It never fails… you have your week planned out perfectly, you get everything lined up and are ready to go. You even have the energy to
get it done! You are excited about everything you are going to accomplish for the week.
Then it happens. Life. Somehow it always seems to get in the way. The unexpected mishap might be a small thing or it might be huge. It might be what happened to me this past week… our computer was down.
I know, I know. You are gasping with me, aren’t you? We have come to rely so much on our computer “Bonnie” that when she is “sick” we
are thrown for a loop. Our computer had a nasty virus this week. I worked on nursing it back to health the entire week. I prayed that I wouldn’t lose any of my work, any of our thousands of pictures or all the sweet videos of the kids.
Thankfully I had made back ups of most things but not everything, especially the most recent articles I had written and lesson plans I had stored. To say I was unhappy is an understatement.
Still, life goes on, even when the computer is sick. While I count on the computer for printing lessons or providing educational games for the kids (as well as for my own enjoyment and down time) I knew that we still needed to forge ahead, without relying on the computer for help with school. I had to revamp our plans, rethink lessons and find other outlets for the times I knew the kids would want to be on the computer. What could we do instead?
While I love my computer time and love how much it helps me, I also know that we survived for a long time without one. There was a time when no one was glued to the screen of our computer or fighting over who was going to be next on the computer. While we still do many other things besides sit in front of the computer we do find that it takes many hours of our time each day. Without Bonnie functioning right, we reclaimed those hours!
This week found us baking cookies, doing more art projects, watching movies together, playing tag outside, feeding the ducks at the park, decorating the house for Halloween and handwriting letters! It’s been a long time since I last sat and hand wrote a letter instead of emailing. It was refreshing!
While it seemed like our world might end when we realized the computer was down, in reality, it gave us a small rebirth. We rediscovered a few fun activities, we accomplished a lot more around the house and with school and we had less arguing since no one could get on the computer! While I wouldn’t want to completely give up my computer and all the wonders that go along with it, it was nice to have a small break from it. I am thankful for the technology that makes my life so much easier but I also love finding those simpler times every now and again.
This week life handed us lemons. Together we made lemonade. It went wonderfully with our homemade cookies.
What are some of your family’s favorite non-computer things to do?
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When Michelle’s computer is up and running she can be found writing about her amazing family at Pass The Flu Bug Please.
photo by bitzcelt
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
One of my favorite things to do is nature walks with my kids. My children actually do not use the computer yet. I am waiting until they are a little older (maybe 7 or 8).
We are discovering board games together.
My husband and I have board games we are fond of but haven’t played much lately. We recently were able to find some versions of our favorite games suitable for younger children and are trying to start up regular playing times.
the list is long, actually (and that’s a good thing, I guess) but we love building things together with legos and Knex, board games, crafts and cooking/baking together is also a fave!