15 Minute Time Limit

Since I was born I have had a fascination with all things computer.

I should have gone to school to be a computer tech.

There was one particular element of the computer that has enchanted me since it was created.

THE INTERNET

I have been "online" since the early '90's.

My father was a computer genius. He knew how to do everything with a computer.

I remember being in High School and using the dial-up connection

my Dad had installed to get into chat rooms.

Chat rooms at 14 years old?? What was I thinking??

I remember one day someone found out I was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and felt that they needed to "bible bash" with me and tell me how my religion was wrong. I also remember a lot of perverted men that were online trying to chat with me. I was still in High School. It is crazy to think back on how much time I spent in chat rooms. Doing nothing but talking to complete strangers.

My sister told me a story a year ago that I never knew. Back in my "chat room" days, my Dad would get on the phone (where our dial-up was connected) and he would make a noise so the internet would crash and I wouldn't be online anymore.

I remember getting so annoyed that the internet wasn't working.

Thank goodness for my amazing Dad!

Who knows what would have happened if I could stay online as long as I wanted.

Most of you probably don't remember dial-up, but it was connected to your home phone line.

As long as someone was online, no phone calls could come through.

Once High School was done and I headed off to college, I received a flyer on my windshield advertising this website called "collegeclub.com".

I joined immediately!

I made all of these "friends" and had new groups to join. I believe that I was a member of a "recipe a day" group.

It was a great time for me, or so I thought.

How sad that I had to use the internet to make friends and join groups.

I had friends in college, sure. But I had a lot of online friends.

And for some reason, that felt important to me.

In 1999, I got a job at Nu Skin Enterprises .

I was a switch board operator.

I would answer phone calls that came into the company and transfer them to the receptionist or the employee they were asking for.

We had about 7 phone consoles that we could choose from to sit at.

Only 2 of them had computers that we could use.

I remember ALWAYS wanting to be at the cubicle that had a computer.

I did a lot of mindless internet searching in the 6 years I had that job.

It is now 2012 and I still love being online.

I have a 6 month old daughter that is the love of my life, next to my husband.

Every morning I feed Kyla, lay her on the ground to play with her toys, and get online.

I check my gmail account first.

Then I look at Facebook for a while.

Finally, I open up Pinterest and hang out there for an hour or so.

Then I feed my daughter again and jump online to see what I've missed in the past little while.

Every day I do this.

My computer is always on so I can stay updated on everything.

After I "pin" something that I think is super cool on Pinterest, I refresh my screen 4 or 6 times to see how many people have pinned it themselves.

I get disappointed when no one does.

I constantly refresh my Facebook page so I can make sure I catch EVERYONE'S status updates.

It seems so important to me to know that he ate at Cafe Rio and feels full from too much food.

Or she is tired of being single but is dealing with it.

I HAVE to know if everyone wanted Professor Umbridge dead more then Voldemort

and I need to keep up with all the vintage photo's that everyone uploads through Instagram.

(By the way, I think those are crap. We're not in the 70's anymore and I don't need my pictures looking brown and orange.)

 

WHY do I do this?? I ask myself often lately.

Because I am addicted to the internet.

Honestly, that is not a good thing.

I have wasted HOURS of my life sitting in front of a computer.

Last week, I put my daughter down on the floor to roll around, giving her "tummy time" and I jumped online to stay in the know of everything. A while later, I looked over to see how she was doing and she was up on her knees, looking like she wanted to crawl, then she flopped on her side.

How long has she been doing that without me knowing???

How many things have I missed already in her 6 months of life because I'm too attached to my computer?

I don't want my daughter to think back on her childhood and remember Mommy always on a computer or always texting.

I WANT TO BE A PART OF HER LIFE!!!

Last night a thought came to me.

You need to have a time limit on the computer.

I have a digital timer that I am going to put next to my computer.

Whenever I sit down in front of it, I will start the timer.

15 min is all I am allowing myself.

Once the timer goes off, I will shut down my computer and do something worthwhile.

I can check back a few hours later, but not all day long!

I DON'T constantly need to be on the computer.

I am not learning anything of great importance by sitting in front of this machine for hours.

There are so many other things I could be doing;

• Cleaning the house
• Doing laundry
• Sewing a new dress of Kyla or myself
• Crocheting a new pattern
• Reading my scriptures
• Playing the piano
• Making an amazing dinner for my hard working husband
• Being a better Mom to my daughter
• Etc, etc, etc.

15 minutes....that is MORE then sufficient.

Birthday Calendar

A few years ago, Jon and I made this for my mother-in-law.

It is a GREAT present for Oma's and Grandma's.

It will help you keep track of the many birthdays in the family!

We bought the main block, wood letters, wood rectangles, stars, and ribbon at Micheal's in Provo.

Here is how we made it.

~We took yellow paint and watered it down slightly so you

could still see the wood grain through the paint.

~We spray painted the block letters with 3 or 4 coats of silver

and two coats of clear glossy spray paint.

~We spray painted the little blocks with 2 coats of silver and

I wrote the abbreviated months with a black Sharpie.

~We used a hot glue gun to attach the ribbon to the back.

As for the length of the ribbon, it will depend on how many

birthdays you have and how many family members are still having kids.

~Add a picture hanger to the top.

~We wrote the date and names on the stars with a silver paint pen.

~Then attached them to the ribbon with velcro circles in numerical order.

That way, if a new baby is born or someone gets married, you can easily move the stars around.

~Here is a close up look at the stars.

 It took us around 8 hours to finish the entire thing.

But now my mother-in-law will always know who's birthday is just around the corner!