My laptop

My laptop is screwed up. It's a little bit difficult for me to talk about (she says in jest...sort of). Hubby calls my laptop my "favorite baby". And that's not true. Mostly. I do kinda love my laptop. Okay, there, I admitted it. I *may* be slightly addicted to it. More accurately, I really like the constant stream of information I can access via my laptop. I like how quickly I can find things. How nosey I can be (look, I became a social worker partly because I could be nosey for a "good" reason). How I come across all kinds of things (Etsy, Pandora, using donated breast milk!) I never would otherwise. How I come across all kinds of people I never would have otherwise. I like the plugged-in-ness of it.

But, I don't think I'd realized how much time it was taking up. How much time I was using on it. Until it went all wacky on me this weekend. I wasn't on it all day Sunday, and I got tons done around the house. Like - dusting withstanding - my house hasn't been so clean in months. It's made me think about how I spend my time. Hubby has complained more and more over the last several months, how I head straight to the computer as soon as I get home. I mean, I still play with the boys, eat dinner with the family, etc..., but any "free time" is devoted to the computer. I blew him off because, really, between the time he spends watching TV and exercising, he's got no room to talk.

But, the last couple of days, I've realized he has a point. I have been spending a lot of time with my dear laptop. And, as much as I love it, I've also loved the feelings associated with how much cleaner the house is lately. And the increased time I've spent with my boys. All 3 of them. And I'm sure they've also appreciated it.

Last night hubby felt sorry for me, because apparently, after the kid went to bed, I was wondering around looking lost with nothing to do (now that wasn't actually the case, I was deep in thought about something, but whatev'). So he threw me a bone and let me use his ipod to check facebook. It made me happy. But, instead of having it up, where I could check in every 5 or 10 minutes, in between playing with baby E or other tasks, I only checked it a couple of times. So, I played with baby E. And read an interesting book. It was a relaxing, quiet kind of evening. I think I need more of those.

Today's lesson - the Internet is a marvelous place, capable of connecting us to people, places, and things all over the world. However, in some ways it also disconnects us from the people and places and things right in front of us. If we let it.