My One Month Social Media Detox

January 15, 2014 By in Blogging, Family Tags: , , , , 28 Comments

social media diet

For all the years that we have known each other, DorkyDad and I have done a January detox. It is usually much needed. Like most people, we fill our cupboards even fuller than usual over the Christmas holidays, with booze, biscuits and other unnecessaries.

Come the New Year, our bodies are practically begging us for a break. So we both give up alcohol for the month, step up our exercise regimes, and cut back as far as we can on carbs and candy.

After a grumpy, jumpy first week, we tend to find that we are sleeping much better, feeling more clear-headed and starting to lose our little festive potbellies. We finish the month feeling refreshed and energetic, ready to face the rest of the year.

We are doing all that again this January, but two weeks in I don’t feel like it is enough. My body is definitely feeling much better. But my brain? Meh. Not so much. It still feels overloaded. I am not in the calm and relaxed place that I should be. I am craving peace, and space, and silence.

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Nearly Five

January 14, 2014 By in Family Tags: , , 21 Comments

peekaboo

DorkySon is absolute magic just now. He is a real joy to be around. I can’t remember ever seeing him so calm and settled, and that is really reflected in how he’s behaving.

A large part of that is testament to the kindness of our family and friends who, even from afar, have worked so hard to let him know that he is loved. Barely a day passes without another postcard, book, or CBeebies DVD being popped into our mailbox.

The wardrobe in DorkySon’s room is plastered with many of those postcards, and also with photos of all the important people in his life – friends, grandparents, cousins and the like. There are so many happy memories recorded there, and DorkySon likes to chat about them often. He talks very openly sometimes about who he is missing, but he also talks with absolute confidence about when he will visit those people, or when they will come and see us. He knows already, because of the regular travelling we have done to the States, that not all your friends can live in one place and sometimes you have to make a big effort to see them. He says that the sadness you feel when you miss people is a good sadness because it means you have people you care about.

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Project 52: Week 1

January 5, 2014 By in Photography Tags: , , 6 Comments

In 2012 I completed the 52 Week Project – taking a photo a week and sharing it on the blog. Last year I decided not to do it again and, in retrospect, I regret that. 2013 was so busy for us, and my poor blog was often neglected for weeks at a time. It would have been nice to keep it ticking over with some simple photo posts. It would also have been nice to share some of our adventures in picture form, rather than always feeling the need to write a long post about them.

For those reasons, I’ve decided I’m going to try and complete Project 52 again in 2014. In addition to the basic rule of taking and sharing at least one photo each week, I’ve given myself two additional challenges.

Firstly, I want to start using my DSLR more, instead of always snapping away on my iPhone. I love the convenience of phone pics – I almost always have it with me, and I can upload photos straight to my blog or Facebook without having to transfer them onto my laptop first. But I have dedicated macro and portrait lenses for my lovely Nikon, and I am determined to make better use of them both this year. Continue reading →