Hello Blog!

It's time to say hello to my blog again (yippee!) and to you, my dear readers!

So where have I been this summer? Well in the course of moving, there were weird and constant obstacles that kept us from home internet and television for nearly two months. "How frustrating", you might be thinking. And it was, no doubt about it. It was also incredibly refreshing.

It's sort of funny really because days before our media drought as I like to call it, I was already being challenged to make some major changes in media use. Sarah Mae, one of my 5 bloggers I'm tuning into this year, had already been writing some things that were changing my heart and helping me in the desperate state of motherhood. Here's how Sarah Mae is living different: Trying to Live True.

See the thing is that motherhood is really hard and really lonely sometimes and it's easy to burn-out. It's easy to hide online. It's easy to read away minutes, half-hours, hours that you could spend better. It's easy to lose yourself here and forget about the strawberry jelly sticking to the kitchen floor, the dirty diapers that need be sprayed, and the sleep or long showers or any social event after 7 p.m. that are no longer realities. It's easy to feel empty, spent or bored and to simply check out. It's easy.

But easy always has a cost, right? I just didn't know how much life I was missing out on. Living without online media connected me more, plain and simple.

Lonely? Call a friend and hear her voice. Or go knock on the door of your neighbor's house with some cookies and make a new friend. (Even if they burned, it makes for a good laugh, just saying.) Go anywhere-a local park, library, church and meet your local community. Look face to face with your spouse and have some light-hearted conversations. Bored? Just get up and do something. Exercise. Play. Shop. Read. Cook. Take a class. Explore a new route. Weary? Take that nap when you can. Go to bed earlier. Sink into a bath. Pray. Journal. Beyond weary? Look for a moment longer at that little face that tires you out and just love them for who they are today. Cut yourself a big slice of grace and keep pressing on. You are not alone. Find others falling apart and hold each other up together. There's where I've been: joyfully living unplugged. With more to give and more to receive.

Share your story in the comments: What role does media play in your life? How do you keep it in check with all other pursuits? Does it add or steal joy?

Much love, Rachel