Facebook Dropout - two weeks later

About two weeks ago, I decided to close my facebook account (or 'deactivate' it - as Facebook told me "You Can re-Activate It at ANY Time!!")

Since then, I've had a handful of friends and acquaintances tell me that they have thought about dropping out themselves, but not sure if they are ready. I'm here to tell you that  - indeed - dropping out of social networking was really good for me at this point in my life. The first few days were tough, as I felt sort of "lost" when I went to check the account and found it no longer there. But after a few days of reinventing my routines, I found the time that I had been looking for. As predicted, the time I spent on facebook and the subsequent computer activities FB led me into was being sucked out of my day. Deactivating FB brought that time and energy back to me.

I also find I live in ignorant bliss. I have no idea that all of you are doing out there. I dont' know what you are doing, the milestones your children are achieving, the fun social events you are attending. And it makes me feel less stressed. I'm not alone in this thought. I read this article today on MSN stating the correlation between stress and Facebook (click link on 'this article')

Well, I'm off to do some gardening or sewing or cleaning with all this extra time I have this morning!

Attn: Pacific Northwesteners - Seeds 50% off

today I was in my local Fred Meyer store - which is kind of like a one-stop grocery/Target type store here in the PacNW. Anyway - all their Ed Hume and Lilly Miller seeds were 50% off! This week only. This also includes the organic varieties. Since it is so early - the selection was deep! I even saw my beloved Casper white pumpkins which took me FOREVER to find last year!!

Life as a mom

 (A fun day eating cake with my mom and younger children. Thank God we made it through the forest!)

It's been a long winter. I wanted to talk about this for a minute so I can look back one day and have perspective. 

To say that "it is a challenge" to try to figure out the balance of parenting all four of my kids is an understatement. One preteen. One "middle child". One jealous two year old big brother. And one baby. At times, okay most days, I thought I was drowning in a deep lake. I desperately wanted to conquer and excel at mothering my children, but I mostly could only get up out of bed and manage to fix everyone food and get most kids dressed for the day. Many days included screaming and crying fits from at least two of my children. I wondered what I was doing wrong. Many commitments that I used to do I began to bail out on. Once a board member at the kids' PTA, I barely saw the inside of their school. My house remained cluttered and messy. Dinners were made, but never planned out or executed well. I was mad at my husband all the time for getting the privilege of going to work.

However, the heavy weight of the holidays lifted. Buds formed in my garden promising another year of working in the soil. I potty trained the two year old. I lost some baby weight. I prayed intensively with my small group to ask for the Lord's protection on me and my family. Sunny days began to outnumber cloudy days. I made a close friend with whom I can confide in. I began regular dates with my husband again. I upped my meds to a larger dose.

And all of a sudden, life became fresh again. I have the energy to run every day. I have the peace of mind to deal patiently and assertively with my children. I ENJOY them again. 

Keep in mind that the house still remains messy, but it doesn't weigh me down like it used to. I released the embarrassment of imperfection (at least for now). And I planned out my garden and look forward to it every day. I ENJOY my husband's company. I am happy for what I have. 

Thank God!!! 

My garden in February

As I type this (Wed), there are snow flurries outside my window. Hurray that we still have a little bit of winter. Crazy, you say? I just don't have quite the energy for full blown spring planting yet. It's nice to have a little dose of winter before I gear up for my growing season.

With that said, let me show you my garden this past month. Oh, how I've missed it! I eagerly look forward to planting everything out and seeing what sort of harvest I can yield.

One of the lone survivors of the winter - a little leek in the corner of the garden box that housed eggplant last year.

The other survivors of the winter - a hearty robust crop of Italian parsley, cilantro (planted in late summer from seed) and thyme. I'm not wanting for fresh herbs!

Blueberry plants are budding out - they have doubled in size from last year - I can't wait to see how many berries we get this year!

I developed this technique last year and it seemed to serve me well. It is recommended to apply an acid fertilizer to blueberry plants in February. So all of January I save our used coffee grounds. Then when I get a few fulls bowls of the stuff, I put a two inch layer of coffee grounds on the top layer of the blueberry. Then I add another 3-4 inches of peat moss. Work it in a bit and there you have it - organic, homemade acid fertilizer.

This curious creature growing out of my side planting bed is none other than a Bleeding Heart plant (dicentra)

I tell my hubs, "don't you dare spend the money on overpriced flowers for Valentine's Day!" (he gives a big thumbs up to this). Instead, he comes home from Costco with this huge flat of primroses. Ah, a man who knows my heart!!

This is the view of my front yard planting bed. It needs a little TLC after I gave so much attention to the backyard last summer.

But that doesn't stop my beautiful red tulips from coming up year after year.

Last but not least - my most favorite plant of spring (and my most favorite evergreen and most favorite shade plant) - the wonderful HELLEBORE or Lenten  Rose. This puppy stays evergreen all year and in late January produces flower buds that open up in February and stay open for most of March. I like to couple them with primroses and tulip bulbs for a fantastic welcome to the spring gardening season!

It is going to be the best year in my garden! CHEERS!!

I'm a social network dropout

For a few months now I've been struggling with Facebook. Yes, it moved into the forefront with the movie The Social Network, but it is something I've always felt. I've never been really comfortable with the whole FB phenomenom. I decided I'm not a huge social network kind of person. So this week, I closed my Facebook account. Want to know something crazy? I've managed to keep my kitchen clean and dinner fixed since I've done it. Holy cow - how much time suck was FB to me this past year??

The main number one reason I dropped out is because I clearly became addicted. I caught myself checking FB 5-6 times a day. Then since I was already on the computer, I would go and check other things. Each time I estimate I was on the computer 15-20 minutes. Times that by 5 trips to the computer and that is one hour each day (conservatively speaking) wasted. Not to mention if I got a random email or update from someone - then the FB time would increase to 30-40 minutes because I would check that person's profile, check their pictures, check their friends' pictures, and so on and so on. Blech!! I'm done with the cycle.

Reason number two and three for dropping out - I don't want to be a part of the whole Mark Zuckerberg empire. And I became addicted to getting messages. When I didn't have a message in my inbox I felt bad. Stupid!! There is no reason why I should feel that way so I decided to eliminate the problem.

You'll probably see me blogging more often now.

I've been on the computer 15 minutes now - time to loggy off.


**POST-EDIT** I snuck on the computer to check some ebay auctions I had going and decided to check my blog list. Wouldn't you know it - today on the great fitness experiment, Charlotte blogged about this very thing. Ha!! Check it out - much better written than my lowly post.