bored kids

I was reading an interesting article today about turning off your TV and just letting your kids be bored. There was a recent report on NPR about how kids are no longer using imaginative play. We don't do TV. we don't even have one in the house. we watch the occasional DVD on the computer but that's it. I often leave my children to just play alone. I don't spend the majority of the day entertaining them and most of the time the results are pretty good. They make up tons of stories. They play church, doctor, have a concert, mommy and daddy, animals, and a ton more. sometimes i feel bad about not having enough activities for them to do but now i feel a lot better because what i knew has been confirmed.
of course they still love TV and when we are at friends houses they can't get enough. Even so they are really good at home most of the time. I've had people ask me, "what do you do with them all day?" I never really knew what to say because the true answer always sounded so lame, "oh nothing."
I don't want to make it sound like i do nothing with my kids because i do. We do art projects a few times a week, read books, go out, but the majority of their time is spent on imaginative play all on there own.
My kids are very young so i know this may get harder as they get older but i think starting now is a great start.
Thinking back my mother really didn't entertain us and we had some great time just playing together (brothers and I) we would create a whole other world in our back yard.

MARCH

i think march has to be my least favorite month. So dull, so dreary, so long. I think i just need to think of things to do. right now i am sewing aprons for the girls, which is fun but I'm having trouble staying motivated with the project. I do a little then i feel like just putting it away. the kids are super restless. They seem to constantly be at each others throats. So we do little projects and that's fun but they really want to get outside. I would let them go out and play in the snow but it is so rainy and icy that its not really worth it. So we will make it at least until we are able to buy a van. Last week some great friends of ours went to FL. and let us borrow their van. It was great but really a tease. we were out everyday so now i think it's a little harder to get back into things.

If anyone out there has any fun ideas for keeping busy I'd love to hear them.

the above picture is Judah at 5 months. He is such a cutie! He is almost crawling! I can't believe it. He's been so fussy lately and just on sun. 2 teeth came through so he seems much better now. One thing i am so thankful for is that all our family is so healthy and has been all winter! we've had a little diarea and maybe 1 fever but over all its been great. I am truly thankful for this b/c last year we were sick for months ans it is so draining.

Fri night the kiddos are going to grandma's house and josh and i are going to have a sat. morning date! yippee! I am so excited for this. we really need it. We haven't even had a chance to go out for our anniversary yet. We celebrated 5 years on the 22nd of Feb! I still can't believe it. It seems like forever b/c i hardly remember life without Josh, he is such a part of me. I am so thankful to have found him and i just feel like bragging about him a little so if you don't want to hear it please feel free to skip this part. Josh is wonderful! He thinks about me and what i need even more than i do (if that's possible) he gets up at night (many times) with the kids. He still makes me mixed Cd's like when we were dating (only they were cassettes then and usually hardcore/metal). He thinks i am very hot even though i still have quite a few baby pounds to lose. He doesn't care if i don't get anything done around the house. He never goes a day without telling me how much he loves me. There is more but I'll stop for now. I love that man. So I'm going to try to think of something fun for us to do sat. can't wait!