summer entertainment

We finally finished Farmer Boy. I probably should have skipped it, although when I suggested moving on, Teresa emphatically said, "NO!" She sat by my side with interest every time I pulled it out to read another chapter while Catherine played with Anthony and/or Stephen on the floor. It was such a long book, and there was not a single word about Laura or her family in it. When I finished the last (two) chapters, Catherine was standing next to me with On The Banks of Plum Creek in hand, begging me to start reading it today. So, of course, I did. Three chapters of read-aloud time from good books should make up for the extra TV time they got today as we were rearranging the living room.

Adam's co-worker had a "broken" 36" television to give away and, of course, Adam was able to fix it. It's a monstrosity that I was not exactly happy about bringing into our house. Our 27" TV worked just fine and it fit in a beautiful TV cabinet that my MIL picked up from some relatives for us. I could close the doors and it was gone. We came up with a solution that lets Adam keep the BIG TV for watching movies and utilizes the TV cabinet for keeping all the electronics and media hidden from view. It's not the best set up but it works:

It is not the focal point as you walk into the room:


But it is there, lurking in the corner like a scary monster:


Here's the set up. Our old TV was in the cabinet, the electronics were behind the bottom doors and the remotes were on top of the cabinet with a center channel speaker. Our media was in the small drawer and on miscellaneous bookshelves around the house. Now, remotes and CDs go in the drawer and the DVDs and VHS tapes are behind the bottom doors, freeing up some bookshelf space for more books, of course.