Unplugged

We were up by 9am!!! yay, actually it was painful because I went to bed at 2am but still it's progress in the right direction. We got ready rather promptly and went out to the farmers Market. It's only 2 short blocks from our house on a street that lines up with the Eiffel tower so the setting for the market is amazing. It's also huge. The kids enjoyed the funny things like octopus and a half plucked duck. But the produce was what was impressive. I have discovered you actually have to shop around, I think that some of the stuff is like super market stuff, while others are peoples mom and pop orchards, etc. I decided to follow around obviously french people(anyone but me) and go where they went which I think paid off. I love when people like to practice their english. I even got a "have a nice day" from someone....yes my french is that bad. It was fun but as it's so close it did not make for that much of a outing. We worked on school work and again kept the iPad away. This means the kids have no, tv, not videos, no games, no nothing. It's actually great. Ya there are moments where we(I)could use the digital sedation but I think they need a good break from it and aside from Austin who is a bit hung up on the fairness of the whole situation, everyone is coping well. I have to keep reminding them we did not have cable when I was growing up, in fact we had 1 episode of sesame street(the letter was e, maybe that's why I cannot spell?) and the muppets on VHS. In fact depriving them of it paid off today when I was teaching them about light, remember ROYGBIV? Anyhow I found a college lecture on it that explained some stuff in an interesting way(showed some examples of light experiments) and they actually watched it...intently. I'm pretty sure just to get the TV fix they needed but regardless they watched, and may have actually learned something. It's refreshing to see the things they are coming up with to do. Austin on his own had the idea to build the Eiffel tower out of crayons. Jackson rebuilt his lego things(which have been destroyed at least 4 times by his sisters), only to have it broken again by Hannah who later destroyed the tower Austin built then announced that she'd done it to all. I always say the kids take turns being at the top of the "list" I guess it's her turn. Then Austin helped with dinner we made Chicken with veggies and salad. Austin wanted to get the bread so he practiced his french and went into the bakery and got our bread. Todd is enjoying his rotation. He's practicing with a very well known hand surgery place and a fancy cosmetic surgeon here. I guess the weirdest thing is that they take a 2 hour lunch each day where they change out of their scrubs back into their day clothes....in front of each other. At least he has clean underwear. :) And the scrubs are disposable, like made out of paper. He only works 3 days a week so we have lot's of time to play. He's off tomorrow so I think we will venture out to who knows where.