TV Rant ahead.

Monday night my sons were very excited about the return of the CBS Monday night shows. My husband and I had discussed them over the summer and were not sure how we would handle it, we feel some of them are becoming a bit too mature for especially my 9 year old, but also the older 2. So with that thought in mind, we sat down on Monday Night.

The show on at 8PM "How I met your mother..." ended with an uncomfortably long make out session between two women. No I do not feel that is appropriate veiwing for my 9 year old. No I would not feel it was appropriate if it was a man and woman who were also not married. And yes I was uncomfortable sitting there watching it with my teenage sons. Quite frankly long drawn out sexual scenes are unnecessary especially in Prime Time TV.

The show at 8:30 PM "Rules of Engagement" features a dog of a man who beds every woman he comes into the most casual of contact with. Generally it isn't raunchy though and it relies more on innuendo than actual sex. And Russell is made out to be a not very nice human being. He's not a "good guy" clearly. In addition many other characters point out that his behavior is not acceptable.

Finally the show at 9PM is the one we felt the most cautious about. "Two and a half men" has gone completely raunchy. Charlie an alcoholic, womanizing, professional playboy is the successful one, the happy one, the one to be envied. His brother, Alan, who really just longs for a stable marriage is the pitied one, the doofus little brother, if you will. Our family has watched Jake, who is Alan's son grow up in a divorced situation living in a home part time with Alan and Charlie. Jake is 16 now and the show opened up to Alan crawling out a woman's bed so their kids would not find out they were "dating" because he really wasn't sure where it was going. He comes home to find Charlie passed out on his stairs in his underwear, and while discussing this 2 girls sneak out of Jake's room. Instead of stopping the girls, and pulling Jake out of bed, they (Alan & Charlie) discuss whether he was having a threesome or an orgy. At this point we turned off the TV for the night.

So if someone unfamilar with American culture was introduced to it by these 3 shows, they would be horribly confused. They would have to wonder how we as Americans get anything done, between our constant casual sex. And is this the message we want our children to see? Why do shows have to do this? Why can't we enjoy TV with our kids? Monday night has now become family game night for us. Thanks CBS.

I felt God calling

Late last Friday, on the occasion of my husband's 40-something-th birthday, I felt God calling. My technology use (computer, iPhone etc.) has long been an issue in my marriage and quite frankly my life. I seem to have a tendency towards OCD in this department. I can spend hours online when I meant only to pop in and look for a specific email. I know this is something many of us struggle with. Adding a blog to my "online vices" doesn't help the situation.

So my husband -- being my husband -- wanted nothing for his birthday. That is he did not want me to buy him anything. Except for maybe a new Honda cafe style motorcycle and since finances ruled that one out, I was back to square one.

Last Friday afternoon as I was surfing the web, yet again, I heard "Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)." Be still, hmmmm a mother of 4 commanded to be still? No really, God what is it that you want me to do? I believed God wanted my time. He wanted my attention, he wanted my thoughts.

So I gave it to him. All weekend no online. I wasn't still but my thoughts were. I was focused on the thing that I was doing at the moment. Those things were varied. At one moment I was watching my daughter play soccer, but I actually watched her. I didn't facebook, I didn't text -- I watched her. Another moment I was with her at a birthday party. Again with her. Wholly and completely with her.

Later I was reading a book I'm reviewing for Booksneeze "Seeds of turmoil". I wasn't flipping back and forth between the book and Drudge Report, I was reading. I was focused on whatever God needed me to hear.

Sunday afternoon, I was truly still for about 4 hours after I made dinner I was still. I laid on the couch, semi-reading, semi-cuddling the dogs, semi-listening to my children sing songs they heard in Sunday School that morning. And that has made all the difference.

I feel more at peace this week. I'm less frustrated. I am more here (where ever I am) than I feel like I've been in months. And yesterday, when my husband and I took the day off together, I barely looked at my facebook all day. I think he appreciated it.

I think I'm going off the grid every weekend from now on.