Ten on Tuesday: 10 things to do instead of watching TV

I don't watch TV. I don't mean that the way it sounds. I watch a lot of stuff, but it's all on netflix or DVDs. We don't have cable, and so I don't get a lot of the fun stuff people talk about, and I don't have any sort of good reception and so, in effect, I don't get network TV either. But I do watch screens. Being fidgety, though, I never just watch. I'm always sorting laundry or sewing or knitting or cleaning the computer desk or doing something. So my first list in my head included some of those things but, really, TV can happen during them. So then I had to think again. I also tried to limit myself to things to do at home. And this is what I came up with:

1. Cook. I've been in an email conversation about food and cooking and it's gotten me on a cooking kick. Sunday I made pickles, and last night I made pesto. We've been eating straight from the garden for a few weeks now and it makes me so happy. Sunday night I made pasta with an eggplant-based sauce. Seriously. It's one of my favorite things to do around the house, as long as there are people to cook for. I know you can technically watch TV, but we can't because the TV isn't in the kitchen.

2. Lectio. As opposed to fluff reading, which I can do with the TV going in the background, I can't do lectio that way. Lectio divina is an ancient Christian/monastic practice that focuses on quality, not quantity. The way Sr. Jean explained it: open the bible. Start reading. Stop when something strikes you. Get cozy with that passage. Move through it and in it. And then leave the door open for what God has to say. You can't do this and watch 30 Rock at the same time.

3. Listen to the radio. We have the best NPR station I have heard in person--I'm sure there are east coast ones that beat us, but 90.7 KWMU is amazing. Cooking in the kitchen, listening to American Routes or the Sunday night jazz show or Marketplace or Tavis Smiley (where I learned last week that Harold Perrineau Jr. has a music career?) or Diane Rehm or whatever. Sometimes it drives me crazy (On Point) and sometimes (This American Life) it makes me cry but it always makes me think.

4. Sit on the porch. There is always something to learn there.

5. Related to #4, talk to a neighbor. Often on the porch there are other people in sight. And there's always something to say.

6. Play a game. My girls like to play games. They bridge between reader and non-reader, though, and Sophia wants to do Apples to Apples and Maeve wants to do Jr Monopoly. But we try to balance it. Chinese checkers, the beginnings of chess, the dread monopoly, Set, the game with the cards that you make a path (called "the game of the path" but I forget the full title), and so forth.

7. Read aloud. I used to dread bedtime storytime. I don't get why, but I did. And then I split it into two stories and now I like it (so it wasn't the time that bugged me...). In the middle of Ramona the Pest and Mossflower. Takes a little bit of gear-switching but they're good for each girl who listening.

8. Organize something. The basement, the attic, the drawers, whatever. Radio works well but TV distracts me too fast.

9. Paint. I mean on an architectural scale, not canvas. Also in this category would be lay new floor and refinish furniture. I have a dining room full of all of that coming soon.

10. Read blogs. The ones I read are so so much more entertaining than sitcoms and reruns.