Prompted To Write: Life in the Digital Age

This is my entry for Meredith's bi-monthly writing challenge Prompted To Write.

A week before Rory was born, I stepped out of the dark ages and into the shiny world of iphones.  It was one of those decisions I'd been umming and ahhhing about for a while.  I had a perfectly functional Samsung flip phone, and I can't stand how some people deliberately smash their phone or drown it in the washing machine just so they have an excuse to get the latest model.  I was well aware of the temptations of having internet access right at my fingertips.  Then there was the temptation of scrolling away on the thing when I'm out socialising with people (I've 'confiscated' Duncan's phone a few times).

 

 

After 10 months in iphoneland, I'm glad I made the jump.

 

Pros:

• It's my phone, camera, internet browser, social media, email, torch, weather advisor, street directory, bank, and gateway to online shopping - all in one!
• The apps that exist out there never cease to amaze me.  We order pizzas using the Dominos app when we go to Perth.
• Now that I'm a mum, starting up the laptop and getting on the internet seems all too hard some days.  I like how I can jump on Facebook quickly and easily.
• There's even a Blogger app!  I've used it quite a few times to do a quick post, edit a typo out of an existing post and publish a pending comment.
• The old days of looking up the street directory, writing down directions on a piece of paper and then having it fly off the dashboard while I'm driving are over.  It's better than a Tom-Tom.

Cons:

• It's only a phone, but it can take over your life.  I've heard people say they've felt practically naked if their phone has been lost or stolen.
• It has the potential to be a terrible time-waster.
• Social events are never the same.  Now everyone's there on their phones instead of talking to each other.
• It makes it too easy for people to relay news or take and post photos that they shouldn't be sharing.
• Even though the Facebook app is great, it doesn't have the full functionality as it does when you're on a computer.  Same with the Blogger app.

I'm glad I have an iphone.  Yes, I'm very behind the times.  But that's ok.

Prompted To Write: The Best Advice Ever

This is an entry for Meredith's bi-monthly writing challenge, Prompted To Write.  Follow the link if you'd like to join in.

My advice...to myself....to Christians....to all people.

Do less.

Slow down.

Be.

Commit to a very small number of things.  A VERY small number.  Then pour yourself out for those things.  Even if you consider yourself to have a large life plate, it is far better to do a few things and do them well rather than commit to lots of things and give a half-baked effort at each.  The worst thing I've found about spreading myself too thin is that I start to hate and resent the things I'd said 'yes' to.  I breathe a sigh of relief when a group or event I'd committed to is cancelled.  I start to wish I'd get sick just to get some respite from my 'overcommittedness'.

I like Meredith's post about keeping a lazy diary because we WILL get sick at some stage in the year.  That's not being morbid, that's just being realistic.

As for those things that you should say 'yes' to...well, you'll know what are the right things.  If you're a Christian, ask God for wisdom, stand back and look at the big picture and then evaluate your life and what's important.

I'm not advocating laziness, far from it, but we tend to live as if we're indispensable to God, that He can't run His world without us helping Him.  Bollocks!

I was a chronic 'yes' person.  I'd like to think of myself as a recovering 'yes' person.  The only person I need to please is my Heavenly Father and He is already pleased because He looks at me and sees Jesus' perfect righteousness.

This year I'm a 'no' person.  Not to everything, but circumstances have forced my hand.  I truly believe God's love for me is not based on how much I serve at church or how many old ladies I help across the street.  I like doing those things, but sometimes I just can't.  Getting out of bed is a big enough achievement.  I recently said 'no' to a night Bible study.  Out here night Bible studies mean dragging Rory out and driving half an hour or more on a gravel road in the dark with kangaroos lurking when I already feel like my eyelids are weighed down with coins I'm so tired.  I meet with two other women from the farm for Bible study and prayer on Friday mornings instead.  We all have young children so we need flexibility and mornings work best.

When did you last stop to smell the roses?  I should take my advice and go out into my garden to smell my own.

Some lighthearted advice:

Those of you who watched Thank God You're Here may remember Frank Woodley's performance as the Shaolin Temple Master of the Way.  It's classic.  His advice?

A man should never hold his nose when he sneezes or if you do this, my children, your eyes pop out of your head.  And it's hard to get them back in because you can't see.

Don't try to eat a stone...it'll hurt.

Don't ever try to throw a feather at someone in anger for they will just look at you and go, "Well, what are you doing?"

Prompted To Write: Rules To Live By

I've decided to take up Meredith's writing challenge with the topic Rules to live by.  Follow the link if you'd like to join in.

My recent stay in hospital revealed to me that I am much more of a rules person than I thought I was.  Rules are ok; they have their place.  But rules and small babies don't mix.

I've decided to ignore the baby books.  I partly blame those so-called 'baby whisperers' for the mess I've ended up in.  The nonsense they peddle to nervous first-time parents is criminal.  Have a strict schedule and your baby will sleep through the night at six weeks.  Let your child sleep in your bed and they will still be sleeping in your bed when they're in high school.  Don't let them suck their thumb or they'll still be sucking their thumb when they're 18.  Let them cry otherwise they'll manipulate you and will turn out to be a wuss.  You get the drift...  Of course I wanted to do things 'right'.  I'm a first-time mum.  I didn't have a clue.  Friends recommended these books.  Some were a bit more full-on by telling me I HAD to have a schedule otherwise I'd have a child hanging off my boob all day. Yep, those books combined with my ordered, structured personality were a ticking timebomb just waiting to explode.

What I learnt in the MBU is that when it comes to babies the only rules are good old-fashioned common sense, flexibility and love.  I drove myself mad trying to find the 'secret ingredient' to get Rory to sleep longer.  The only thing to do is resettle, resettle, resettle, and cuddle without the fear that I'm still going to have to cuddle him to sleep when he's a grown man!  I'm going to treasure these cuddles right now because they'll be over before I know it.

Many of those baby books treat all babies the same.  That the same routine etc will work for ALL babies!  What rubbish!  Babies are different just as all children and adults are different.  Before I had Rory I needed a good eight hours sleep a night to function, but I have friends who get by just fine with five.  I allowed myself to be convinced that there was something wrong with my beautiful son.  That just because he wasn't a good sleeper during the day that it erased all of the lovely things about him.  So he doesn't sleep for very long, so what?  He's got the best smile and laugh.  He loves people.  He's very handsome.  He loves to kick his little fat legs, especially in the bath.  I get annoyed when people ask me if he's a 'good baby'.  What's a 'good baby'?  One that sleeps all the time?  If that's the yardstick, then he'd be a 'bad baby'.  I was guilty of seeing him like that.  I wanted a robot instead of a son.  One that followed the rules perfectly.  I couldn't see what a gift I'd been given.

I came to hospital desperate that they 'fix' Rory's sleeping for me.  They gently showed me that I was the one who needed to be 'fixed'.  With a more settled mum, came a more settled bubba.  I needed to be freed from 'following the rules'.  When it comes to babies, the rule to live by is learning to be that patient, wiser, kinder person who helps them grow up in this world.

This was taken a few weeks back on the 12th April -
mine and Duncan's 5th wedding anniversary.