Communicate.... less

One of my favorite memories of the early days of dating my hubs was the abundance of notes and letters I got from him. Not that I want to date myself, but this was a time before email, texting and fb were the common forms of communication.

Things I will always remember: how the letter always smelled like him, his beautiful penmanship, and how articulate he was.

A lot gets lost in technology. It feels like we live in an abbreviated world now. Everything has to come faster, and with less information or benefit. Texting during dinner (instead of quality family time), addiction to online games (instead of getting on the floor and playing with the kids), pintrest, facebook, instagram... --- this is my dirty laundry list, feel free to add :). It's what I call cyber reality. Where I convince myself that it's good mental stimulation and at the end of the day it sure has taken a lot of my time. Taking multi-tasking to it's greatest height and maybe one of my epic failures. Don't get me wrong, this form of communication and ability to gain knowledge is great, but in moderation and should be close to the bottom of the list of things you need to do today.

All this to say, take your time and communicate less with your smartphone, laptop, ipad, itouch, etc. Time is a gift.
- Read a book (to encourage you)
- Go on a date (to keep your relationship strong with your spouse) -- and if you can, with 1 phone for emergency calls from the babysitter only
- Read a book to your child (to build your family)
- Play football/games with your children (to build your family)
- Invest in others
   - Send a friend a 'thinking of you' card
   - Host play dates for your kids
   - Make a meal (or desert) for a friend

Ecclesiastes 3:2-8
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.