What Do You DO At Night?

We gave up television as a family again this year for Lent.  For the girls, it was basically a non-event - after we gave up television last year, they never really got back into the habit of watching it, other than for about an hour or so on Saturday mornings and the occasional movie on a Friday or Saturday night.  But Lee and I definitely got back into the habit of watching television, and often just for the sake of watching, so giving up television for seven weeks was still a sacrifice for us, especially because we missed watching the Bruins a couple of nights a week.  I think that we have actually reached the point, however, that we actually kind of look forward to giving up television.  It slows down everything in our household; we talk more; we get stuff done around the house; we play games with the kids.  Truth be told, it is actually pretty great.
Despite the fact that we did this last year, most people still think that we are out of our minds.  Case in point: one of Lee's friends, who is a pretty devout Catholic, couldn't even fathom giving up television for Lent.  His primary question to Lee was "what do you do at night?"  When Lee explained that we actually spend a lot of time talking, he was really surprised.  After all, what could two people, married more than ten years, have to talk about?  ;-)
Surprisingly, we have a lot to talk about.  You all know that I can talk, but when Lee gets going, it's hard to stop him.  And we talked about important and not-so-important things.  We spent a lot of time connecting and reconnecting.  Instead of trying to cram the important stuff into a few free minutes, we had time to work through a lot of things, both important and unimportant.  We always consider ourselves to be (mostly) of one mind, but our united front is stronger than ever. 
And did I mention the cleaning?  We cleaned and de-cluttered the house from top to bottom.  Along the way, we donated, recycled, free-cycled, gave away and threw away more than fifteen bags of stuff; we also looked at our wedding album, the girls' baby pictures and photos from various points in our life together.  We did some small, organizational and decorating projects around the house and I started planning our spring and summer adventures. 

New "coffee bar" in the kitchen.

Some light decorating....

We found the idea for this cork board of our US adventures on Pinterest and I spent the better part of a month making it.  So glad that I did, as the girls love looking at it and talking about where we will go next (Chicago is the leading contender right now, although the Civil War battlefields are a close second).

I also fell in love, all over again, with cooking and baking.  Before the girls started eating with us, Lee and I used to do a lot of cooking together.  Over time, we've fallen out of the habit because of time restraints and because the girls, although excellent eaters, like their food plain - no sauces, spices, etc.  But they are getting older and we are getting sick of plain food, so we started experimenting with cooking again.  I scoured the internet for recipes and even bought a new cookbook.  And I baked, much to the delight of the girls, Lee and Lee's friends, something new every weekend.
All in all, and aside from a couple of chaotic weekends, it was a calm, peaceful and relaxing time in our lives.  As much as we enjoyed it, however, it's time to dive back into movies and catch up on all of our television shows!

Easter cupcakes 

Clam Chowder 

Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake