Unplugged: Part One

In the midst of the droning hum of computers, appliances, and continuous music, my husband and I decided to do something different to welcome in the New Year.

But, let me back up for a moment.

A few months back I resolved to quit Facebook. And I'm happy to say that I'm still on that path. (Though I do answer messages and direct comments on my FB Wall-- which doesn't happen too often, thank goodness.)

Anyway.

I thought that quitting Facebook would be the cure for my Internet addiction, and while it helped, I still hadn't stopped wasting too much time online. (In fact, I began to substitute Pinterest for Facebook. Whoops.)

So.

I prayed for help in kicking my addiction, and one day, in a rare quiet moment, the Spirit gave me the idea to have a media fast-- a week of disconnecting from the Internet, e-mail, movies, (we haven't watched television in years) and even eliminating listening to music from any machine. No i-Pods, i-Tunes on the computer, CD players, radios, nothing. (I did still allow my children to MAKE music on the various instruments in our house.)

I discussed the idea with my husband, and we both had a freeing happiness come over us. Ah, yes! This experiment was just the thing!

Now, we did have to create some exceptions for my husband. He is a web programmer, after all. But he decided to leave his work laptop at the office, and committed to joining us in the fast whenever he was home.

As we headed off to bed Sunday evening on January first, my husband shut down and even unplugged all three computers, our printer, the speakers, the wireless network and cable modem.

The silence was deafening.

The Switch

Monday dawned nice and early for us, Russell heading in to work before the sun rose.

I started thinking through a plan that Russell and I had discussed involving the switching of rooms with our seven girls so they would have more mirrors, more closet space, and more room for their baby sister. We felt that the media fast would be a great time to get this major moving project-- complete with "New Year Deep Cleaning"-- done. One major change that would HAVE to happen before switching was that the smaller room needed painting. For some strange reason, Russell just didn't like the idea of sleeping in a room with light lavender walls. (Go figure.) We decided to go to the home improvement store later that night to get some paint and supplies.

The kids and I had a hard time getting moving, but we eventually got the girls room packed up and  lots of my cluttered sewing supplies into boxes and put in the outbuilding in our backyard. (Hooray for strong teenage sons!)

When Russell got home he took the girls' bunk beds apart (and enormous job!), moved them into our front room, and the girls staked out spots on the couches to sleep on.

Day one ended with satisfaction, minimal whining, and that good, tired feeling that comes from working hard.

One day down, the new year was shaping up to look pretty good!