Unplugged

            Well, it’s hard to believe another Thanksgiving has come and gone already.  Ours was pretty quiet around here.  Oh, not for lack of trying.  I all but begged my folks to come out here from Ohio, but circumstances just didn’t work out.  2^nd man’s mom lives in a cottage behind our home, but was only able to eat and run since she works at a nursing home.  The rest of the staff left town to be with family.  The real kicker was when our homeless friend (who isn’t homeless anymore) didn’t even want to come.  I invited him over coffee on the front porch, but he said he preferred to eat at a local church that was putting on a dinner for the public.  Well isn’t that a real how-de-do!  I can’t even do a good deed. 

            It all turned out nice anyway.  We enjoyed the non-stress day and even got in a good long afternoon of monopoly with our girls.  (This was to make up for messing with their dinner.)  I decided to give our little “eat clean” experiment a try with some new recipes.  Some were ok.  The kids didn’t even notice that the pumpkin pie was different.  However, the sweet potato casserole…well….it left something to be desired.  There are some things that just seem kind of untouchable when it comes to a feast like Thanksgiving. 

            2^nd man and I were able to have one of our spontaneous talks while the kids were out visiting Nana in the cottage Thanksgiving morning.  Sometimes, on a non-hurried day we end up in these conversations that I just love…and sometimes hate.  This one was a mixture namely, because we were discussing the kids.  We like to kind of update each other on where we think our kids are spiritually, socially, mentally etc.  We both are concerned about how much technology they are getting lately.  Our little guy (only 4 yrs old) seems obsessed with playing some sort of video game either on daddy’s phone or the girls’ Nintendo DS.  The girls seem just as enthused.  I, for one, am not a big video game enthusiast, so I know my viewpoint is a bit prejudiced.  However, I really want my kids to be able to have conversations about something other than make-believe.  They aren’t totally gone on all of this, but we hashed out some of our concerns and have decided to tighten the reins a little bit.  I knew this was a good idea when, in the car today, my oldest daughter asked if she could unplug herself while daddy was in the store.  What she meant to say was unbuckle…sigh…great moments in motherhood.  Little did she know how prophetic she was actually being.  On the way home we noticed two sets of stop- lights that were out.   When we arrived to our house the whole neighborhood was out of power.  We had to all get unplugged anyway.