Katie Says Relax!

At 11am today I started thinking about all I had accomplished this morning. After all, I was showered and dressed and thinking about doing the dishes and it was only 11am! Oh Yeah, I had also done one load of laundry too. But I was pretty proud of myself, why? Because I have a silly little baby who decided that he wanted to wake up at 5am. It took an hour or so to convince him that it was not “Morning Time” yet, after which, he and I both went back to bed. I woke up a little more than an hour later after having had one of those horrible dreams where you wake up and cannot move or yell, mine usually starts with the front door opening and I am not able to find out who is in my house. Today’s dream included the baby. I heard him giggle and then heard the door close, thus in my mind I knew that my baby had just been kidnapped and I could do nothing about it because I couldn’t move or scream for help. Arghhhh, needless to say, I did not wake up rested this morning. Luckily for me the baby made up for his hour of missed sleep, plus some, finally waking at 8:45!

What did I do during that extra alone time? I relaxed. I ate breakfast and checked out other people’s blogs. I watched the morning news and rescheduled our daily walk until later in the day. I took phone calls from friends and family and discussed insurance options with my husband by email. I did start the laundry but it was quickly forgotten, after all, I was relaxing. It was fun.

So there I was at 11, walked, clean, dressed and doing dishes, I had the TV on, as I often do. As I was happily going about my domestic duties I started to think about a conversation that Ken and I had with our Sister in Law out in Colorado. She asked what we do in the evening and Ken told her that we usually watch TV or movies together. This amazed her because after all, that would be something like 3 hours a night! “AMAZING! ...Really?” we heard those words several times, and as we went to bed that night we wondered, Is this really such a bad habit? I haven’t thought about it much since, but today as I was doing the dishes I heard the TV, it was on Studio 5 a local public interest show, nothing too horrible, but I started to really think about my TV habits.

Here is what I decided. Yes the TV in our house is on quite a bit, for many different reasons.

I like to watch the news; I like to know what is going on in the world, and so in the morning and then again in the evening I watch the news. Not a bad thing to do.

During the day I keep the TV on, but I don’t necessarily pay attention to it, it is background noise. If I knew where my Ipod was, or if we had a stereo on the main level of our home I would listen to music, but I currently do not have that capability and so the TV fills the void. What is the Void? I thought about that for quite awhile today. I have heard several times that you should be at peace with yourself in the silence and I don’t mind silence, but I am very much accustomed to noise. I grew up in a house with 5 sisters, not the quietest place in the world. Before having the baby I worked for a decade in loud places, Fred Meyer- Constant Music, IHC Hospitals and Clinics, Constant Chatter (I worked in offices full of Women) as well as several different radios on several different desks all tuned to several different stations. Silence has never been an every day part of my life. I am OK with that.

Then comes the evening, and my 3 hours or so of TV time with Ken. Ken and I both enjoy Movies and now that we have the Tivo, we have plenty of movies to watch, we also have several shows that we enjoy. Before we were married Ken had me read about the 5 Love Languages and take a test to see what mine were, my two top languages were physical touch and quality time. So by spending 3 hours with me on the couch, letting me put my legs over his lap, (or quite often letting me fall asleep with my head on his lap,) fulfills my 2 top love needs, thus Ken can keep his wife happy and be very well entertained in the process. As I thought about this today I recognized that this is true, I really do feel quite loved by the time we go to bed. By the time we go to bed, I am relaxed! I don’t think that I could manage without my Ken/TV downtime each evening. Thanks Ken!
So I don’t feel any inclination to change, at least not right now. Right now, Katie says Relax.