Monday, March 3, 2008

Technology-Free Day Update

First off, my big thanks to Melinda for starting the "Technology Free Day" challenge! If you haven't signed up for it yet, I highly recommend you try it! I had a FANTABULOUS Tech-Free Day yesterday.

I was a little twitchy in the morning, being thrown out of my regular routine of morning coffee with internet surfing, but once I got over the initial anxiety and let go, I had a really enjoyable day! I relaxed and spent time with the kids instead. While I didn't accomplish much, here are some things we did:

Ethan and I watered a plant and talked about how it grew, how it converts sunlight into energy and how it needs to drink water. He decided he would like to be in charge of watering plants and I told him that was a great idea. Then we found a lady bug and followed it around for about 20 minutes, yes, 20 minutes. Ethan showed her the plant, the floor, the window and several dust bunnies. She seemed truly captivated. Later in the day we went to the park where they were having a "make your own kite and fly it day" so we... well, you can probably guess.

Daphne and I played a rousing game of "I love you more" and "cooked" in her play kitchen for half an hour straight. I gave her a bath in the middle of the day just because we could. She wasn't feeling well (still.... we went to the doc today and it turns out she has an ear infection) so I alternated between coddling her and hiding from her raging tantrums. Don't judge me.

I did let the kids watch their afternoon "rest time" move, while I read Omnivore's Dilemma. I made it all the way through the first section and it turns out I was right. We do eat a lot of corn. In fact, way more than I thought. But more on that later. Anyhow, they (the kids, not the corn) also got to watch their evening Tom and Jerry just before bed. Once they were asleep, I cheated and put in a Netflix DVD Rental -- a documentary about global warming.

But, since TV isn't really a big draw for me anymore, I don't feel it diminished my accomplishment. The internet is the "time hog" in my life and it was very nice to spend a day away from it. The only way I can describe it is that it felt like being on vacation. Odd, since I always thought I surfed for relaxation, but I felt more relaxed yesterday than I have in a long time. Hmmmmm.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had the same experience in the morning - it was difficult to get through that morning breakfast routine of spending an hour or two reading on the internet. But it *definitely* got easier after I gave into the notion that it just wasn't going to happen.

And I also felt like it was a vacation! I got a *whole* lot done, and I spent a lot of time with my husband, too.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Anonymous said...

I totally blew it this weekend! I meant to do it on Saturday, but the pull of the computer was too strong. Then, I tried it Sunday but had to turn it on to print out the recipe I'd planned for dinner and got sucked in again. And today I had a million things to do on the computer anyway. So this weekend is shot. I'll have to try again next weekend.

I did spend a lot of technology-free time cleaning up cat poop. That's just GOT to count for something.

Burbanmom said...

Beth, LOL! Yeah, I believe cleaning up cat poop counts for "technology-free, vomit-inducing day". Which is very close. Points awarded.

PS.. "Jesus on a Poptart"... yeah, that either came from the likes of my sister or BlueGirl/RedState. They both have really fun curse words that are almost children-friendly!