I kissed Facebook goodbye this week.
Leading up to the deletion, I was surprised at how big of a decision it felt to be. There were so many people that I was in touch with from my past, family included, that I wouldn't have been in touch with otherwise and, sadly, would lose contact with if I deleted the account. But it felt like the right thing to do. I posted my email address in a final status update and said I was outta there. Most of the objections came from folks who were sad they wouldn't have updates on Roman anymore (it is true, that once a child is in the picture, the people who gave life to that child suddenly doesn't exist quite as much anymore. Totally worth it, though. I love you, Roman). Sorry folks...keeping Facebook just so you can see pictures of Roman isn't enough for me. I'm not that good at posing updated pictures anyway.
So I gathered the email addresses of people I really did not want to lose contact with, saved pictures I had been tagged in that weren't mine originally, and that was that. Once I confirmed that I did indeed wish to end it all, everything felt so anticlimactic.
Oh....that wasn't so bad. Huh....I feel pretty good.
Suddenly, the responsibility of knowing where dinner group is this week isn't mine anymore. JACOB will have to be the one to step up to the bat on that one!
Suddenly, I'm not seeing a bunch of religious/political/general-opinion-crap-that-I-don't-want-to-hear-about status updates!!
Suddenly, I have one less Big Brother creepily tracking my every single move!!!
One strange thing I will admit to, though, is when something happens or I think of something and my next thought is "ooh, that'll be a great status update." (Gawd, how ridiculous! But it's totally true that we do that!) It's okay...that phantom limb will be gone in a few weeks, I suspect.
In the meantime, I will get back to what I was doing during Lent and actually being more thoughtful and deliberate in communicating with people. I WILL keep writing letters! (E-mails too, because sometimes it's just quicker and not everything requires a hand-written letter.) Who doesn't love to get a piece of actual mail, even if it is just someone who wants to say hello. Who knows, maybe I'll get good at actually getting together with my friends once in awhile too.
So goodbye Facebookland, hello real life!
Friday, April 20, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Hobbies - Part II
Gosh, almost exactly two years to the date later, I FINALLY have some hobbies! Hip-hip-hooray! And seriously, it did take this long to figure something out.
So first off, we are raising chickens now. Yep, we have jumped on the urban farming bandwagon. Right now, we have four baby chickens living in a kiddie pool in our living room! They are kind of in their ugly phase right now, where their cute, soft fuzz is giving way to feathers. Their tushy feathers are growing in now as well. I suppose this would be the equivalent to the awkward puberty, hair-growing-in-strange-places (but, you know...feathers), acne-riddled junior high phase we all so fondly remember. But maybe without all the angst. Anyway, we are raising the chickens for the eggs, not so much for the meat. Roman (that's the baby I had since the last time I posted on here. He is now almost a year and a half) is pretty interested in the chicks. I think it'll be a fun chore for him when he is a little bit older - gathering up the eggs every day. I think he'll learn a lot from it.
The second task I have taken upon myself is to make some of my own household products, like cleaning supplies and soap. I wanted to make our household more self-sufficient and less of the problem. I am trying to get rid of some of the toxins we use regularly in our house to "clean" it. It is amazing what you can do with natural, non-poisonous stuff (not that you should eat or drink any of what I am making). Lemon juice! Vinegar! Baking soda! Along these same lines, we'll be planting our garden very soon and I am looking forward to it! We didn't do it last year and I missed the fresh and free produce. I am excited to tend to it and put a lot of time and care into it.
The other thing I have been doing is making my own cards (greeting, not playing). I did this once before, actually. When I graduated from college, I made all of my own announcements/grad party invites by cutting things I liked out of magazines and newspapers (pictures, one-liners, fun facts, etc) and mod-podging them onto card stock. Everyone got a different card and it was really fun! The last few months, it has practically been an obsession for me, cutting things out of papers and magazines for future use. I love it. And then I slap them on to cardstock and away they go! During the season of Lent this year, I gave up Facebook again and instead wrote people actual letters, using the cards I made. It was fun to pick out which card from my stockpile I thought the recipient would most appreciate. Making these cards has been a really FUN hobby for me. And some of the pictures that I found that I REALLY liked and wanted to keep for myself I just taped into a journal :) You know...like Pinterest, but REAL.
Anyway, I am really glad to have found some real, actual hobbies! It feels really good and accomplishing to have these. And I think that they are all worthwhile and beneficial. Hooray for hobbies!
So first off, we are raising chickens now. Yep, we have jumped on the urban farming bandwagon. Right now, we have four baby chickens living in a kiddie pool in our living room! They are kind of in their ugly phase right now, where their cute, soft fuzz is giving way to feathers. Their tushy feathers are growing in now as well. I suppose this would be the equivalent to the awkward puberty, hair-growing-in-strange-places (but, you know...feathers), acne-riddled junior high phase we all so fondly remember. But maybe without all the angst. Anyway, we are raising the chickens for the eggs, not so much for the meat. Roman (that's the baby I had since the last time I posted on here. He is now almost a year and a half) is pretty interested in the chicks. I think it'll be a fun chore for him when he is a little bit older - gathering up the eggs every day. I think he'll learn a lot from it.
The second task I have taken upon myself is to make some of my own household products, like cleaning supplies and soap. I wanted to make our household more self-sufficient and less of the problem. I am trying to get rid of some of the toxins we use regularly in our house to "clean" it. It is amazing what you can do with natural, non-poisonous stuff (not that you should eat or drink any of what I am making). Lemon juice! Vinegar! Baking soda! Along these same lines, we'll be planting our garden very soon and I am looking forward to it! We didn't do it last year and I missed the fresh and free produce. I am excited to tend to it and put a lot of time and care into it.
The other thing I have been doing is making my own cards (greeting, not playing). I did this once before, actually. When I graduated from college, I made all of my own announcements/grad party invites by cutting things I liked out of magazines and newspapers (pictures, one-liners, fun facts, etc) and mod-podging them onto card stock. Everyone got a different card and it was really fun! The last few months, it has practically been an obsession for me, cutting things out of papers and magazines for future use. I love it. And then I slap them on to cardstock and away they go! During the season of Lent this year, I gave up Facebook again and instead wrote people actual letters, using the cards I made. It was fun to pick out which card from my stockpile I thought the recipient would most appreciate. Making these cards has been a really FUN hobby for me. And some of the pictures that I found that I REALLY liked and wanted to keep for myself I just taped into a journal :) You know...like Pinterest, but REAL.
Anyway, I am really glad to have found some real, actual hobbies! It feels really good and accomplishing to have these. And I think that they are all worthwhile and beneficial. Hooray for hobbies!
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