Unplugged

As a blogging-type person, the very idea of disconnecting from the internet for a while can be a little scary. I always have a list a mile long of things I should be doing: tweaking blog design, answering emails (for my real life and real job as well as for my blog life), replying to comments, keeping up the Facebook page, pinning, scheduling, editing photos, oh—and actually WRITING something. Maintaining a blog that’s even a little bit successful is a lot of work and requires a lot of staring at the computer screen.

And, frankly, a lot of anxiety when you have to be away from that computer screen (or phone screen) for a prolonged period of time.

This last week, my mom was visiting and we had a lot going on, plus we really enjoyed ourselves. Usually when she is here, I spend a lot of late hours doing the blogging stuff after she has gone to bed. This time? Not so much. My health has not been great in the last few months, and I’m trying hard to fix a few things. Sleep being at the top of the list.

So I did not blog this past week. I did not Facebook update. I did not tweet or pin or schedule or edit or write or anything. And it felt really good to just be present in my life.

And then my mom left, and as soon as my husband dropped her off at the airport (I was at work), he ran home and began to get ready to whisk us all on a two-day surprise camping trip. Surprise may not be the right word, since we have been wanting to go camping this summer, but both the weather and our schedules never seemed to sync up in a way that would allow it. But he looked at the forecast, realized we could leave after a wedding reception we were going to after I got off of work, camp two nights in glorious weather, and still have me home in time to teach my one Friday afternoon lesson.

At first, I was anxiety-ridden. I needed to catch up on this dang blog! Anything that was scheduled to post while my mom was here has been posted and I have nothing written, as much as I try to stay ahead of the game. But off we went into the wilderness that is the Porcupine Mountains with our car loaded to the gills with happy children, sleeping bags, plenty of food, and our gigantic tent.

The Porkies are roughly an hour from our house, and we rolled in just as the sun was setting over Lake Superior. The sunset was so breathtaking that I made my husband stop the car and pull over so I could take some photos. I only managed to snap off a few with the wrong settings before my camera battery died. We had left the house so quickly that I didn’t think to grab my extra one, even though I knew that I was close to the end of the one that was currently in the camera. The few photos I was able to get are not with ideal settings, and are nowhere near as beautiful as what we saw that night, but I’m glad I got them.

They remind me that unplugging is absolutely necessary. We spent two days camping, hiking, swimming in Lake Superior, letterboxing, battling more mosquitoes than I’ve ever seen in my life, and being together as a family. Not one of us ever had our heads in a screen, and since we were out of service, I was blissfully unaware of all emails and texts and tweets and pins and comments that normally barrage my phone with beeps and dings all day long. And it felt absolutely wonderful.

Balance is something I’m always struggling with, and I was starting to get imbalanced about blogging. It was good to get a nice reminder and a break and I am resolved to take these types of breaks from my online world much more often.

Now I’m ready to get writing for the upcoming week. Look for posts about:

• More Beach Days!
• What I Wish We’d Brought Camping (Number one on the list? An extra camera battery.)
• Ways to Make Cleaning Fun for Kids
• My daughter’s Book Club
• My Front Door Transformation

I have a lot of writing to do, that’s for sure, but I won’t be doing it tonight. It’s almost midnight and I have made a commitment to be in bed by 12 every night. Maybe not actually asleep, but at least in bed. For this night owl, it’s a start.