Unplugging

In the last year since I've started blogging, I've developed quite a list of blogs that I try to check every few days or so. It takes up quite a bit of time to check them all. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't have the time and I don't make a point of making the time to read through them. See - years ago, I was an AOL-chataholic. It was a serious addiction that took a lot of help from God to kick because my "self" didn't want to let it go. While I made a lot of wonderful friends in that time (a few I still have today), it was also a time when I did some out-there things; some I'm ok with, some not so thrilled to have done. So when it comes to my blog and to other computer-addictive things like Facebook (I refuse to even set up a MySpace page), I try to spend very little time with them. Even my blogs have received less attention than they should at times, especially my human trafficking blog (that's one thing I really hope to focus more attention on - balancing it with my desire to spend less time computer-networking, though, is the challenge).

So - I found it a bit ironic when during lunch last Friday, I hopped onto Kimba's blog, A Soft Place To Land and discovered how many bloggers were taking Friday off. Yup - there I was with time to catch up and no one was writing... how's that for irony? I also took it as a message and avoided the blogs and my normal "play" on the computer for the day. Except for email...I did have to deal with a bit there but I do the Monday through Friday work thing so I'm not given too much choice in that regard.

It got me to thinking, though and what popped into my head was my decision about two years ago to start keeping Sundays as "empty" as possible. With a husband who has off one weekday and Sundays, we had gotten to the point where we were cramming as much as possible into Sundays because it was the only day of the week we were together as a family. All errands, chores, fix-its, visiting friends and family were scheduled for Sundays and that was in addition to church. Well - there was only so much of that our bodies could handle so guess what started to fall by the wayside... Yup. Church. When the lightbulb clicked one Sunday that by not going again we had skipped a whole month of church well... that did it. Sundays suddenly got a LOT quieter.

For a while.

I've noticed, lately, that busyness is creeping in again. Neither my husband nor I are willing to sacrifice our time at church for anything so we really have to watch what we're doing. One thing I have been known to do is sit down in front of the computer while I'm waiting for him to get ready to head out the door for church. Just a minute or so... while he changes his shirt, combs his hair... (Yes - this sounds backwards, doesn't it?) and then all of a sudden we're running out the door and we're late why? Because I sat down at the computer "just for a minute"...

So I'm going to unplug on Sunday. No email, no blogging, no "researching." Sunday will be computer-off-limits day. I'll see how that goes for a while and then... who knows... maybe I'll add a weeknight or two. Be a rebel. Tell technology it really doesn't have much place in my life. That's going to be extra-entertaining now that we finally purchased a laptop for me and my computer habit has gone portable.

Hopefully the withdrawal symptoms are easier to deal with than with caffeine...