Productive Lounging

Our family has been trying something new this week. We set a limit on our screen time, and we have a light's out bedtime. This may not seem like big changes to some, but they are to us. The changes were made after I had a long conversation with my sister. First I was bemoaning our inability to arrive on time to anything. I have found it difficult to be punctual, because we don't want to leave our home. The kids become involved in a game or research on the computer and do not want to stop. I am equally at fault as I love to read blogs, gather craft ideas and seek out recipes. It is just so hard to stop when you are in the middle of something. I talked with the kiddos about our problem.  We agreed that since most of our obligations are in the morning, we would have no screens before lunch. It seems to be working.

My second complaint was the change of seasons. The lengthening of days leads to a lack of sleep in our house. My children love to wake with the sun. This is not a problem during the winter, but when the days get longer, it is a huge hurdle for us. The kiddos love to stay up late exploring, reading and creating. We all love this. They just have a hard time compensating for the late nights by sleeping in when it is light. We have tried room darkening shades as well as multiple layers on the windows. Nothing seems to work. Again we talked and came to a consensus. We turn off lights at a set time. This also seems to be working, although my oldest son can be seen glowing with a reading light on in his top bunk after lights out. We are working on that.

With these changes, we have had a bit more time to just lounge together as a family. I took some of the lounging time this week to work on my sweater. I finished the first sleeve and am halfway done with the second one. I truly, truly hope to finish it by next week's yarn along. I want to finish, because I paged through Oliver + S Little Things to Sew: 20 Classic Accessories and Toys for Children. There are so many cute things to make in this book. I know our first need is new sun hats. I am not sure what I will make after those. There are plenty of options. I will keep you posted. (I am still reading Freedom and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I am more than halfway through each of those. Not sure if I will finish either this week, but I hope so.)