Friday, December 4, 2009

Photostory Friday: What is this thing?

PhotoStory Friday
Hosted by Cecily
This board was a Christmas gift from my dad.





It's been bouncing around our various homes for about a dozen years now. It sits quietly, unmoving, and often unnoticed -- for years at a time. In all that time, probably the only thing it has been used for is a giant coaster.

Due to my current employment status -- or lack thereof -- we've had to make some adjustments. We don't have a lot of areas where we can cut back, but one place we can reduce cost is the television. We suspended our satellite service this week.

And, surprisingly,  my children's world didn't end.

We have a DVD player, we still get all the local television channels --  we have a Wii, for crying out loud. We have a computer and iPods. Even without the gazillion channels we were paying for (of which we watched about six), I assured my kids that they would still get plenty of screen time.

Then they found this lonely little board.





Matt dug through the old game boxes until he found some checkers, and then he asked "How do we play?"

Our lives now revolve around the checker board -- no screens, no lights, no noise, no switches (no lobotomized, zombie eyed stares) -- just reds and blacks. Checkers and Kings.

It turns out that Matt has an uncanny ability at checkers -- and he thrills at it (I think it's his mathematical aptitude -- which also explains why I am NOT very good at checkers).  And he thrills at beating me -- which he does on a regular basis.





An embarrassingly regular basis.

11 comments:

Emily said...

Nothing is better than beating your dad at something. I still get excited when I beat mine at backgammon.

Emmy said...

Awesome! Life really would be better if we all turned off the TV more and just played. Great pictures

Mom24 said...

That is great. I've often thought about getting rid of ours, we too watch very few channels. One of these days I may actually do it.

I hope you find a job that will be good for you soon.

I also hope you get better at checkers quickly!

{krista} said...

I hate checkers, I lose every single time, even to my little school kids I have been known to play with. It's quite humbling to be beaten by a 1st grader every single time.

I think our world would end without the TV... we should try it for a few days just to find out.

Anonymous said...

It's been a long time since I've played checkers. I'm more a chess person, but not saying that I'm any good.

Glad to hear that their worlds did not end and they have found fun things to do with that time. :)

I'd love if you could get ala cart TV. We too pay too much and only watch a handful of the channels.

Carrie and Troy Keiser said...

We went for years without TV and our kids were fine.... there was at lest one adult that had a harder time with it, though.
Games are such a great way to spend time.

Heidi said...

I haven't played checkers in so long, I'm not really sure I would remember how. I wish when we turned our TV off we would have turned to video games, instead, my kids have turned to dumping all the buckets of toys in the toy room on the floor. This creates an enormous pile of crap that you can't walk through.
Hmmm, I'm thinking about turning the TV back on.

puna said...

Though it's hard not having a job, you seem to make the best of it by spending more time with your kids. I think it's wonderful. I hope your employment status changes soon.

Melissa said...

What a GREAT story!! You know, it's so true about these cable/satellite packages...there are too many channels that we pay for that are useless!!

BTW-good luck on a better "job status" ;-)

Corey~living and loving said...

fantastic. :) someday, I hope to unplug as well.

Rachel said...

That's awesome.
I am terrible at checkers (and math) hmmmm.

We are trying to cut down on TV and electronics and do more family, real life things.