digital detox week

got an email from a friend about digital detox week and i must say it was tempting. if there is anyone addicted to the internet, it is me.

so i sat down to write (on paper) the blog explaining why i NEEDED to step away from the screen and live my OTHER life...and the AMOUNT of other life i do whilst being completely addicted to the internet is pretty stunning.

the way i have been able to improve my life and the life of four other people i love so much (and others i love a little less but quite importantly) whilst still STIMULATING my mind and soul on this machine is really beautiful...

it is also a year since we got to ohio, give or take a few weeks, so i can use this as THAT blog too....

and i will of course! be reprinting LAST years earth day blog, to see how well i have done (you won't believe it haha) but this can be an extention of THE EARTH DAY blog too!

so enjoy...

The internet is my last vice- besides sugar and insanity. I have spent most of my waking hours this past year online. I am not ashamed, or i would not confess that.

In that year i have also mothered my children quite well, organized my house quite well, sent out birthday cards to lots of people, started a garden, renovated most of the house- kind of, and a whole host of other activities such as:

quit smoking cigarettes

became vegetarian

quit caffeine

recycled

composted

started a gym membership

entertained grandparents and other family in my home

threw birthday parties for my children and get-togethers for my family

pulled off every holiday - esp. xmas- without a hitch (most of xmas i bought from the computer)

set up house in a new state

planted tulips that grew

paid off our car

paid the bills for the first time as a grown up- and pretty darn well too

was the most devoted wife i coulda been *wink*

I also washed every stitch of clothing that got washed in this house

cooked most of the meals (and healthy ones!)

packed bastian's (vegetarian and i would say 90% organic) lunch everyday

cleaned at least 2/3 of the dishes (by hand) that got cleaned

all of the bathroom cleaning

all of the bedroom cleaning (jonathan did the floors once- kinda)

all scrubbing of floors and washing of windows

most of the vaccuming

all the dusting

the spring cleaning - twice

the fall cleaning

all changing and washing of bedclothes

raked (a lot!)

shoveled snow

scraped car windows

changed lightbulbs

cleaned up a tree branch from my yard after a hurricane

chopped bushes

pulled weeds

set up a garden and dreamed four more

given money to charity almost weekly or more

given all our castoffs to a charity that takes them to appalachia and to the reservation (i WANNA go on the truck sometime soooooooooo bad)

have been more eco and socially concious than ever before

i boycotted china for a month (you try it! see how EASY it is...not)

i learned more about the world around me from this machine than i did in a hundred...nay a thousand...or a million lifetimes of going to school ever taught me

i elected the president of the united states

i realized how little and much that mattered

i loved my children

hugged them

kissed them

put them to bed (three hundred + times EACH)

cleaned up their vomit

read green eggs and ham and the little engine that could -over a hundred times EACH....NO exaggeration

read aloud books 1-6 of harry potter & five little house books

made chore charts and rule charts and a naughty corner and TRIED to enforce them

created a BEAUTIFUL lovely TOY CORNER and kept it maintained

was santa

was the tooth fairy

was the easter bunny (twice)

was midsummer fairies

nursed booboos

changed so many diapers that if you paid me a dime a piece you would resent having offered to pay

I walked in the woods

wished in a well

reaquainted myself wiht the sky over Ohio & the constellations of my girlhood

i shooed away raccoons

fed squirrels all winter

picked lilacs on my birthday

watched the seasons pass in Ohio again and felt them again in my bones and reignited my marrow after all those long dry years in the western wilderness

i read some books

i wrote some poems

i organized my pictures

made some goals...wrote them in a book

wrote down recipes

copied all sorts of holidays and festivals into a calendar

wrote in baby books

got the digital camera pictures archived onto cd rom

did several collage projects

wrote in the book i am writing for bella

I learned to sew by hand

and on a machine

learned to embroider

to cast yarn onto knitting needles

started buying fabric and saving buttons

learned to cook beans

made cookies from scratch

I stocked my cupboards with cleaning supplies (a lifelong dream)
and toilet paper

i have a hell of a food pantry made AND a deep freezer just awaiting abundance

i have everything store-able stored in pretty boxes in one room

made an INGENIOUS laundry routine/place that has saved COUNTLESS man hours fussing with clothing (inquire within)

did the most magical, cool thing i have ever done in housewifery and made the Christmas CLoset ;)

I watched sebastian thrive

was swollen with pride when he made student of the week, then the month, then the honor roll, when he read more in 18 weeks than most kids read in the year prior

watched as he ran for student council- and won!

saw him get up the nerve, which had previously not happened yet, to join the boyscouts and really enjoy it

as he rocks out with guitar hero

and is the most beautiful big brother i have ever seen (besides fred...it's always a tie!)

as he slaughters me with jokes and puns and witty (and astute) observations about the world around us

as he became vegetarian and is losing weight and gaining tallness (he is nearly as tall as i am already)

as he misses his dad and moves through that with grace adn maturity well beyond even my own

as he buried a classmate and made a best friend.


I have seen the fred turn from a toddler tornado to a little boy and how interested he is in the the world and how EAGER to EXPERIENCE everything

He is my most sensitive child, and i mean that in every way and so it is interesting to mother him with that in mind.

I have watched bellaluna grow from a baby to a crawler and a crawler to standing on her own two feet and toddling and running....

playing with her brothers, watching the world go by herself, and being just a bundle of pink and golden beauty with a hilarious and serious "mean face"...

jonathan and i are closer than ever, i am even somewhat COMFORTABLE (gasp) in our marriage. i HOPE he is and i sometimes make it far enough out of my own brain to check in with him and see if he is too....;)

life is BEAUTIFUL here at casa de moonstone....computer and all...

if it was a problem, i would tell you. you would be the first to know.
but it isn't and it is a good thing....

the end for now...