Following Where He Leads...: My Confused Kids. And Jas' New Toy

Jas and I cancelled the satellite service at our house back in 2007, in another round of budget-cutting measures during Daniel's adoption process (our third international adoption in so many years).

Around our neck of the woods, if you don't have cable or satellite service, you don't have "live" T.V....for all intents and purposes.

So our children have never known what it is like to have broadcast T.V. We just watched videos...and some shows/movies on Netflix when we signed up for that years later.

My children's only real exposure to broadcast t.v. was when they would spend time at Lao Lao's house. I could tell from their comments that they didn't really understand how the whole "live" T.V. thing worked...and how it was different from the setup we had.

BUT...when we go to the beach each summer, we have a TV with cable! Now we don't watch all day long (there is way too much beach and pool-going for that), but suffice it to say that we watch way more in those two weeks than they see the whole rest of the year combined.

The kids cracked me up on this most recent trip...

Elisabeth can now quote a whole slew of commercials. She may be destined for a career in commercial acting and announcing...she. is. great! And she and Noah can sing in unison the (very annoying) jingle to a local car dealership in the area of the beach.

When one of the kids had to run to the restroom, they'd call back over their shoulder as they scooted out of the family room, "Pause it for me!" Ummm...sorry, nope...can't do that. (Let's not even get into DVR's with them...that would totally confuse them!)

And one time during the second week when Lao Lao was staying in a second unit (we were all together the first week...yes, 7 of us in a one bedroom place)...two of the children were with her for a little bit and two were with me. When we were all together again a half hour later and Noah told Daniel that we'd watched "Ninjago" and what had happened in the show...Daniel listened in wide-eyed amazement and then said, "That is what WE watched!" How. can. that. be???

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Meanwhile, back at the homestead...

We gave our "big" T.V. away a while ago. We only could use it for videos (d.v.d.'s and VHS, gasp). When we got Netflix, we had to watch on the computer...which was in mine and Jason's bedroom.

So the "big" T.V. in the family room wasn't ever getting used. Being the ruthless de-clutterer that I am, out the T.V. went. Things have to earn their keep in our house!

And then.....we move into our new house.

And there is a beautiful fireplace in the family room.

With a not-so-beautiful set-up where the previous owners had obviously mounted their flat-screen T.V. above the mantel.

So, Jas mentioned that for Father's Day he wanted a new, flat-screen t.v. to put in our family room. It still won't have cable or satellite hooked up to it, but we will be able to stream Netflix stuff through it...so, great.

While we were at the beach, Jas purchased the new t.v.

Oh. my. word. I wish that I had shopped with him.