Here we go again?

So... Was reviewing the old blog, and actually burst out laughing at some of my old posts. I had so much fun when I was writing.... Where did I find the time to do all that writing before?

"Waiting in the van selfies are all the rage."

 Ok.... so there went some.

Why am I writing again? No one follows me... (ok like 3 people and one of them might be my mother.) I don't have anything profound or prophetic to say. Well, folks, today I had a Mom Moment. Not the "I'm gonna kill someone so I am hiding in the back corner of my closet under last years forgotten Christmas underwear" kind, but the "I CAN do this Mom thing!" kind. And I like to write things down. And if you write this many words in a Facebook status, people unfriend you.

Every year in mid January, my kids turn into small energy sucking monsters. It has been too cold, for too long, and they no longer know how to function on 12 hours of sleep and 7 hours of TV interspersed with a few moments of eating. That is why this Momma reaches her wits end and decides to take away TV during the months of the year with the highest suicide rate. (Refer to this entry if you want the gory details of this choice)

This year the choice to remove TV was more about creating better behaviour choices in my children. TV made them into argumentative yellers. Not sure why, but I'm pretty sure it has to do with their brains turning into something resembling cake batter.

It started with my ambiguous statement,

"Guys, we are turning off the TV until we can get this behaviour under control. When I see that you are making better choices, we will get it back."

Hmmm. Makes sense to a 3-year-old, right?!

I have never been asked so often, "WHEN can we get TV back."

Ok. So insert amazing Mom moment here.

We are farmers. We have bins full of grain. Relevant? YES!

My plan:
1 small mason jar
container of soy beans

Tea towel draped over dirty dishes in the background. Cause I'm classy.

I placed 5 soy beans in the jar. One for every day we have to go without TV. I showed the jar to my kids and told them that every morning when they woke up, they could remove one bean. When all the beans were gone, we could watch TV again. They were ECSTATIC!

The catch?
Every time they make a poor behaviour choice, (throwing a fit, yelling at or hitting a sibling, arguing with Mom, you get the idea.) we would add a bean to the jar. They were less excited. But seemed super pumped about the process.

"So, Mom. When ALL the beans are out, we can pick a movie?"
"Yes."
"So if ALL the beans are in the jar and it's full, it will take FOREVER?"
"Pretty much, yes."
"That's NEAT!"

I love 4-year-olds!

I've been asked 3 times since this conversation if they could watch TV. Instead of saying, "NO!" or, "What did I say about TV?" I could follow their question with a better question, "Are there still beans in the jar?" "Yyeeeeesssss." "Ok."

Awesome.

We've been using the jar for one whole hour and I haven't had to put any beans in it, will it last? No way! But I am so proud of myself for coming up with a visual way they can see themselves get closer (or farther away) from their goal.

Woohoo me!