#Unplugged

In case you missed the announcement: This week, I took a break. I took a break from social media, from my smart phone, and everything internet related. Some by choice, some not so much. It not been what I expected though. I expected to be fretting. To be wondering what I was missing and what things would be like when I got back. I blame social media's reach into my daily life and the speed at which things change here on the internet. I had gotten into the habit of checking things way too much. I would make the boys lunch, check the computer. Go to the bathroom, check the computer. Its sad and weird but I think there are more people out there that way than any of us want to admit. Afraid to miss something, anxious to respond quickly or be judged as rude. Skip a day, you are behind, so what happens if you skip a week?

Nothing.

I missed nothing. I logged back in tonight to check up and see what dramatic changes had happened in the life of every one I know and I was kind of sad at the lack of excitement. Either things this week have been terribly boring or things have just gotten too blasé in general with the change of the weather. Of course, there are the regular "OMG my kids are driving me nuts" posts and the "My neighbors so crazy" mixed with the "repost this to every thing you have access to or a dog will die" type stuff but nothing new or exciting. The world hasn't changed its orbit and nothing important exploded here in town.

I, however, have had an amazing week. The boys and I have spent our entire days enjoying the weather, stuffing our faces, and taking some epic naps. Repeat times a million.

We have kicked this year's "schooling" into high gear with all kinds of fun activities and workbooks. Oh, how D loves his little workbooks. K loves his too but he is still at more of a flashcard stage than workbooks stage. So while D would work at his workbooks at the table, we spread out K's myriad of flashcards and sorting bins and got to work. My little sponges. D is going to an outside the house preschool for a few hours, three days a week too though and was burnt out by Thursday. So we spent that day skipping rocks and chasing each other around the playground for a few hours.

Oh, the playground hours. They have been plentiful and grand. There is a playground, a tennis court, and a sandy volleyball court here in the neighborhood and they have all been thoroughly tested and trampled by a certain two little boys this week. When it takes 30 seconds to walk to anything you could possibly want to do, life is good. Say what you want about it but oh how I missed apartment life.

We also spent this week as the first week of our 30 day no spend challenge as part of the 2011 list. This is hard. I had not realized just how often we spend money on weird little piddly stuff. I am determined to make this work though. Have to save up for Black Friday.

I should probably say that my house is spotless and my hair is perfectly coiffed considering I have had all this spare time on my hands but I have to be honest with you.. My house is a wreck and I haven't washed my hair in four (or is it five.. crap.) days. Does it bother me? Nope. Does it bother Tommy? Maybe a little. Does that bother me? Nope.

Now that I have had my week of slacking though, will it be hard for me to get back into the swing of things? Maybe. You know what though? I am totally okay with that. I know for one thing, I have been broken of the thinking that I have to check them on any kind of semi regular basis. I'm not a huge sharer anyway and to be honest, if you update your Facebook with meaningless, mundane pieces of information every hour or if the only things you ever post are self promo items, I already have you blocked from my feed. I really don't need an update every time your kid farts or wakes up. Come to think of it, I am totally okay with it if I never have to go back to Facebook or Twitter again.

Of course, I will go back. My friends live there but even that can be bypassed. Thing is, being away has sort of shown me who those real friends are. They are the ones that noticed my absence and checked on me when I logged off and just didn't come back. The ones that actually care about me and my boys. What really surprised me was that the people I thought would miss me, weren't the ones that actually did. Its ever so tempting to just go ahead and do a huge defriend of the people who seriously just don't care while its on my mind. The people who are only there to stalk and judge me. I don't have time for that petty weirdness. I won't though, I know that from experience.

Unplugging for the week has been fabulous. Kind of like spring break from the internet. Wild and loose, with no rules or schedules or appointments with inanimate objects. Only no alcohol or obnoxious undersexed teenagers. So not complaining about that either though. Except the no alcohol part.. I could really use a nice, big glass of wine. Any way, back to life. Back to living a real life outside of the virtual world. See you around?