The TV broke a couple days ago. I noticed that it would turn on and randomly shut itself off a couple weeks ago, now it’s totally toast. We need to take it into the TV repairman and see how much it will be to get fix and see if it’s worth it. At any rate, my standard of watching some TV (or at least, catch up on the shows we have on the DVR) during Elise’s naps and in the evening is gone. It’s been a change, but an interesting one.
For starters, since we don’t sit and veg in front of the TV in the evenings, Greg and I are getting stuff done. Like talking more to each other. He’s beginning to read through his (I swear) 740 pound book on for a CISSP certification. I’m sewing more (mama cloth!) and finding time to read (currently Abandonment to Divine Providence). In the daytime, there is more SILENCE – which at first freaked me out but now I’m finding comforting. Much like when I went to the Monastery – I grew to love the silence there. I have more time for prayer. I’m not inundated with sleazy culture or the 7 news channels. Granted, I do miss EWTN; but if I need it I can stream it online.
I kind of like having the TV broken. Much like parenthesis in this post. 
At any rate, having the TV gone has made me re-evaluate how much TV I watched in the past and how much I want to watch in the future. It also makes me think about situations with annoyances – how I handle those. I could easily have filled the void of TV with Relevant Radio, but instead I chose silence. And it’s being quite fruitful. There are a ton of situations every day that are annoying, frustrating, hard, or just exhausting. How do I deal with them? Am I open to stepping outside my comfort zone and letting the Good Lord fill them with His Presence, His Holy Spirit? Or do I substitute one comfort for another?
Questions that all have answers, even if I don’t want to admit what they are.
Eventually, I want to completely dump cable, but I think I’m not there yet. Both of us grew up in heavily TV saturated houses, and we definitely don’t want Elise in that kind of environment. I think we need to either a) find balance or b) pull the plug until we can figure something out.
Well, it definitely has been a blessing, even upon its return. I found that we’re still watching less and less of it, and even what we’re recording on the DVR we’re scaling back on because it’s just not interesting to us anymore.
Good for you! Our lives changed when we dumped cable, seriously.
Just found your blog via a comment on Conversion Diary. We decided to let go of our TV with the conversion to digital. Before that, we only watched about 3-4 hr/wk, but I am seriously seeing a change. Instead of nagging me to watch Between the Lions, my girls took the initiave yesterday afternoon, and put a book on CD on and listened to the stories for about 45 min, and then got out watercolors for a while.
I find i’m spending more time knitting, more time reading, more time playing board games with the kids…I’ve ordered more books on tape from the library.
I hope the shift to TV-free continues to be as much of a blessing to you all as it has been to us.