All About Kimberly

Sailing Along the Life of Single Parenthood

Monthly Archives: February 2008

DirectTV Game Lounge

I’ve found a new way to pass the time when I have a million things to do but want to give my mind a break – DirecTV Game Lounge. This is channel 110 on my DirecTV system, and on this channel (for a fee of course), you can play many different games including Monopoly, Uno, Skipbo, Dominoes, and Bejeweled. There also many kid themed games such as Barbie, Avatar, Bernstain Bears, and Nicktoons. And you can do this all with your remote control.

I had seen this advertised for a few months, and finally broke down this weekend and played the trial versions. It didn’t take long before I was looking up the price and subscribing. The All Access Pass is $5.95/month. I am not sure if it is always this way, but when I signed up Saturday, I was offered the second month free of charge. Another feature that pushed me into making the decision is that the $5.95 covers all of the receivers in your house (unlike the pay per view movies).

This has been an instant hit in my house. I think we’ve spent more times playing Game Lounge than watching the TV or even playing the other game systems we own. There is such a wide variety of games that everyone is able to find something they really enjoy also. Some of the games, such as Monopoly, allow for multiple players so everyone can get in on the fun.

The only real downside to it I’ve found (except that it distracts me from other things I SHOULD be doing) are that the games are only available at certain times. For example, Uno is only available from 2AM – 2PM so we can only play it on the weekends as we are asleep or at school during these hours.
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How Many Activities Are Too Many?

 Do my children do too much? Do I do too much? How much is “too much?” It seems that I run in circles and we’re never home. I changed jobs over the summer becaues I thought that being closer to home would mean more time together and less on the road, but it seems that instead of helping, my daughter has just picked up another activity. I also doubled my children (a teenager came to live with us) and so I think we are spending even less time together. When do you decided enough is enough?

I’m a sponsor of several activities at school that take at least 2 or 3 days a week after school for practice, and we compete about 10 Saturdays during the school year. My youngest daughter (age 7) takes dance and twirling lessons year around and she plays softball. This year she took up Little Dribblers (basketball). My oldest (age 16) is a member of most everything she can be at school – Student Council, Christians In Action, Debate, Softball, Tennis, FCCLA (home ec), and drama (I’m probably forgetting something). Both girls are also active in church.

I hate to discourage them from being active members of our community and participating in a variety of activities. I want them to be well-rounded and do not want them to spend all of their time “vegging out.” But there has to be a limit….my dilemma is what is the limit? And if forced to choose, how do we decide which activities to keep and which to abandon?

I’m thinking that it’s about time to give this serious thought. Let me explain by illustrating our day yesterday:
–First I had to stay after school for about 30 minutes for a meeting and to take care of some business.
–The 17 year old had softball practice at 5:30. This gave us just enough time that we didn’t want to stay at school, but by the time we got home and settled (not enough time for supper), it was time to head back.
–The 7 year old had basketball at 7:00. So we went to town and picked up groceries, filled up the car with gas, and headed back to school for her practice which didn’t end until 8.
–Thus, we didn’t get home until close to 8:30 and at this time, I have to find something for supper, look over school work, review assignments, and then we all head to bed exhausted.

If this was just one day every now and then, it would be ok, but it seems that each week is getting worse….So, now I must decide – is it time to limit our activities? Yikes. Can you tell from my current posts that life is truly BUSY?! :)
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Teaching Honesty For The Sake of Honesty

What a conflict we’ve faced lately. It seems that not only my own child, but some of the young adults I have the most respect for, do not seem to understand the importance of being honest because it’s the right thing to do (not because you might get caught). How do you engrave this into your children’s minds?

Case in point with my daughter (who is 7). Since the very beginning she has gotten in more trouble for lying than anything else. However it seems at times that all these lessons, have been in vain. Last week, her teacher brought me her nail polish that she told him I had told her to bring to school. This week already she came home yesterday with a “yellow” stamp and told me that it was just because she had forgotten to put her name on a paper. I thought that sounded fishy so I immediately shot an email to her teacher and, of course, that wasn’t the case. She had been too chatty today – she wouldn’t have gotten in nearly as much trouble for that, but now I have to deal with this tonight. *sigh*

Just last week, I got into an interesting conversation with a young man that I admire and respect completely. He was going to quote some evidence, and he saw nothing at all wrong with adding a word into the evidence. This was a young man that I would have never suspected, but he truly did not see anything wrong with just adding that one word. That’s what bothers me the most – that he did not understand why it was wrong. This young man is top of his class, goes over and beyond anything you ever expect of him, and it blows me away that we’re apparently heading towards a society where truth is not valued.

So the question before me – what I am trying to determine is how do I make sure my daughter doesn’t have this problem. How do I instill in her the value of telling the truth because it’s the right thing to do – not because she fears the punishment? Or for her to think it’s ok if she won’t get caught?
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