Presidential Barbie

So it’s only been about 2 years or less since I started following SharonSaysSo on Instagram, but I like her content and it’s one of the places I get my news from. She also does a paid book club that I’ve done 2 “semesters” of and have really enjoyed. I only do them when she picks books I’m interested in reading or meeting the author (online, of course). Anyway, I saw that she was coming to Utah to speak. My sister also follows her and texted me to see if I wanted to go. She was able to get us tickets and last night we drove down to UVU for the event. She’s a great speaker and I had an excellent time. I just love the idea that no matter what your political beliefs, everybody can get involved in making the government and communities in which we live better. That normal, everyday people can make a difference. That was the gist of her message last night. Anyway, well worth the trip down there on a “school” night and worth only getting 6 hours of sleep last night. :)

This is the only picture I took. She said she was dressed as Presidential Barbie, which is hilarious. 

Social Media Break

I have finished a 10 day “fast” from social media. I stayed off (almost) all of my social media sites, plus blogs and podcasts too.  

It was super easy to stay off Facebook. I’ve not been on it much anyway. Twitter was easy. Pinterest was fairly easy. I do have a lot of recipes saved there so I grabbed a few during the 10 days, but it was easy not to browse. Instagram was a little harder, though I did it. I have that set up so I can see pictures of things that make me happy and I kind of missed it. GoodReads was hard. In fact I just plain didn’t make it. I did not realize this, but I don’t think I’ve decided on a book to read without looking at reviews for years, at least not for stand alones and first books in a series. I replaced podcasts with some audio books from the library and I had a hard time deciding which ones based only on the synopsis on the library website. Plus, I wanted to post the books I read because that’s how I keep track of them. I do stay off GoodReads for days at a time when I travel or go on vacation, but I just didn’t like not using it while I’m home and in my regular reading pattern. Kind of crazy to think about it. So I while I did limit my usage, I didn’t stay off completely.

Also, I probably get on social media more at work than at home. Oopsy! That is a crazy realization. I replaced some of that time with reading the news or reading up about other topics online when I needed a break. I missed some of my book blogs but others blogs I found I could do just fine without. 

The whole point of this was to take a break and figure out which, if any, of my social media habits were making me unhappy or having a negative influence on my life.  The results? I waste a lot of time on GoodReads. I should watch that a little bit better. The sites that don’t make me happy or feeling a bit negative are Facebook and Twitter. I already knew that about FB, so months ago I stopped logging in very much, and then maybe in September, I turned off all notifications on my phone so now I have to log in to see them at all. I love it. Twitter is like my negative news feed and I’ve realized it more now. I know I have the ability to change what I see so I think some changes might be in order before I get back on it. If I get back on it. I need that balance between knowing what is going on in the world and my own sanity, but I can get news from other sources.

So I missed some social media, but some I can do without. I did not fill that time with other, good things, but hopefully, I got more work done. When I logged on to a bunch of sites again this morning, I just thought Huh. I’ve been wondering what I’ve been missing, but the answer is: not much.

How is it March Already?

This year I bought the kids tickets to Disney on Ice for their birthday present. The ones old enough to go, at least. We went on Saturday. The kids had fun so I guess it was worth it. As an adult I would have liked to see more figure skating type of skating but that’s just me. Then yesterday after family dinner we played outside with bubbles. It feels so good to have Spring coming. It’s supposed to be a beautiful week here.

I tried to catch up on the news this morning and then after the first depressing story, I decided I’d had enough.  Some days I just can’t do it.

I’m not the savviest social media person by any means. I use Goodreads, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, in that order. Goodreads is definitely the place I waste the most time. What can I say, when I’m not reading books, I’m reading about books. I save recipes on Pinterest but other than that, I don’t spend a lot of time there anymore. Instagram is fun but I don’t use it all that often. I’ve tweeted exactly 10 things in the 3 years I’ve had my Twitter account.  I get on FB when I get notifications, mostly to get rid of them. I’ve been cutting way down on social media.  I’m happier when I’m not constantly inundated with bad news and crazy goings on.  I like seeing family fun times and good things about people but any more, I feel like I have to wade through a bunch of junk to see that. So I just don’t and I don’t miss it.  Like everything in life, I suppose balance is key.  

So lots of family time this weekend and it was great. It’s definitely where I’d rather be spending my time. We have ideas of some things we want to do together this spring and summer and I’m looking forward to it.