For some time I’ve been thinking about taking a break from the internet in general and specifically the blogging world. I’ve hinted lately that my husband and I had been thinking through our priorities and have been making changes and coming to some conclusions.

Maybe it is the teacher in me. Even though I’ve been out of the school cycle for several years now, the fall always seems like the start of a new year for me more than January 1st does. It’s August 10 and my thoughts start to be of fall – and all the things I haven’t completed (or started!) this summer that I wanted to. I also start thinking of the things ahead and projects I want to do – Christmas gifts I want to make, recipes I want to try out, fall day trips my husband and I want to make, books I want to read, etc. On top of all this we have a lot of home projects underway – walls that need painting, trim that needs painting before the carpet can be put it, and so many others.

We’re also starting the church search again now that I am healthy enough to sit through services and I know that will take extra time and energy.

I’ve ordered more Creative Memories product from my friend Katrina than I will publically admit and I really want to use them.

And after being sick for so long this winter/spring, I feel like I am just behind all the time and I haven’t quite gotten over the proverbial hump.

I have what feels to me like a zillion unanswered emails in my inboxes and that weighs heavily on me. Doing a blog like this with photos and graphics is time intensive. Sometimes my husband and I will spend an hour or more on just one entry with quotes by the time I find the quotes, format them, find the photos, have him image and upload the photos, etc. We enjoy doing it, but this blog is time intensive.

I’ve also started feeling that too much time surfing isn’t helpful or healthy for me right now. I sense I need more of God and less of electronic substitutes of Him. More of Scriptures and less of blog discussions/debates. More of real walking in the Spirit and less of reading about others doing it.

So I’m taking a break. I’m turning off the computer and won’t be surfing or emailing much at all for a while. (Hint to real life friends and family – If it’s urgent, use the phone!) I can’t completely walk away from the email because of our business, but instead of my computer being on eighteen hours a day, I’m hoping to cut it back to about eighteen minutes. Really. Just enough time to make sure people aren’t trashing my blog in my absence and follow up on business emails.

I might be back in three days, I might be back in three weeks or it could be three months. I don’t know. I just know that I need a little bit of real life living without internet living intruding in on it. I wish I was the type of person who could just say “Well, I’ll cut back to just a couple of entries a week” but I’m not. My personality is too black and white, all or nothing. I wish it wasn’t so, but it is.

Perhaps I’m going through a new stage of sorting out my own Two Talent Living. What am I called to do? Where should I direct my energies? I’ll be taking my own advice and doing that for a little while.

In the meantime, God’s richest blessings on each of you. I truly mean that. 🙂