The Deal

Today I took my two girls out for a walk.  On the way home, I was distracted and dropped my phone.  My precious iPhone.  The screen is now in pieces.  I was so distraught, I almost broke down and cried.  Even worse, I almost let it ruin the otherwise great time I was having with my kids.  And this is unnerving.  We have so many distractions in our day to day lives, am I losing track of what is really important to me?  An idea was born.  For the next 365 days I will do my best every day to spend real, downhome quality time with my kids.    

Who am I?
I am Emily.  I go to school full time for nursing, and I am a full time mom of the two most beautiful little girls God ever imagined.  Kira is 16 months and Ariana is 3 months.  We are a busy family.  My husband quit his job to also attend school full time for a degree in nutrition.  We are both veterans and the government pays us well to attend school, so we are very fortunate to be able to live off that money.  He also works part time at Walgreens, mostly to escape our crazy life I think!

The rules:
1. No distractions.  Therefore: no computer and no tv (unless they are directly related to what we are doing), no outside entertainment like magazines or books, and, most important, NO PHONE. (I think I can I think I can...)
2. No excuses.  This is an everyday thing except in the case of something truly debilitating.  Ariana waking me up every hour on the hour does not count.
3. Sundays in my house are a day of rest.  We go to church, we watch football, we recover from our hectic week and recharge for another.  Therefore, Sundays I am off the hook.  Ok, so I am not going to neglect my kids on Sundays, but you know, we can just chill out and relax together.  
4. I am going to try and change things up and not stay with the same old same old.  That said, even in a great city as large as Houston there is only so much to entertain two very young ones.  Therefore, I am limiting myself to not do the same thing twice in a month.
5. Not everything we do has to be earth shattering.  Sometimes just laying in bed reading book is sufficient.  But doing something really over the top has it's moments too.  So long as I spend the time really giving my all to the girls and feel like I have made a connection with them, I'll count it.
6.  Friends and family are important too, so if they want to tag along I say the more the merrier!

I am also going to post different activities and events around Houston to try and encourage all the parents out there to get out and spend some quality time with your kids!  You never know, you might just have some fun!  And Houston is a great place to do this, there is an abundance of kid friendly activities here!  I consider myself a connoisseur of the obscure, so hopefully I can find some cool places off the beaten path.