Christmas in July

 Our Christmas ornaments for this year --  hand-felted, alpaca wool animals.

Breaking news! We are on Day 3 of enforcing our newly revamped "House Electronic Rules," and I think they're finally sticking!  As expected, we experienced the most resistance from son number one, but I think even he has come around to accepting the fact that we will NOT be spending the rest of the summer planted in front of a screen.  

After a lot of thought {and prayer, actually}, Scott and I have decided that a fixed window of time each day where electronics are allowed will be the best route for our family to take.  At least for now.  Ideally, I would love to weed the electronics down even more, but I am a realist, in spite of all my extremist tendencies.  Hahaha.  IF we can get Scripture Time and the morning tidy-up done by 9 o'clock each morning, the kids will then have 9-11 to get their fix of screen time; whether on the computer, the TV, the Wii, or the Kindle Fire.  And then -- they are DONE for the day. 

As expected, there was a WHOLE lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when we outlined our plan on Sunday night.  At least from a certain firstborn.  The girls were surprisingly nonchalant and accepting of the plan and have remained that way ever since -- for the most part.  Now that we're three days in, I think Ethan is FINALLY realizing that he does in deed function better when there's a set schedule and routine in place.  Not to mention, that we can also do more fun stuff if we're not glued to a screen.

Take yesterday for instance.  For as much resistance as he gave me about it, once we were actually out of the house and enjoying the lovely afternoon down by my ever-favorite bike trail, he was a completely changed kid.  Our main impetus for going downtown was to check out the weekly Farmer's Market, but we ended up chilling at the park and playing for a bit as well.  Everyone had fun!  

Also fun?  These adorable little ornaments I ended up buying from one of the booths at the Market.  Apparently, there's an alpaca farm somewhere nearby and these handmade little animal figures were created with needle-punched wool.  The kids were smitten, so I told them they could each pick one out and it would be their Christmas ornament for the year.  And then, of course, I had to pick one out for me and Scott.

 L to R -- An alpaca for Scott, another one for me, a kangaroo for Ethan, a dog for Grace, a winter fox for Sophie, an owl for Jane, and an alligator for Alex.

My crazy cool alpaca.

So there you have it.  House Electronic Rules, rule!  Hahahaha.