Filling the hours

Kids were up at 7:00 a.m.; Mike was getting ready to leave for work and an after-work meeting, and I was facing a 13-hour day home alone with the sick ones.  We missed CBS for the second week in a row because of this long-lasting nasty flu.  Last week when we were all feeling our worst, I removed all limits on TV viewing time.  We watched TV in bed all day long.  Now that we're feeling well enough to get out of bed (but still coughing too much to expose anyone), I imposed a two-hour total time limit on all screens, including TV, computer, and Wii.  Noah asked, "Does staring at my digital clock count?"

I started doing the mental math.  Thirteen hours minus two hours of screen, one hour of quiet time, one hour of reading, one hour of eating, one hour of schoolwork and piano practice still left eight hours looming out there.  If I didn't come up with alternatives, those hours would probably be lost to whining, arguing, and complaining.  I gave each kid a book of possible activities and asked them to look through and find something they wanted to do.  Sarah spotted the broccoli on the counter and said, "I just want to cook broccoli, that's all."  I asked how she wanted to cook it, and she said, "Steam some and roast some."  Noah asked if we could fry some too.

We spent at least an hour steaming, frying, roasting, and eating broccoli, which was definitely not something I would have planned, but it worked.  Other unexpected activities today included rollerblading in the basement and Sarah's two-hour nap.

 roasted

 threw some carrots in to steam too, since I didn't have much broccoli.

 fried, my favorite.