Doing More vs Doing Different

I'm all about trying to simplify, breathe and smile, take time to enjoy, etc. But then I think about my choices on a daily basis and wonder if I really live that way.

I've just been thinking about choices as a mom and sometimes wonder if I'm DOing MORE (not so good!) or just DOing different or smarter. If that makes any sense at all?!?

We basically are DOing all day long... something or other... and I just hope that what I DO fits into my PRIORITIES (the DOing Different part)

For example - '115 things to do this Summer' list... I seriously love it. It has helped me focus my DOing on things I otherwise may not have - and has made for some fun summer memories with the tots. I hope it's not DOing more.. but rather changing what I'm spending my time DOing.

Another example - TV. Bleh... For a week or so now I've been so bugged by tv and movies that my kids are watching. It's NOISE! and it's buggy. Plus, the kids had a few instances where they didn't quickly obey because they were entranced by their current movie (a.k.a... Mickey Mouse and the 3 Musketeers).

For a few days now I've been haunted, plagued, or more likely Prompted to turn off the boob-tube for a while. We need a break - I need a break. It helped that Max broke our downstairs DVD player (grrr!).

This quote by Julie Beck keeps ringing in my mind:

"Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home.

"Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world's goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying.

"These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world. Their goal is to prepare future fathers and mothers who will be builders of the Lord's kingdom for the next 50 years. That is influence; that is power." Julie Beck, October 2007

That quote got me thinking about the DOing Different idea.. kindof like DOing less... not that you do less by letting your kids watch mountains of tv and ignoring them... but DOing different by creating more meaningful activities.

And I'll tell ya... it's hard for me. Today we had our first no-tv day. We had oodles of random whining this morning about who knows what. The kids seemed to fight all day (like about what color grass really is, who did what sign-language letter, etc). And Max - he wasn't sure what to do with himself without Wall*e. I don't know if our day was hard because of the no-tv or just the moods of the kids. Maybe they need to detox from electronic media.

So - even though it requires more energy and patience to spend more quality time with my tots, I've felt the need to make it happen this summer ... to work together, read together, talk more, sing more, etc. before my two oldest head off to a long day of school in the fall.

I always love this article about President Eyring's wife (under the Family First Heading) and how she broke the tv so her boys wouldn't waste nights watching it.

It reminds me that as a mother, if I feel strongly about something, I need to make it happen.

But I also go in phases. Some days I'm not as bugged by the kids watching a show or two. But doesn't summertime seem like the time to enjoy outdoors... at least when it's not 100 degrees outside? I'll save tv/movie viewing for long winter days when we're all at home with me recovering from having a baby.

Lots o' babbling goin' on 'round here... but just working through my thoughts on DOing Smarter and Different instead of just Doing more and more and more. Less wasted time - more quality time! Go!