Reset Button

Our culture has gotten far too lazy. With the world at our fingertips within our electronics, we tend to sit on our butts WAY too much while still FEELING like we are doing something!  I've shared my struggle with Facebook, and I've still been processing thoughts about it. About why it's such a struggle...

1. Motherhood.  I kind of feel like a lot of my role is to hover nearby the kids all day long. To be there and ready when a boo-boo needs kissed, fights need broken up, discipline needs to take place, feelings get hurt, little guy needs taken to the potty, or a drink needs filled.  These things don't happen quite EVERY minute of the day (although sometimes it sure feels like it!) and the in-between minutes aren't enough to get into any project too INVOLVED.  Heck, as soon as I go upstairs to fold laundry, someone is screaming downstairs.  That's just life right now.  I do chores when I can but not ALL day, so those in-between minutes while I hover nearby my kids are often spent on FB. Because it's easy, it's not involved, it's community.  Now don't get me wrong, I play WITH my kids and read WITH my kids and and do some chores WITH the kids and we do spend a lot of time OUT of the house. But when we're home and they want to spend the day playing, this is why I'm often on Facebook, why it's hard to not go there.

And now. It's become habit. It's become the norm.

For many of us.

2. And anything outside the normal is then a struggle.  So I want to reset. To establish a new norm. One that doesn't involve the constant itch to check in on my friends every single day. I have selected a small group of people I truly want to keep up with on an everyday basis, deleted almost 100 friends that were only ever an acquaintance, and left many of the friends I still want to check in on only from time to time.  Yet I still find myself going to facebook.com many many many times a day. Because I'm restless and bored.

So.

I want to rediscover small pastimes that I enjoy. Like Sudoku.  I refound a Sudoku magazine I'd gotten awhile back for Eli, stuck it in the little drawer of our new coffee table and I've thoroughly been enjoying working those puzzles when I have a few minutes! It's easier to NOT do something (Facebook) when you have something else to replace the time with (activities with the kids, or little hobbies).

And for 2013 I want to work on a project list.  I have sooo many projects that could probably be done in only 1 day.  And I'd like to tackle at least one a month! To feel the satisfaction of checking something off as DONE.  To let my kids see the things I enjoy, like sewing, and to learn the basics of these skills.

So here is my list of the quick projects:

1. Finish sewing the last two panels of curtains for the office.

2. If that leftover fabric is enough, make pillow covers for the living room.

3. Finish the Quiet Time Book I'm making for the kids. 

4. Hem my bedroom curtains.
5. Make a set of cloth napkins.

6. Touch up paint in the dining room.

7. Find Eli's baby pictures so I can start his baby book.
8. Organize new recipes.  
9. Finish Eli's spelling book.
10. Finish Hannah's (soon to be Carter's) homework book. 
11. Finish Hannah's drawer project for her room.

Long-term projects:

12. Europe scrapbook

13. Annual family photo albums.
14. Finish conversation calendar.

This year simply must be different. Changes must be made or my kids will grow up doing the same thing. And I hope for more than that.