It dawned on me....

The other day I was weeding, cleaning, playing games, and reading with David... getting laundry done and my house has been somewhat clean which always makes me in a much better mood. If the house is dirty I get grumpy. As I was  pulling weeds I was thinking about all that I had accomplished.. Jesse and I have had lots of free time in the evenings as well which we are using for games, BBQing, talking etc... After being excited about all this free time I was wondering why I had this free time... Oh DUH REALLY??? It was FB i had been filling that much time on the computer checking up on what OTHER people are doing... I guess so....

There are things in life that keep us from doing or being with important people or things that we miss it and we can never get that time back. And we would only live with the biggest of regrets... Jesse repeatedly told me I needed a break from FB and I constantly argued that I was not on there as much as anyone thought I was.. It was only when I agreed and felt the need to give it up for while did I realize and finally see the BAD effects of it....

Now I know you can look and say Really Julie it's just FB... well yes you  may be right it's only FB....  but what else do we say 'well it's only.... a few cigarettes a day, a few drinks, it's only money, I only go party sometimes.. play video games a little bit.... For me it was a small step to get off FB to realize what I was spending my time one... Something I really don't NEED in my life...

What is taking your life away.... my real life right here in front of me was disapearing and I refursed to see it.  There are things in your life that are keeping you from seeing reality the here and now and its not until you accept it and see it and be willing to give it up for a while that you can really see the effects on your family or other people that are important to you... It's not just FB....

Something to think about... I know I am....

calendaring

so one thing that i do find annoying about leaving facebook is how dependant everyone is on scheduling their activites vita facebook...events...birthdays...playdates.. invitatations...i think its a great tool especially when inviting a large group of people but now being off i feel lost on how to contact people to invite them to things i dont even have all the emails  i need....

i guess there needs to be some kind of system change on my w side...jesse would be egsatic that i used the word system! well thats my pet peeve of the day

Been a while

Sorry to all of you who were just waiting for me to write.... Not having a REAl computer has been difficult. My lack of facebook has still been going good. I do have a confession to make. I did hve to get on there today and post some information for some of the groups I am in... but i did  browse who was on or what anyone said. But I was def. tempted too haha.

 I am not really sure I miss facebook that much, however I am now starting to feel a little bit out of the loop on what is happening around me.. missing out on things... like events, parties etc... just because I am only invited by means of Facebook rather then an email or paper invite. haha. The OLD fashion way. But on the other side of that I do have some really good friends who don't think I am being completely silly  and have been keeping in touch with me via emails making sure I am not left out of the "social" circle. So thank you for that hehe!!

Something that I have recently started not to do is replace my "first thoughts" that would normall go on facebook to a what I was calling a "texting buddy"... Facebook had me programed to be ale to think a thought and share it in the here and now. Well when I was off facebook I was texting friends what I may say on FB which i think is even more silly then facebook.  One of the things I've learned about NOT being on FB is that there is aw hole lot more personally conversation happening... I can get together with a group and actually say "NOPE I didn't know that... tell me more" or I am sorry that happened and actually really talk about it with others... even crying or laughing showing real emotion something that FB hides.

I think by not sharing those "first thoughts" you  leave room for better  conversation later and you find out what is really more important to share. If you forget to tell someone a little piece of information well then maybe you weren't meant to share it in the first place??

I've enjoyed my break and I have lots to say and I'll try and get back on my blog more consistanly. The rest of Oct.

Day 6

opps looks like i skipped some days...i thi king writting everyday is harder then i thought especially since we dont have a computer and most of what i do has to be done on my phone....

well not having facebbok continues to be good...i havent really completed any of the goals so far but have been having a lot of extra time....i was so busy this week and this weekend as well but elminating my time on facebook has me a lot less stressed out then i normally would be.

i also thinks the kids have been happier they totally dig the fact that i am  ot on the computer all the time or answering so many beeping nosies on my phone.

i got a weird feeling today when taking all three kids to the library...a sense of so thbis is the whole mom thing...not paying any attention to or even knowing what others are doing kind of a wierd hard to express feeling...in some ways i do feel bad that i am not "there" for my friends or i kind of feel secluded in my own world...but i am there for my friends more so then before...good to have real texting buddies that i can share things with.

jesse and i have spent a couple nights home and in stillness and quiet..he thinks that i am much happier and he says ive been smiling a whole lot more...hmmmmm really your saying fb really got me that bad of a mood! i am not sure about that but.....

i will say that i take everything in a very emotional way and care about others so i do let what others say or dont say bother me or if someone is sick or bad stuff is happening i take that burden on myself now most people would not know that since i am not very verbal i usually keep things inside but it does influence me

what is really awesome about not being on fb i dont anyone ruining my hulu shows...so i dont know whos been kicked off of dancing with the stars i actually get to see it all and be suspensful

and i have true repect from friends that are kind enough
to send me an actual email to let me know whats going on

thanks friends!

Day 2

Really only two days... its seems a lot longer then that..... Although I've been super busy, I still have the need to want to post things on my mind... instead I have to find someone to tell them too. I had plenty of facebook moments today. One involving Mountain Dew and a Car battery... you'll have to ask me when you see me what that is all about.


I think that the begining of facebook was to help create a simple way to connect and communicate with others instead I found it to be more and more complicated.... easy to post yes but harder to get people to understand where you are coming from or harder to understand exactly what others were trying to get across.

Some things from today... COUPONING another unnecessary addiction I tried. A lot of coupons you have to get a online or via facebook . I subscribed to a couple blogs and fbs pages and was constantly getting the latest "sign up for a free__________"  yes I love free stuff and I would love to sit in front of the computer getting lots of free stuff all day but I can't it's not worth my time..... Jesse and I by no means make very much... and I continue to learn that I only know a couple people who make less then us.... but even though we may not make very much... and free stuff is great... God has given us what we need and has provided us with what we need.. I am all about saving money... but I am beginning to believe that my time is worth even more...  So if I miss a deal by not having Facebook I guess I will have to miss it for the time being... ( i DO STILL COUPON and I appreciate honestly all the coupons that are given to me especially for Natalie's silk) I just can't sit in front of FB looking and waiting for the next free item :o)

2nd thing from today was complex verus simple... in church today I learned that some of the prophet set up 12 old ugly boring stones to remind them of all God has provided for them... I mean how much more simple can you get... I think sometimes we want to get flashiey , recognized or make sure that we are noticed... I think FB is just another way to get noticed. Our status' help us get noticed by others.   How do I want to be remember?? A drama mama, gossip queen, hurtful and hated, ??? None of those really seem to be inspiring... but I think i'd want to be known as ordinary.... just like 12 ordinary stones had such GREAT significance back in the day of BIG HUGE things that God had done for his people.
 How do you want to be known??


These are my personal reflections from my own life. I am not judging anyone else and I am not a FB hater nor do I think anything different of my friends who are still on FB.... Blogging is also new to me and it's kind of neat to get my thoughts out there.

Day 1

Day 1 not sure what the difference was today..I dont think its really hit me yet. It takes time to get a new habit down...

The biggest change I had was waking up and not letting the first comment on FB drive my day. I had no idea what anyone else was doing today. Now that may not sound like a very postitve thing to say and seems very careless, but from this perspective I did not have to think about what everyone else was doing...going..complaints about the day etc...

as far as my day goes i spent more time doing laundry haha. i went to bed by 930 and had the best sleep ive had in a while until 2am when joshua woke me up. i will find the not being on FB will allow me more time for importants things...


my ending thought for the evening came from a discussion from our marriage group...we are in an agreement that social media has changed and maybe not for the better kind of ruining relationships on n umerous levels and most the time we dont even know it. yet social media outlets are a choice we choose to participate in.... we don have a choice to conform or not to conform lol...

btw   i am not by any means trying to cut down facebook or any other social media outlet. i am just using my blod as a personal reflection on where I am at personally

Focused plan

So my first 15 days of being off Facebook I really want to spend it with my family and my home. Trying to organize my things, make a better schedule, clean up the house, concentrate on making my home mine. I also want to focus on spending quality time with the kids and hubby. It has been so easy to tell the kids I'll be there in a. minute and next thing I know it's been an hour or more. My kids are very smart even Joshua throws a fit when he's on my lap while I am on. finding more time for my kids my husband and my home.. thats the first 15 days. Those of you who are taking this challenge too what will your focus be? My last 15 or so days I want to concentrate on my current relationships with others...or even with those I don't know and how I can bra errrr help to them. it will take purposefulness and time and a new kind of engery for my focus because I won't already know what they did 15 mintues ago. during this whatsinaface time period..I will also be trying to do nice things for one person/family each day brightening their day letting go of any kind of anger worry or bitterness I may have from the past in knowing too much from FB. I hope to make someone's day in a much more personal way. currently we are having computer problems all around anyway and last night was the first night the 5 of us where in the living room all at the same time for more then half an hour...we didn't know what to do.... what's most important to you..it may not be ga book but what is keeping your time from what's most important? what challenge do you need...what do you nedto let go of? chanllenge yourself and let me know! We are al in this together to love and support each other. No ones getting kicked out of my group.