Lots of Movies

The rest of the day yesterday was just relaxation for the family. My son came home and wanted to play some more football. This little guy never seems to stop. He played earlier in the morning and played with his regular team this afternoon yet he wanted to have a game of football with me. I had to convince him to just relax which meant watching a movie with the whole family. It was movie late afternoon as we watched the “Bee Movie” which is animated film written, produced and starring Jerry Seinfeld. I have to admit that I thought the “Seinfeld” show was the best show ever and have stopped watching any situation comedy since it left the airwaves. I was happy to watch the “Bee Movie” and in spite of its very strange story line “bee sues the human race” it really wasn’t that bad and the children seemed to like it as well.

It was great sharing the couch with the family and having everyone tell me that they didn’t want popcorn but when I made the popcorn everyone was happily digging in!! I could not think of a better way to spend a Saturday and having my family with me means everything. The day continued with another movie but this was not meant for children’s eyes. My wife and I watched Hancock which starred Will Smith along with Charlize Theron. This was another astonishing story line; “superhero disliked by the general public because of odd behavior of the superhero,” yet it was a very entertaining movie. That was the extent of our Saturday evening.

This morning was the typical Sunday morning with our son arriving in our room in time to watch the CBS Sunday Morning Program. The day was the usual Sunday with one twist; yesterday I had to bribe my son to rub my legs with purchasing him Pokémon and Yugo cards. There is a long standing tradition in my family of bribery to get things done and I continued this tradition. My son is a very good negotiator and did get his way. Additionally my daughter got her way with saying my wife and I “owed her” for her gold honor roll award. I am a sucker for these things and yes, I took both of them to the store this morning to pick out their rewards. This wasn’t easy because we had to go to two different stores for my daughter and as she picked out the “perfect” Webkinz.

It is interesting what a little incentive does for children. The deal was that my son needed to complete his religion studies prior to going to the store and as we woke up he was asking when he could do his religion which is the direct opposite of any other Sunday where it is like “pulling teeth” to get him to do his religion work. This morning he was bringing up his book and completed the lesson without any issues whatsoever. Also my daughter was so happy with her Webkinz that she thanked me at least 50 times after the purchase!!! I guess there is something to the reward system!!!

The day went on with more movie viewing but this time it was only the three of us. My daughter had gone over to a friend’s house to work on a school project. She was out for most of the day and she used all of the 8 hours she was gone to work on this project. She had been given one of the advanced projects that needed to be performed with a partner. This is truly amazing because she is only in the fifth grade and this project was a bit complex with bar graphs, story boards, demographics and prototypes. I don’t think I ever did a project like this until I got to college so it is apparent children grow up so quickly in this day and age.

With our daughter out our son picked a movie and he selected “Click” which I had never seen. It was one of those movies that premiered during my “sabbatical”. The language was a bit much for a seven year old but the message was wonderful as it displayed the “one day at a time” concept very well. The premise of the story was based on “fast forwarding” the lead character life and the realization came when this lead character “woke up” and their life was over before their very eyes. I actually had tears in my eyes as the plot crescendo and conveyed what was being displayed to my life. I wanted to fast forward my life at so many different points especially during my incarceration; however; thanks to recovery I know that life is best living one day at a time.