Time to Think

Not having power from Sunday afternoon until Thursday afternoon last week, and then waiting an additional two days until the internet connection was restored, gave me time to think about how blessed we are to have these "modern" conveniences in our lives. Living out in the country, (actually, I am only two miles away from the city, but I do live on the outskirts of town on 3 acres), we've had plenty of occasions where we've had to use our generator due to the weather. But, never for this length of time. And, we've never been without internet for that long, either.

The generator was such a blessing - we were able to preserve all of our food, and have warm water with which to take showers, and have electricity in our bedroom at night so we could read or watch tv. But, I can't begin to tell you how many times I went to turn on lights when I went into a room! And, the darkness outside seemed even more pronounced at night because we didn't have our outside lights on - our dogs didn't like that part one bit!

Not having internet was horrible. I would reach for my laptop during the day, only to be reminded of its' uselessness. I missed having that outside connection with family and friends. I missed reading the news and my favorite blogs. I missed, especially, not having my email. It's amazing how dependent I've become on this form of communication!

I also became aware that I go on the internet far too often during the day. It's such a time-consumer. So, as a result, I am altering the amount of time spent on this thing. From now on, I will only spend some time on it in the morning, at around noon, and then again in the evening. No more "little visits" throughout the day, which end up being longer visits than I intended.

This week, too, I had time to think about my future, and what God is asking me to do for the next 20 or 30 years of my life. Our financial situation is such (due to loss of income) that now I am going to need to find a job on top of my part-time work in my counseling office. This will be very difficult for me, as I have so many other things going on in my life, so to try to find time to work even more hours will be a challenge. But, it must be done, as college expenses and wedding expenses and retirement are all money-consuming events. Actually, I don't mind working for things when they hold so much value. College is so very important for my girls because they need to have an education so they can support themselves and not be in jobs where they struggle to make ends meet. Nice weddings - not extravagant - will bring me pleasure to help plan with them (and not have a wedding planner due to their huge expense and unneccessary presence because when we can do it ourselves) ; and besides, I would like to give a wedding to my girls because it's something I've always dreamed about doing for them so that they don't have to pay for their own and enter into marriage full of debt (and stress from the debt). And retirement will be the icing on the cake when we reach that milestone and we want to be able to enjoy it.

I had time to think about my relationships with God, with my kids and husband, and with my friends. It's amazing - I realized that with all of them, I needed to devote more time nurturing every single relationship I have. It's not that I've been neglectful, but more like that I've been taking them for granted and thus have not been doing special things for them. I realized that it was time to also take better care of myself, as I've been neglecting some things which are important, and I want to keep on being healthy and stay around for a long time.

I had time to think about my writing, and I realize how much I do miss doing it on a regular basis. So, I am going to try to post at least twice a week, if not more, from now on. Plus, I have a couple of other things on the back burner which I need to start working on and developing.

So, perhaps having the power out and the internet down was a blessing in disguise because it gave me some time to ponder all of these things.

In the meantime, I hope all is well with all of you, and that you have a wonderful week ahead.