Spice of Life

 Some people decide not to have kids until after they've started their "career".  Sometimes you go to college and still don't know what you want to "do" and you decide to start having kids then...(like me).  I have four kids and my oldest is thirteen.  I graduated from my undergrad about fifteen years ago and this year decided to go back to school.  Over the past five years I've been thinking about what I really want to "do"...at first I thought I wanted to go to massage school, then I thought maybe I wanted to get a degree in women and gender studies...then I finally realized what my real passion is for: social justice.  So, I started a certificate program with Harvard Extension School that I must complete within three years.  The other night my ten year old daughter asked me, "do you have to do your college over summer break?"  I said, "well first of all...it's not 'college' and yes, I'm taking a class over summ...

 Things I have noticed since beginning my Facebook detox and deciding to take a long "break"... -I have a renewed sense of hope in humanity.  Yes, I know that we still disagree about a lot and there is still a lot of "bad" things happening...but I don't have it constantly in my face, which is WONDERFUL. -QUIET.  I don't have a constant stream of negativity bombarding my brain, distracting me from the beauty around me. -TIME to sit down and play with and focus on my children.  To really listen to them without being distracted by notifications. -I can look at people around me and just look at them, without thinking about what they "posted" on Facebook or what ridiculous meme they re-shared....and I'm sure this goes both ways, they can just look at me without thinking of those things too! So far I am really enjoying this break.  This is not to say I will never go back but when I do, I will definitely have better restrictions for myself and I don...

 When I was in middle school I tried cigarettes for the first time and thought, wow, I could easily get addicted to this.  Turns out what I have gotten addicted to is Facebook and that is what they want after all.  I just finished watching The Social Dilemma today (can you tell?!).  For a while I have been struggling with what to do about Facebook and watching that documentary just clinched it for me, I'm done for real this time. A while after we moved to Iowa, I had what I like to call "the Facebook debacle".  I won't go into great detail but essentially I posted some things (mostly about Trump) that didn't go over well and I was "talked to" about it.  I was told that I need to tone it down because there are some people here that really like him.  The way I interpreted that was, I think differently and that's not okay...or at least maybe I should just keep it to myself.  If you know me well you know that I'm an open book and I'm not at all a...