Content

Content or content? This could be about either meaning of the word.

A little note about the “tech detox” I mentioned in my last post. Since then for most of the week, I have deleted the Instagam app and Facebook app off my phone. I’m not sharing as much and I’m starting to be ok with it. I can definitely feel the urge to want to share things, things that really don’t even matter! I stop myself from sharing and it’s a good reflection for staying in the moment.

I’ve been caught up on laundry for the first time in a long time, I organized Leander’s clothes and toys from birth to now and put them in labeled bins (been wanting to do that forever!) I even brought the excess to Once Upon a Child and made $80! All things I would still be behind on. Sadly I would use my down time to relax and scroll Social Media. It’s really beautiful to start noticing that good feeling of doing your job well. My job right now is being a Mom and keeping house. I always had a nagging feeling I should be getting something done when I was using my phone for a mental break (which isn’t even a break!!) and I should have been! Not saying we don’t need breaks from house keeping, I’m saying I don’t need breaks from “not” house keeping. Anyways my sense of accomplishment is going way up and things are looking tidier around here. 

Something else I wanted to touch on about Instagram specifically. I feel this tug to share a lot. Maybe it’s my own ego, or wanting to feel important, or seeing everyone else doing it. I listened to a podcast recently that was talking about Instagram and how curated it is on purpose. Most of the people I follow and compare myself to have beautiful feeds and I love following along with their lives. I just have to remind myself that it is literallly their JOB to post frequently and keep a dialogue going with followers. It’s not my job. It’s not my job to create content! I want to stop trying to be somebody, and just start being small. A friend reminded me of this, it’s ok to just be small. It’s something I’m really starting to desire. To not overshare. 

On the flip side I have had many conversations lately about the positive side of Social Media. Key word social. The moms of our age have it a lot different, we are more isolated in our day to day lives then we were 100 years ago. It used to be that women would be working together a lot when it came to cooking and chores and raising kids, even inter-generationally, but also within the community. We don’t have that, moms now are supposed to do it all on their own, while maintaining the house and a social life among many, many other things. Sometimes we need that connection online to see that other moms are doing it too, and being positive about it! 

I have gotten so much encouragement and ideas from other moms online over my past two years of being a mom! And I’ve also had people tell me that I am encouraging them with some of the things I post. That’s the only thing I want. I want what I share to be like an acronym I heard once: THINK (before you post), is it True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, and Kind. Most of the time yes, but sometimes it’s unnecessary for me to be on my phone especially if I am bored or tired or uninspired and sharing things just to share or just for validation or connection. There are other ways to get connection. Like playing with Leander, taking Jett outside, listening to a book, using my hands to actually do physical work. Things that ground me. 

It’s all so interesting to me how much we need to go back in time and learn again the skills of what work is. (Or maybe it’s just me #entitled) I’m really working on this. I have a strong pull towards chilling out on the couch and it’s not all that good for me! But hey, I’m making progress and I’m going to count that as a win. Let me know what your strategies are for living in this age, and what you are doing to slow it down.

This print of my great-great-uncle’s cabin makes me think of the good life and helps remind me of my dream to make my home a little cabin that we don’t need to travel to to find peace.