Sure.  It doesn’t look too hard.”
The Kid – – “OK.  If you say so.”

Ten very looooonnnnnggggg minutes later (I lasted this long because I spent most of that time creating my Avatar for the game).

The Kid – – “You really aren’t very good at this.”
Me – – “Yeah.  I’m coming to that conclusion.”
The Kid – – “Then why you still in here?” (here being the game room)
Me – – “Just trying to spend time doing stuff you like to do.”
The Kid – – “Really?”
Me – – “Yep.”
The Kid – – “How about we go to GameStop?  That’s something I really want to do…”

My family had this brilliant idea back in December to embrace 2011 and Reevaluate everything we’ve been doing up to this point in our lives.  To say it mildly, we were not impressed.  We had backed ourselves into a corner that didn’t leave us much wiggle room to maneuver through life.  During our country’s current economic struggles, THIS was not a position we wanted to be in.  Change had to happen and it had to happen now.

After listing our too-big house for sale, we progressed to taking control of our Budget, de-cluttered our house, and finding a balance with our health and eating habits.  All these changes were like learning basic math compared to the next topic we tackled.

Reconnecting as a Family

Sound like a simple idea.  Log off the computers in the evenings, eat some meals at the dining room table, take the dog for a family walk.  Easy peasy.  Not!  We jumped from addition and subtraction to calculus and statistics in ten seconds flat.

The activities that are working

Don’t get me wrong.  There are some things that are working.  We have been doing a pretty good job of walking the dog as a family at least three times a week.  Those other times she has to settle with playing in the back yard because we have been swamped with afterschool activities.

We’ve also done very well sitting down as a family to eat dinner at the table at least three times a week (again the afterschool activities have really made this tough to do).

I’ve scheduled something out of the norm at least once per month.  This month is the Renaissance Festival here in Georgia.  Next month we are headed to a water park.

Even with these activities, we don’t feel like we are really where we want to be yet.

Epic Fails

Okay, so I’m TERRIBLE at video games.  We’ve discovered that Pokémon is really the only one I can play without dying (Note – these are games for older kids.  Maybe some of the younger ones might work… but that defeats the purpose of spending time as a family).  Although I really like that transportation helicopter with the mini guns and missile launchers (on Halo: Reach), I just can’t live long enough to fly the darn thing. And hubby doesn’t like playing the games at all, so that really didn’t work.

We’ve been working at clearing the smaller trees and brush from some land we bought.  This has been a huge undertaking.  Unfortunately, everything we need to do is done separately.  Hubby in the Bobcat.  The Kid on the mower.  Me picking up sticks and raking the leaves and brush away from the larger trees.  Although we are doing something together, there is not much communication going on.

My plan was to disconnect from the computer and electronics in the evenings and sit together as a family to watch TV or connect before bedtime.  With the after-school schedule, hubby working on clearing the trees, me trying to keep up with the whole writing gig, it just isn’t working.  After spending all day at work/school, we are maybe able to disconnect one night a week.

Any ideas?

Although we are slowly getting back on track, I’m just not satisfied with the results quite yet.