WARNING: THIS IS A MUCH-TOO-LONG POST. WAY, WAY TOO LONG. IF YOU SKIP IT, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY AT LEAST READ THE LAST FEW LINES.

Hey. Remember me? Yeah, I own this blog.

Why you haven’t heard from me lately:

1. My husband just returned from Africa. He was gone 12 days. He had a great time. Me? Let’s just say, I was glad when he got home. In his absence the munchkins and I enjoyed 1 fever, 1 case of pink eye, 1 unexpected trip to the pediatrician which resulted in the news that my oldest son will have surgery (albeit relatively minor surgery, but somehow when the poor kid’s got to be knocked out cold, it feels less than minor to me, but whatever) and just the basic craziness of three small humans and one frazzled mother. As I said, Brian was gone only 12 days. I kept thinking about all the military families who are separated for months and months or a year or more…and then sometimes, back home again for a few months and then separated again. God bless you people. Really.

Anyway, no time for blogging.

2. Quite frankly, I shouldn’t complain at all about 12 days. After all, my mother was kind enough to stay with me for 7 of those days. And if you don’t have a mother like her, you should. She’ll do anything. She cooks, she cleans, she does laundry, she provides adult conversation, she gladly reads The Emperor’s New Clothes 59 times if necessary, she gives baths, she buys groceries and she’ll even get up in the middle of the night with a crying baby just so you can have a break. God bless her. The only thing I noticed she wouldn’t do is floss teeth. Plunge the toilet? No problem. Floss teeth? “That’s a job for mommy.” I couldn’t quite figure that out, but hey, who am I to complain? Anyway, we had a great time together. Each night after the kids were in bed, we watched documentaries. Because we like them.

No time for blogging.

3. The best thing I love about my mom is that she’s high quality. She’s got amazing life experience, great insight, much wisdom and deep faith. She’s also a bit of a Dallas Willard fan (hi, understatement of the century) which, for some, might seem a little weird, but I love her just the same. I think so highly of my mom and knowing she thinks so highly of Dallas Willard really makes me want to dig him as much as she does, but to be honest, the last time I tried reading one of his books, I think I found myself sitting motionless, eyes glazed over, mouth agape and maybe even a small stream of saliva dribbling out. In other words, he’s so deep, my brain just cannot handle it. Maybe when I’m 50. I digress.

Anyway, so as I was saying, my mom is high quality. I think we have successfully transitioned into friendship which is a gift. Plain and simple. Because I trust her, I am eager to have her speak into my life. I know for myself, an outside perspective usually provides some good food for thought. So, I just asked her if there was anything she observed in my life that she thought needed a little tweaking. She has a way of pointing things out without making you feel like a total loser. She’s good like that. Anyway, some of the things we talked about in that conversation as well as some things I’ve been pondering on my own have basically led me to the realization that I am, at least to some extent, addicted to the internet. I’m not talking about addiction to porn sites or things of that nature, I’m talking about plain, old fashion surfing of the internet. No joke. Did you know there have been studies done on this? Consider:

More than one in eight American adults show signs that they could be suffering from some form of internet addiction after admitting to researchers that they find it hard to limit their use.

A study from Stanford University School of Medicine in California found that “problematic internet use” was present in a sizeable portion of the population.

The study found that many of the respondents admitted that they wanted to spend less time surfing the internet but found it difficult to cut back, with almost six per cent saying that their excessive use had badly affected their relationships. (from Times Online)

The first clue that I had a bona fide problem occurred one day when I had decided in the early morning that I wasn’t going to get online until that evening. Well, within about an hour, I threw my good intentions out the window and hopped online. The real kicker was when I said to myself, “Oh, that’s OK, I can quit whenever I want.” Now that’s scary.

(OK, this post is becoming a short novel. I’ll speed it up.)

Suffice it to say, I need to cut back on my computer (and blogging) time.

4. The last several days Brian and I have been working out some kinks in our relationship—OK, some large knots. It’s amazing how much time and energy this sucks right outta ya. We have talked and processed and argued and processed and talked some more until we are both blue in the face. It makes running for your life so very attractive. But that ain’t an option here. So we work. Hard. And it’s so worth it.

But definitely no time for blogging.

5. If you’ve read my other blog, you’ll know that we are planning to move soon. That means we’re in the process of getting our house ready to sell. It’s amazing how much you realize needs to be fixed, sanded, painted, caulked, repaired, hung, cleaned or replaced once you decide to get rid of the place. I fear we won’t want to leave once we get it all done.

Nevertheless, no time for blogging.

6. One of the byproducts of our move will be a switch from public school to homeschooling. Since the dawn of time I have sworn up and down and around the corner that I would never, ever, under any circumstance homeschool my children, mainly because I had visions of standing at a blackboard in our dining room for 8 hours a day, lecturing to my sorry-looking desk-bound, friendless children, for the next 20 years of my life. Well, that all changed when I heard about a homeschooling family who spent 12 weeks of school touring the Mediterranean. All the stuff they learned in school—you know, like about ancient Greece and Rome and all that jazz—they actually got to see with their own eyeballs. And then it hit me. I could do that. Definitely my kind of homeschooling. In fact, I have already decided that on Day 1 we are setting up a “Mediterranean Fund.” Yes we are. I figure by the time the kids are in middle school, we will have saved enough dinero to be taking our own little 3 month voyage. Yes indeedy.

Anyway, no time for blogging when I’m starting a school ya know.

So there you have it. All the boring details of my life that you probably didn’t need or want to know.

And I hate to end on such an unglamorous note, but this will be my last post…indefinitely. There’s just too much going on. I’ll keep the site up for a while and perhaps one day I’ll show up again with a new and flashier blog.

So for now, farewell o readers. I thank you for the fun.

It’s been real.

(See, I told you I could quit whenever I want.)