Roku handy tip...

When we were first married, we were both still going to college. Money was tight and the very little discretionary income we had, we chose not spend on a cable service.

Once Steve took his first job with Kohls, we felt like grown-ups and ordered up a cable package. After two years of mindless television, we decided it was time to cut ties. So we went cableless again. Steve got a promotion at work a couple years in, which "required" cable once again. He was in licensed team apparel and it was crucial for his job to understand what was going on in the sports world, or so he claimed. So once again we had cable in the home. I wasn't a fan then, and I'm not a fan now. After moving, we lived in temporary housing for a year without television and we both agreed it was great. After moving into our home, we made the decision to stay unplugged and after a year - It's still great.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that we don't enjoy television shows, because we do. But it became the constant go to and every night Steve sat flipping through pointless television. If I could pay for just 5 channels I would consider- but even then, it's really not worth the money when everything these days is online.

In comes Roku.

A small black box that hooks up to your TV that a requires a one time purchase (I think ours was $60 from amazon.com) that utilizes your wireless internet connection to stream shows and movies. We pay for a Hulu plus membership ($8/month which lets us watch our favorite shows, when we want) and a Netflix membership ($8/month which gives us access to movies) as well as an Amazon prime membership (they have a library of movies for prime members for free and then rentals for reasonable if we choose), plus we downloaded the BYU channel for free!

It's just right for our family. Just enough entertainment to keep us busy, without mindless clicking. Families that utilize more self control I'm sure have the same benefit from DVR - just the shows you want, when you want.

Anyway - I think we had the Roku for almost a week when the cute little remote that comes with it went missing. I know Bennett grew very fond of it and I found him several times toting it around the house. It came as no surprise when it went missing. So the Roku sat for almost two weeks without use because we couldn't find the remote. As we were sitting on the couch one night Steve asked (as he did every night) if I had come across the remote during the day. Sadly, I had not. But joking around I said, "there's got to be an app for that!" But after my joke I realized, it wasn't too far fetched. So I quickly hopped on the iphone and sure enough, there was a Roku remote. Sold. Steve downloaded it and it works just as it should.

It's a good thing too, because after two months, the remote is still missing. Now I'm convinced that everything should be controlled by my phone; tv, dvd player, lights, garage door, snowie (sno-cone) machine. (Of course with a button for extra syrup!)