DVR Purging and Spaghetti

Earlier this week, I had a surprisingly free, unscheduled day and was stuck at home with no car.   Sometimes having all four kids in school and having 6 whole hours to myself isn't such a great thing.  I started with the DVR-purging that is such a happy alternative to vacuuming the house and doing laundry.  I have a million food shows recorded...Master Chef, Top Chef, Pioneer Woman, Trisha's Southern Kitchen.  I happily pinned recipes and deleted episodes and felt such a feeling of accomplishment in just the first 2 hours of my day.  

But then, when all of my shows were gone, instead of moving on to some other more productive activity, I just stayed and wandered around on the guide...I should have known better.   I started with some fun, mindless stuff...The Chew, Say Yes to the Dress, What Not to Wear.  Then not long after, I gave in and watched some of the most ridiculous television I have ever seen...Life with Latoya (ugh...just the sound of her voice made me want to change the channel,) Raising Whitley (she's actually pretty funny and I stuck around for FOUR whole episodes of that one,) Swamp Murders, Snapped, Dance Moms, and Abby's Ultimate Dance Challenge.  Yep...can you see the rapid degeneration???  Boy, it doesn't take long for mild and mindless to turn into trashy and awful. 

I was shocked and horrified by most of the shows I watched, but I just sat there with my mouth open and barely moved from the couch even to get a drink!  It was terrible, but I was riveted.  Why is the sensational so enticing?  I don't know a single person like those dance moms.  I have been a PTA member, a room parent, a choir booster, a baseball mom, and now a Show Choir mom, and not once have I ever thrown a drink in another mom's face or yanked my kid out of a rehearsal.  Do people really behave like that?  

Forever ago, there was a story that I heard somewhere about being careful with entertainment.  Something about...mindless channel surfing (or internet surfing or even radio surfing sometimes) is like allowing the TV to feed you garbage.  Would you ever walk into a restaurant and let the waiter scoop spaghetti off the floor and serve it to you?  Nope.  So why would you just let the TV programmers and producers do that in your home?  Ew...

At the end of that day, I felt like my head was filled with gross spaghetti, like I had held my poor spirit hostage on that couch all day, and like I just needed a complete detox.   

That made me think about that quote we hear so often in General Conference...

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” - Alexander Pope

I don't want to get too familiar with the faces and actions on my TV.  I don't want to fill my head with the untruths of reality TV that life is a competition, that bigger is better, and that if no one is looking, you're nothing.  I definitely don't want to get so comfortable with those Dance Moms that I want to embrace them.  There are so many trivial, mundane, beautiful things that happen in my little life that I am so thankful for.  They will never be interesting enough to be followed by thousands or written about in People magazine, but I am so grateful for them everyday.  

Today, I decided to turn off the TV and wade through the ocean of Legos in McKay's room, refill bathroom cabinets with toilet paper, have lunch with some friends, and write notes to a few people who I really love.  It's not glamorous, but it's so worth it.  And it's so much better than spending the day eating spaghetti off the floor.