TV or No TV

That is the question.

Our family has lived happily without TV for 9 years now.  Okay, we actually have a TV but we don't have cable so that means we don't get any channels.  Sure, we watch movies and use Netflix instant stream to introduce the kids to the great old shows, like Star Trek, Doctor Who and a few others.  But for the most part our kids, especially our 9 year old son, have grown up without normal television programming.

We don't miss it, even my football loving husband.  A couple years ago we still would watch some TV in hotels, but on our last trip, no one even turned the tube on.

It was great to have family time to read and talk, but we began to realize there might be a flaw in our thinking.

Living in Cleveland, someone asked our son what he thought about LeBron James.  He stared blankly back like the person was speaking a foreign language.  Embarrassed, I had to explain, "Well we don't have TV so he doesn't even know who that is."

Later someone else asked him what his favorite teams were.  Again the blank stare.  He couldn't even name any teams.  Yikes.

Were my husband and I depriving him of essential knowledge in our sports crazed world?

Especially for guys, it seems like the default entry into conversation always revolves around the game, "Hey did you see the game last night?" or "Can you believe that catch?"

It's one thing to not play sports but for a boy to not know anything about any teams, players, or even the rules of the games...well maybe that's going too far.

Worried that if we didn't act fast, it may be too late for him, we decided to take the plunge back into the world of television and give our son a proper sports education.

The cable guy is coming this morning ...and I'm kind of dreading it.


What do you think, do our children need to have a working knowledge of sports to get by in today's world?


Have a great week!

Kathy :)

Celebrate Life

Paul Edgar Titus
September 8, 1921- February 8, 2013

My grandpa grew up during the depression learning that the only way to make a life is through hard work and perseverance. As a kid he remembered how he and his brother shared a room and often woke up with snow on their pillows as it had blown through the cracks in the walls.

He built his first house for he and my grandma with his own hands, actually digging the foundation with a hand shovel after his long day at work.

He served in the Navy during World War II. He started his own house building business and built many beautiful homes for families in Michigan.

He taught me how to fish and love the outdoors,
He taught me to go out and be driven to accomplish goals,
He taught me to have high expectations of myself and others,
He taught me how to laugh at myself,
He taught me to how to live.

He will be greatly missed.
 

Fishing with my Ryan

The last time we were all together. Thanksgiving 2012

18 years!

Wow, I don't know where 18 years have gone.
It seems like only yesterday.
We've grown so much individuals and as a team.  
I can't imagine life without you.
Thank you for every moment.
Here's to many more!
Happy Anniversary, my love.












Kathy :)

Thanksgiving Fun

We had a great Thanksgiving full of...

                                             baking fun with Grandma,














                                   
                                                                                                       snowball fights,



lots of great food,

 

bonding with cousins,

lots of great movies, and so much fun!

Almost the whole gang, this is my side of the family.  My wonderful in-laws took the picture.

Hope you all had a great holiday.
(It's taken me a few days to recover from all the fun, but I'm back now!)

Kathy :)

Feeling Thankful

Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year.  I love the crisp fall days, the crystals of frost coating everything, and  the plethora of people that swarm my house.  Every year we host Thanksgiving because our house is the most central location for everyone coming from N. Carolina and Michigan.

For four crazy wonderful days, we have 17 people in our house.  Of course there is not really room for that many, so all the kids "camp out" together on our family room floor.  My girls are the oldest of the group so they have fun leading the pack and their cousins simply adore them.  This year Alyssa is planning on leading the kids in lots of fun activities like the Sweet Baking Club and Story Time (where they are going to write short stories together and then act them out).  It's a great bonding time for all the kids (and allows us parents to catch up).

This is the one time of the year where our entire family, including my husband's parents, can get together and just enjoy each other.  Despite all the hard work, I feel extremely thankful to be able to have everyone together and I'm thankful my husband enjoys it too!

I probably shouldn't be sitting here writing, I should be planning this year's menu and running to the store.  But I wanted to let all of you know how thankful I am for you as well.  You are what makes all this hard work of blogging so rewarding.  It seems the older I get the more grateful I am for all the wonderful people who have touched my life.

I hope all of you have a Thanksgiving holiday filled with love and of course great food. (I may not be posting again until after turkey day as I'll be in the kitchen!)

****

As far as exercise goes this week for the Healthy Writer's Club, I did my usual skating practice. Then the kids and I decided we needed a little extra workout so we ran up and down our stairs about ten times.  It was fun but my legs felt like jelly afterward!

Don't forget today is Alex Cavanaugh's, Oh I Miss You Blogfest. I didn't officially sign up for it because most of the people I've met blogging seem to post more than I do.  But I definitely notice when someone is absent for a while and I miss their witty posts and comments.

Also coming up are blogfests hosted by L'Aussie Writer and Stephen Tremp  along with some of his buddies.

I'd also like to ask people to send positive energy or prayers to Jess's best friend Kate who is having heart surgery today.

Kathy  


    

F is for Fishin with Gramps

Today is "F" Day in the A-to-Z Challenge.  I decided to mix it up a little today and give you a short flash fiction/poetic piece since Rachael Harrie over at Rach Writes has gotten me hooked on flash fiction.

Here goes:

Fishin with Gramps

Soon it will be dark, but for now the sky is painted with streaks of pink and orange.
Our reflections stare back at us from the surface of the glass-like water.
We are both older now, but here in the boat, time stands still.
The silly songs we sang to pass the time are mere whispers,
Yet the lake is unchanged.
I can still see the girl in pig-tails
The darkness will be upon us soon and our time will be up
But for now in the serenity of the evening, I'm fishin with Gramps.


Have a fabulous weekend!

Kathy :)

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays.  What could be better than a day celebrating a bounty of delicious dishes and people coming together as friends and family?  But this year, Thanksgiving has a whole new meaning for me.

I never imagined when we moved out to Seattle in October that I would ever again be hosting Thanksgiving dinner surrounded by our wonderful family.  But it is funny how things work out and as we we drove across the country for the second time in a month (this time back to Ohio), I was already planning for the only time of year our whole family manages to get together.

When all 17 people arrived at our house Wednesday night, I couldn't have been happier.
I don't know how, but on Thursday everything ran smoothly and we actually got the food on the table an hour before I expected. I  think I simply wanted to enjoy every moment.  When my mother-in-law made a toast, tears of joy filled my eyes and I was truly thankful for so many things.

Some of which are:

Being back in our house that is relatively easy to get to from either Michigan or North Carolina.
The cousins all getting along.
Having great helpers in the kitchen.
Having my 90 year old Grandpa with us!
Having a family including in-laws, who all enjoy being together for 4 days!
My husband and kids!

Not even my kitchen faucet breaking in the middle of the holiday would spoil my weekend!

Cousins watching a movie together.

Silliness with fake mustaches 

More silliness

One of my great helpers!

         









I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!

Kathy

One Blue Kimono

One blue kimono and a teenage girl.

One gyoza lesson for 3.













One orange kimono and a teenage girl.

















One Japanese language lesson from great uncle.












Having Great Uncle and Aunt from Japan visit ....priceless.






Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Kathy

Birthday Fun

Gramps with the family

Hope everyone had a fun weekend!

We had a wonderful time celebrating my Grandpa's 90th birthday. He loved having everyone together. Here's how the weekend went:
The 5 cousins swam, ran around and played games together.

The grown-ups spent time sitting on the porch looking out at the water and chatting.


Gramps reflected on his long and full life and entertained us with crazy stories from his past.

Ryan taught him how to use the i-pad.

He took Ryan fishing.          

Jessica and I got some writing done, though I didn't come close to finishing my first 5 chapters.  Oh well I was really there to spend time with people anyway.

Birthday cake, candles, presents and lots of pictures and laughing!

All in all.... great memories made.

Now it's time to get back to work and back to checking all your great blogs.  I'll leave you with some more pictures of our weekend.  :)

Kathy

My brother, my mom, me and Gramps

Ryan and Gramps fishin

The cousins swimming

Gramps

Gramps

Taught me to fish.
Gave me my nickname.
Read dinosaur books to me.
Inspired my love of nature, art and music.
Taught me to build relationships, ideas, and things.
Continues to prove age does not matter.
Is a window to the past for my kids.
Teaches me to laugh at myself.
Always gives me love.

I'm endlessly grateful for my Gramps.


Kathy

Gramps taking me fishing

Family Traditions

 Except for celebrating the major holidays, we never had any special family traditions.  But about 2 years ago we decided to make a change.  It wasn't meant to become a tradition it just happened.  We loved celebrating our Friday nights with the kids.  We had home made pizzas and watched movies until the wee hours of Saturday.  My husband and I soon got tired of eating pizza every week, so one Friday I decided to make Chinese Fried Rice instead.  I also had some left over frozen dumplings in the freezer so I made those too.  Everyone loved the change.  My daughter Alyssa said, "Why don't we do this every week and pick a different country." Jessica added, "Let's do every country!"  Yikes this was quickly getting out of hand.  How many countries are there any way? I wondered.  It had already been decided though, and our family's Foreign Food Festival Friday tradition had begun.  So far we have experienced the cuisines of 52 out of the 196 countries in the world.  We plan to continue our journey until we have tasted them all.  This week we are planning to explore the flavors of Bangladesh.  Join our party by visiting http://foreignfoodfest.blogspot.com/.

Other fun traditions we recently invented:
Indoor family camp outs where we all sleep on the floor
Family reading time
Saturday morning breakfast out

What fun traditions does your family have?

Kathy

p.s. Welcome to all my new followers.  Thanks for all of the great comments!