Sidewalk Chalk and a Challenge for the Week

As I was lying in bed earlier this week giggling at a rerun of Friends on TV, I saw a commercial for sidewalk chalk. Crayola, to be exact (I'll expect a marketing payment by next Wednesday, ah-hem!). It focused on a little boy who invites his neighborhood girlfriend out to the driveway to draw with his multicolored sidewalk chalk bucket. I guess Crayola has revamped their colors in preparation for the summer. Watching the children smile and draw and laugh and create while their moms look on lovingly at first made me roll my eyes (ugh, kids). But when I thought about my childhood sidewalk chalk memories, it hit me--I, too, smiled and drew and laughed and created while my mom/camp counselors looked on lovingly. Sidewalk chalk hasn't changed.

In this fast-paced, technology-filled world known as 2013, even a youngster like me at twenty-five has seen how much has changed. I didn't grow up listening to an iPod, using 3D glasses to watch movies at home, or writing notes on a tablet in middle school. But today, kids all over the country are doing just that.

Nevertheless when it comes to sidewalk chalk, my memories reflect this week's commercial. Surely by now, sidewalk chalk would come with 3D capabilities or a talking holder with a computer that tells you just how to outline a portrait of Beyoncé. But, no, sidewalk chalk still comes in a bucket. There are still a limited number of colors. It still gets all over your fingers. And kids still have a blast creating pictures in the great outdoors.

Thank God!

How badly am I making you want to grab a bucket and hit the concrete right now?

Well, that's my challenge for this week. In an attempt to find un-plugged ways to spend my time, much like I did as a child, and much like those kids on TV, I am going to turn off my TV for a WHOLE WEEK. No six o'clock news, no Food Network, and no Friends. 

I am going to spend my TV time looking for new (old) ways of entertaining myself. Whether it's as simple as reading a book or as lavish as decorating my front steps with sidewalk chalk creations, I'll spend seven days without my TV plugged in.

If you want to join me, comment on here and tell me what you're doing each day with the TV off (let's keep it PG people...). I'll meet ya back here next week to see what we all did!

Ready....GO!