She's Baaaaack!

Yay! Thank you so much for coming back. I’ve missed you! REALLY missed you.

Lest you think my week off from electronics yielded total communion with God, long, heartfelt discussions with my spouse, and family time around a roaring fire tossing a pig bladder back and forth a la Little House in the Big Woods, I thought I would update you on our week.

The kids did okay with the fast, but I’m not sure what they got out of it. I was NOT going for the whole "just follow some rules and you’ll be a better Christian thing;" I just wanted us to try something that would be hard for us, and to do it by relying on God.

Tom used the extra time to get more sleep and to catch up on Bible study. The kids and I did some complaining and a ton of reading. Jake read the first 4 books in the Lightning Thief series in the first ½ of the week. Molly said several times, "I HATE LENT!" Not really what we were going for. She pointed out she should get to choose if and what to give up instead of having something chosen by Mom and Dad. Duh. She was totally right.

Now she is planted on the couch for the day with a teeny tiny fever, because apparently missing 2 weeks of school for snow did not cut into her learning time enough. I know I could have doped her up and sent her anyway since she feels fine. I guess she’ll be able to recoup any lost TV time in the next few hours. And it’s supposed to snow again tonight. Excellent.

Some thoughts:

*Fasting from TV during the Winter Olympics kind of stinks. Reading about Shawn White’s gnarly moves in the newspaper is not the same as watching it. And that heart-racing feeling of "don't fall, don't fall!" during figure skating? Doesn't translate to the page.

*I am far too dependent on electronics. I had been checking Facebook 5-10 times a day in order to not miss any breaking news. It was the last thing I did before bed. Not sure about your experience, but I’ve yet to encounter breaking news on Facebook. Totally addicted.

*My dependence on electronics greatly cuts down on the time I spend reading, studying, praying, and paying attention to my kids. It's far too easy to avoid putting limits on myself and instead making what I'm doing on the computer look like "work," while at the same time acting like my kids are wasting their time on the Wii. I mean, hello, blogging is MY Wii, baby. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

* I have made very few attempts to connect with people in person over the past few months because I have the sense of being connected online. I love the blogging community. My online friends have enriched my life greatly, and I hope I enrich theirs, but I still need to cultivate face to face relationships. You see, because of my personality, it is far too easy for me avoid making the effort to connect and spend time with people.

* I love blogging and am quite fond of my DVR. They are not the problem. I just need to keep my priorities in order. I think God used this fast to show me how to slow down and not fill every waking moment with...something!

Last but not least:

*On the bow chicka wow wow front: The fast unfortunately coincided with cramps and bloating. Bummer. And the whole reclaiming the lost art of kissing thing? Not so much.