Media Deprivation

I've been working my way through The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. It's a great book that is supposed to help you work through things that prevent you from being creative or artistic. I'm not really having a problem but I find that this time (this is my second time working through her book) that I am learning so much about myself and really want to share with everyone.
What does this have to do with Xavier? Well, as part of her program, Julia Cameron asks that each participant give up one week of reading. To me that wasn't going to work. I barely have time to read what I need to as it is but I know that I waste time watching TV and playing video games. I decided the only way this could be successful is to get the entire family involved. Starting Sunday, we have gone without TV or video games (for the most part).
It's amazing how much time we now have. I kind of miss TV but not really. I am filling up my time with so many things. Sunday, we put up different shelves in the spare room (which we call the craft room). That room, Xavier and I share for various projects. He gets a personal media space with a tv, dvd/vcr, and a video game system and I get a sewing/crafting space. It's been a mess for a long time because we have too much stuff in the smallest room of the house. It's not perfect but I can see that once we get rid of all the little furniture bits that are being stored in there after rearranging that Xavier and I will have a really nice place to be. Once we get rid of those items at our upcoming yardsale (in the works but no date set), we'll have room to put in a bean bag chair or two for Xavier.
Also on Sunday, we played a round of Spiderman Monopoly - Xavier completely kicked butt. After his Dad went bankrupt, Xavier started cheating so I wouldn't lose. I did end up going bankrupt but many turns around the board later instead of right away.
At Papa's we played aggravation and then Xavier found this multi-game set. Out of that we played 3 rounds of Snakes and Ladders and 2 rounds of pickup sticks. We had so much fun that no one missed watching tv.
Last night, Xavier could not wait until I was home so we could play Milles Bornes. I won both games and Rob feels like he still doesn't get how it's played. I suppose we'll have to play it all week until he gets it.
I hope to actually leave the house a couple times this week to do fun things but the week looks like it's going to be busy. Tonight we have therapy but I am looking forward to sharing all the wonderful strides Xavier has been making lately. He's growing up so fast and is really trying to think things through before reacting. It's not always successful but the truth is - he's a step ahead of so many "normal" people with the fact that he's trying.