6.02.05
I'm in a wee bit of a funk this evening, brought on mostly by too many late nights in a row and a family full of sore throats and little "huh, huh" coughs. I have been following Claire around with a Kleenex for two days, and then this afternoon I remembered she can blow her own nose. It is still a novelty, actually, and she gets excited to run get the Kleenex box, pull out ten or twenty, and then use one Kleenex per tiny little blow. Then she sticks each used one back in the box. I'm working with her on better Kleenex etiquette. She progressed from returning dirty Kleenex to the box, to throwing them on the floor. A little pile of one-blow-each Kleenexes, like white paper flowers in the middle of my living room.
The Outside Beautification Project hit a teeny tiny snag this evening, when Bob yelled "Suzanne!" just before he went to bed and was letting the dog out back. Seems in my zeal to chop down a few old rose bushes, I cut through one of our drip lines. It was spurting water all over the side of the house. I have to call the landscape man tomorrow and have him come out to repair it. Beware of enthusiastic Suzanne holding pruning shears.
I am needing to declare it Officially Summer, and get outside and get some fresh air and exercise, and laugh and play, and have some body-moving, sunshine-enjoying summer hobbies. I mean, I'm not going to go crazy and actually EXERCISE or anything, but it's amazing how the outdoors can almost always put life back into perspective for me on these funky days.
On a related note, I've revisited a couple blogs I'd deleted from my Favorites list (remember, when I got all grumpy about princesses?) to see if I'd been too rash. But nope. I read and am still thinking, "These are not contributing good things to my brain, and they're making me argumentative inside my head. I still don't want to read these, why am I still reading these?" A lady in our Bible study gave up watching a soap opera this year that she'd watched EVERY DAY FOR FIFTEEN YEARS. She just felt like it was clogging up her mind with junk, and she decided she could use the time better. I was so impressed and proud of her. I'm not a good giver-upper of my bad habits. I just add new ones as the years go on.
I'm really curious. Have any of you thought about, or actually given up the computer at all, for any length of time? Are you addicted? Could you go a week without checking email or surfing the Internet? It's so much of my routine that I'm wondering what would happen if I just swore off it for the summer. And television, too. Seriously, I'm thinking about taking the summer off from the computer and television and scrapping, just because I'm kind of obsessive about all of them, I think. (Although less so television since we got TIVO. I just kind of fill in empty spaces in my week with decorating shows when I get a chance.)
Getting a lovely big stack of books going on the end table next to the comfy club chair in the living room, and curling up at night with peace and quiet and good ideas that will fill my brain up with stuff to think about the next day, when I'm watching Blue's Clue's or chasing Claire around the park. Just think! More time to write actual, lovely handwritten notes to people on stationery. (Elizabeth D. sent me an actual letter last week and it was such a sweet surprise that I got tears in my eyes.) More time to work on my novel. (Don't ask. Ha.) More time to do projects around the house. More time to paint my toenails and go outside and stare at the stars.
The only drawback is that I have some lovely email friends I'd really miss quite terribly . . . the adult voices of reason in my toddler-filled day. :)
What say you, good people? What will you do this summer for fun? Tell me what you think about stuff. Do you love your computer while also resenting it? Speak up, tender flowers.
