Digital Sabbath

In lieu of posts for February, I  have been concentrating getting all members of my family well (we battled different sicknesses for basically the past month).  A big THANKS! to those who have checked for updates on their own.  You are GREAT  :)

This post is more on the Mormon side than the Feminist side, less of my angst and more an example of Hubby and me trying to enrich our lives.  In the February 2012 Ensign (The LDS monthly magazine) there is an article entitled Keeping Safe and Balanced in a Google Youtube Twitter Facebook iEverything World.  The article warns against digital overload in today's iEverything world.  It specifically gave signs of too much.  You should read it for yourself, but the ones that hit home for me were these two:

1. Checking the same sites repeatedly within a short period of time (ahem, Facebook)
2. Going online or using a digital device when you feel stressed or want to avoid an unpleasant task.

This article particularly caught my eye because as a full time mom, many days my only social outlet besides my family is my computer.  In our home we use the computer for almost all of our contact- from looking up telephone numbers, to scheduling appointments and hang outs to keeping blogs up for family.  We pay our bills, get directions, play games, listen to music, and watch television on the computer.  My general phone usage is via text.  When I brought this article to Hubby, we discussed our individual usage and decided that a weekly break might be refreshing.  The article offers its own advice on how to cut back, but we set our own guidelines to test run a "Digital Sabbath" because I am a firm believer in tailoring construction to individual family needs.
We chose Monday as our mostly-Digital-free day because Monday is supposed to be Family Home Evening (FHE) anyway. We had also discussed Sunday but felt that Sunday was a cop-out because it is a family and God-centered day anyway.  These were our guidelines:

1. Computer is shutdown for the day.
2. No texting-  Phones are okay, but you can only use the calling option.
3. No Kindle or TV unless entire family is involved in its use.

I will admit that throughout the day I thought about the internet often, but it was honestly nice to have such opportunity for other things.  Challenges we faced were getting directions-  we ended up just waiting.  I had a hard time staying awake with the baby with no means of distraction like Facebook.  However, the rewards were amazing.  My goal of reading Baby one book per day was WAY, WAY surpassed.  Hubby, Baby, and I spent more time in the floor playing together than any time I can remember.  Hubby and I swapped off doing chores and playing with baby, and we got so much done.  At the end of the day, I can't speak for the other two, but I definitely felt that as a family, we were closer and more in tune with one another's needs and wants.

The GMP* has yet to be developed, but I think we are definitely optimistic about the possibilities, especially once we iron some wrinkles out and find the best fit for us.  

*One thing I truly love about the dynamics of our little family is the openness to stretch and develop.  We pretty much expect that anytime there is a first, it's going to need improvement or alterations whether it's a new recipe or an action plan.  It is standard for us to create a Game Plan(or as I like to call it:  a GP), which is a working course of action until we mold it into a Grand Master Plan (GMP-  what? I like Acronyms.  Deal with it.), which is something we develop.