our life without cable

we have been talking about getting rid of cable for years.  there are a few reasons - to save money, there is a lot on that we don't want our kids watching, we have never been very happy with our service (we have had the equipment changed out several times and it is constantly rebooting), we spend enough time in front of screens (phones, ipad, computers, etc.) and there are lots of other things we could be doing together instead.  there are also so many options now that you really don't have to give up much, you just save money.

on black friday matt bought a high definition antenna.  once he had everything set up, we disconnected the cable in our bedroom first (i know that is a whole other discussion about it being in the bedroom - we have had it with and without in various homes over the years).  not a huge deal since we mainly watch the nightly news and movies in there.  and then this past weekend we officially cancelled our cable.

i wouldn't say that i was 'worried' about how the kids would adjust to not having their favorite shows 'on demand' any more because they don't watch tv every day, but i was expecting a period of withdraw from going cold turkey.  nope.  not even close!  they have not asked for a single show.  we have let them watch tv a few times and they have been perfectly happy with the shows we do get.  not that they are hurting for options.  one of the perks of the antenna is that we now get a 24-hour a day christian children's programming channel!  now, most of it is from the 1980s (like i watched it as a child) but the kids love it!  matt and i are baffled by their level of enjoyment.  not that we are complaining, we would much rather this be the kind of entertainment filling their eyes and minds.  they also have qubo and pbs.

matt got me a gift card for 3-months of hulu and an apple tv receiver (even though we don't exchange gifts...).  we already have a 1-dvd at a time netflix membership, so i just switched that to a streaming membership and we are all set.  it has been really great!  anything we can't get on hulu, we just find on their website and push to the tv from the ipad (with the apple tv receiver).  it just makes us wish we had made the change sooner!  love.