STOP THIS BUS AND LET ME OFF!!!

I am sure you are wondering  why I would choose to show you my coffee canister.  Well, good question.  I bought this on a trip to San Antonio last year because of the words it has written on it.  It says "Sweet Home Coffee.  For the pure and simple living."  When I saw it...I had to have it.  I adore the simple life, we live on a couple of acres right outside the city and yet the city seems worlds away.  We are not hustle and bustle people, and really enjoy being homebodies, drinking sweet tea or coffee on our front porch swing or watching the sun set across a wide open pasture from our back patio.  

But over the summer things might have gotten a little crazy over here.  One afternoon my husband felt it was necessary to have one of those "put the foot down" conversations with me about the itty bitty teensy tinsy little problem that I might have had (hypothetically speaking of course).  No seriously yall, it was out of control, like being on an overloaded bus, driving way to fast in the wrong lane and headed straight for the destruction.  This is not something that is easy for me to admit because I am severely OCD, a major multi-tasker, and I pride myself on the fact that I can whip out clean underwear for my husband in just a matter of minutes with a little help from Febreeze Fabric Refresher (that is my little secret...please keep it but feel free to use it) while on the phone, cooking supper, and doing homework with my girls.  

It seemed to me to be, just an itty, bitty problem, 

but my wise big daddy boy saw exactly what was really going on 

behind that little cell phone and laptop.
How did it get to this??  
More importantly how do I get my old life back???

Let me back up and fill you in.  Just a few months ago I was president of my girls' PTO, room mom, school board member, facebook addict, and texting junkie! Not to mention blog-a-maniac which I don't count :).  And I did all of that...OF COURSE...with my Blackberry hanging out of my ear!!

We had all of the sudden out of nowhere began to live our lives on the bus of insanity and chaos and we don't even remember ever getting on the bus.  All we knew is that it was just time to get off!! Hold up, put on the brakes, open the door, and let me outta here!  Do NOT pass Go, do NOT collect $200...just run for your life!!!  That is really how I felt, but I just didn't even know it, y'all, seriously I couldn't even see it.

Because our culture makes all of this technology so "normal" I don't think we realize what it does to us or what it does to our families.  I don't think that we even see it as something that is "wrong".  And can you blame us???  Everyone has internet, everyone has a cell phone, everyone has text messaging, so what is the big deal right??  Have we ever stopped to think that satan knows how to cause a family to crumble and he is doing just that every single day through all of our technological luxuries we have today?  I had never thought of that until one night we were at a restaurant for dinner and we saw the typical American family.  Mom was texting, dad was on his cell phone, mom passes her cell phone to dad, they laugh at whatever may have been on the phone, dad passes the phone back to mom and continues his conversation, she replies to the text, and all the while the kids are playing on their Nintendo DS (they each had one) and had their IPods on the table with the ear phones in listening to who knows what.    WOW...what a reality check.  This is 2009 in America.  And that is where our bus is headed.  When 2 year olds have "cell phones" that they "text" on...something is WRONG, mommas!!!  But, I would be willing to be that so many moms, just like me, really aren't techno junkies...just somehow we all ended up on this bus together not knowing how to get off!!

Well, long story short (or not so short) my husband called our cell phone company the next morning, cancelled text messaging...Period.  I cannot receive one nor send one. YIKES...talk about withdrawal!!  He unplugged our computer, cancelled our internet, dared me to get back on facebook via anybody else's random computer or any Best Buy or Office Depot display (because I mean really the man knows me, and anyway, why was I sitting there staring at a screen waiting for somebody I had nothing in common with to give me a play by play of their very ordinary life...seriously??  Why do I care what a person I haven't seen in 15 years is eating for breakfast, lunch, dinner!). Then he challenged me to not watch tv or talk on the phone for a week. BRUTAL!  Yeah, you know where this is going!  As any good wife would do, I took him up on his offer fully prepared to prove him wrong (and get my new computer...ours was soooo old...because that is the wager of our little challenge).  Really, I don't have a problem so this should be a piece of cake right??  No problemo for me...super mom who is definitely not on overload...No, not me!!

So here I am, completely detached from the outside world...no way to communicate with anyone.  No way to tell people I no longer have texting because I can't text them or call them, no way to update the facebook world on what I am doing every second of my day. No way to organize volunteer efforts at school.  No way to coordinate that super fun back to school bash I had been googling all summer.  No way to email the new teachers and tell them how glad we are to be in their classes (pathetic I know).  No Food Network, No Duggars, No latest Jon and Kate drama, and NO WAY TO CHECK MY BLOG!!!  AAAAAAHHHHH!!!  Its just ME and my FAMILY and a house phone (land line...whatever you call it) that hasn't rang a single time in who knows how long...besides the phone salesmen.

Yall, as horrifying as this sounds...what a difference this made. I found that just like any other addiction, once you don't have it for a while, you really don't need it, and while we did buy a new computer (I am now proudly sporting a MAC now...YAY) I have lost that desire to be so all up in the world and in everyone else's useless business.  I do check facebook...every few days or so, I blog...every morning before I get my day started, and I do talk on the phone...when someone calls my house (wow it must be really important) because I turn my cell phone off unless I am away from home. It is amazing how many people now email me to communicate because I don't have texting and they don't want to take the time to call.  It also amazes me how many people don't communicate with me at all any more because I am so techno-deprived!!.   I have since resigned as a school board member, recruited help with my volunteer commitments at school (way too many of those), and have learned to say "NO" when it comes to obligating myself, which I so willingly did without even thinking, in turn, giving my family nothing but leftover scraps if they are lucky!!  Now my family gets the best of me and everyone else will have to fight for leftovers!!

I will say that it was hard to separate myself from the technology of this world, but I have gotten back to what I truly love, and had lost along the way, like reading, cooking, working in my yard, enjoying time with my family, and keeping my home.  Because deep down that is where my desire is.  My desire is to live the slow pace, simple life that feels right for our family.  We lived that way for so long and somehow took a wrong turn and ended up ON THE WRONG BUS!!  


Once I turned my eyes upon Jesus and looked full in His wonderful face (during my quiet time with Him that I now can enjoy again) the things of the earth have grown strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace!!

So I challenge you...do you want to get off the bus??  Do you feel like you 
devote more time than you should to things outside of your home?  
I challenge you to take a stand and get back to basics.  More of this will be coming in 2010, but this is just to get you thinking during this already hectic holiday season. 
Im not promising you a new computer, but I can promise you that you will be 
tickled pink with the results!!