How Time Can Fly (Part II)

During the first year of our marriage Steven and I had an experience that taught us both an important lesson about ourselves. We had borrowed my brothers Nintendo 64, along with ExciteBike, and returned quickly to our home in excitement to play. We began playing that evening around eight or so and decided around midnight to turn it off and sleep. The next morning we woke at 6 am and immediately began our challenge of beating the game. I'm sure the sun rose and set that day but neither Steven or I could tell you because, with the exception of a few bathroom breaks and running once to the refrigerator to grab some leftover pizza, we neither left the game nor saw the light of day. Around 8 pm that evening we looked at one another, looked down at the calluses that had formed on our thumbs, and then set the paddles down. We frequently laugh about that experience and are grateful we had it early on. Since then we have been ever mindful of our time spent with "technology". Friday night however offered us a gentle reminder of how "time can fly" if your not paying attention.

Our area has received large amounts of rain over the past few weeks. This meant little time outside and a lot of time coming up with fresh ideas to occupy our children. In large part I have been able to accomplish this with ease, but when the weekend arrived I was more than excited to hand the responsibility over to Steven and allow him to assist in producing a fun idea for the family. Boy, did he ever. (I must interject one thing here: The Wii was brought home by Dad as a "get well family present" when Kadyn banged her head last year, which ended in the ER with bonding glue. It has since been a daddy/daughter bonding tool for a few minutes now and then on weekends.) This past Friday evening we gathered upstairs and were excited to discover that for five bucks you could purchase the "old school" version of Nintendo's Mario Brothers. Steven went first and was quickly taken out by a flying turtle. (He did not have a Nintendo growing up) I was next and to my hubbies great surprise cleared the first three boards in record time and even remembered where to pick up the hidden whistles that transport Mario to future worlds. (Unfortunately, I did have a Nintendo in my younger years and despite the wisdom of adulthood had not yet learned the lesson of "limits".) The kids were amazed by this new game, and while each was willing to take a turn, for the most part they only wanted to watch in hopes that Mom or Dad could indeed save the princess. We continued in our attempts, for what seemed like an hour, but couldn't seem to overpower world eight. We decided to head for bed and were more than surprised to find it was 11:15 pm! A wonderful lesson and perfect example of why our family strictly limits "technology time". We are proud to report that it only required wasting one of our Saturday hours to complete the task of conquering Mario Brothers and saving the princess. Congratulations to us all.