Unplugged.

Last week, a girlfriend of mine posted on facebook that she was participating in the National Day of Unplugging.  I thought this was a great idea, not only because its about putting it all away to be connected in real time with real humans, but because I have a tendency to feel the need to be plugged in and this would challenge that feeling.  Surely I could go a full 24 hours without the TV on or my laptop on.  

Really I didn't have a lot to unplug, we don't have cable to tempt us with hourly scheduled programming and my dinosaur-age cell doesn't do anything fancy anyway - not even take photos!  Kevin is the one that has the Blackberry and iPod which I would assume acts as a life line for him at times, however he was willing to let those things rest over the 24 hours.  

We started at 5pm on Friday night.  I was home with a sick Karis in the afternoon, so I had a chance to do all my last minute blog reading and facebook checking before picking up Kamille at daycare.  On our way home I reminded her that we would not be turning the TV on to watch a video.  This would have been her biggest disappointment as I still had three princess movies that we had rented from the video store this week for her at-home sick day she took on Wednesday.  She managed the unplugged idea all in stride.  

The plan was working out beautifully.  Kevin rolled around on the floor with the girls while I made dinner.    We had a should we/shouldn't we moment when Kevin went to turn on music using our Apple TV set up.  We decided to opt for the radio instead - yes, its a plug in, but it doesn't disrupt connecting with each other.  

While eating dinner together we were plotting ideas for our Saturday morning family activity.  There was a moment when I reached for my lap top to look up the local Events Guide that I access online, however, I stopped in my tracks.  Hmmm...interesting.  How was I going to find out what was going on in town tomorrow?  No events guide, no facebook to get the inside scoop from anyone in the know.  We decided on a family walk with a destination all in the spirit of seeing where that might take us!  

My big dilemma came after the girls went down and Kevin left for a night out with the guys.  So, my Masters program is an ONLINE program.  That means that everything happens virtually.  No internet means no assignments, no researching, no connections with others.  With a 20 page paper due in exactly 2 weeks from the night, and no effort yet made towards it, I HAD to use my night alone in the house to do school.  I hoped to get as much information from my textbook as possible, but as the night went on and my textbook readings were less and less relevant to the topic of my paper I caved and broke the Unplugged rule.  I had to!  I was VERY strict with  myself and went straight to my school site and ONLY researched for my paper.  Nothing else.  It was as close to and as boring as having my head in a textbook.  Promise!  What I did notice was just how much work I actually got accomplished!  There was no wandering on over to facebook to have a look, no checking in on a blog or editing a few photos in iPhoto.  Nothing but school means no procrastination strategies.   Someone really should enforce this rule on me nightly!  It was a good lesson!

Anyway, the morning came and we prepared for our morning walk with only one use of Kevin's Blackberry to cue up meeting with Rory and his two boys.  Stacey was working and wasn't able to join us but we had an awesome morning in the sun and milder temperature.  Gus and Kamille had a great time climbing up snow mounds and checking out the trains at the Railway Museum.  

In the afternoon, I had a great activity planned that took us outside and had us together, unplugged.  I had bought a coconut earlier in the week.  As a kid, I can recall my dad taking us to the basement where he taught us all about coconuts and we cracked them open and drank the juice from it.  I thought it would be a fun activity with the girls.  Turns out I was the only one with an exciting interest.  

The initial interest didn't last long after this.  With Kamille's force we would have been there all day!  

Eventually Kevin stabbed that coconut and I passed it around for a sip that was not well received.

And the darn thing took way too long to try to crack open, so I ended up throwing it on the ground and it broke open.  

 Although Kevin will tell you that he cracked it open with his bare hands.

Turns out that the coconut was hard and smelled as bad as the juice tasted.  A very anti-climactic experience, but family-time none the less.  

Maybe she'll remember her first coconut experience just like I remember mine!  

And I must say that Kevin and I also had a yes/no debate over me using my camera.  He insisted that it should be included in the Unplugged experience.  I said no and that if I didn't download during the unplugged time, it was not taking away from being with him or the girls, but rather documenting our time together.  I obviously won!  

Having this time together really gave me the chance to focus in on the smaller things.  Like Kamille's face that has the faint beginnings of becoming a freckle face just like her mama.  Wow!

A couple days ago I had noticed them on her nose and kind of had mixed feelings.  So silly, yes.  I just remember how long it took me to embrace my own freckles and I hope for only a positive experience for my budding freckle face!   We are celebrating them and I attempted to get some photos of them so we can show them off to our family!

This is really the only photo that you can see them in.  And even still you have to look closely.  They are baby freckles, not yet fully there!  They are so cute on her nose!  

What I also noticed in this time together is that I might have a little actress!  She was more than happy to give me a full range of feeling faces!  I love it.  I would call out a feeling and she would give me the face!  She loved it!

She is so awesome!
Our 24-hours of Unplugged ended with a great Lego play on the carpet.  Kevin and Kam made some great structures together.

Kevin's attempts to act like he's bored!

So when I announced that we had made it 24.5 hours without any plug ins for entertainment value, both Kevin and Kam reached for the Apple TV remote and snuggled on the couch together to watch a cartoon.  Ha!  At least they stayed together!

It was a painless and very cool experience!  I certainly learned a lot about just how much I actually think about the use of my laptop and when it comes into play for me on any given day.   What I liked most was that it actually seemed like I had less expectations for the day, more time to slow down, more time to invest in my girls and time to listen to Kevin.
Its not that I spend a huge amount of time online or in iPhoto, but I think the little snippets here and there add up.

Thank you Kari for putting the idea out there (on facebook) and thanks for the inspiration (through your blog!)  When it comes down to it, being plugged-in does have its advantages too!