our hearts are restless until they rest in you
Pippa's orthoptics appointment got moved up to yesterday because I had noticed her eyes crossing again. The orthoptist confirmed that the bifocals were not working. I'm supposed to get a call this week to move up the ophthalmology appointment.
Last time, which was the time we got the bifocal prescription, we were told, "if bifocals don't work, she will need surgery." So now I'm concerned about that of course. :(
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Today was my first day of doing a partial internet fast. I was surprised to discover that the most difficult and challenging part was having instant gratification of curiosity denied. Stuff like, we have a French press, and within a half hour of waking, I was thinking, "I wonder if there's any difference in caffeine content between a French press and drip coffee." On an ordinary day, I would quickly whip over to Google and look it up. Today, I couldn't. And I had many many instances of that. I realized that it isn't that I sit on the computer for hours--I wasn't doing that. I assumed that I was going to really miss having my morning email check and blog read (which is what I usually do during or after breakfast). I hardly missed it at all. But having to WAIT until naptime to find out stuff that really ISN'T important was like having an itch I couldn't scratch!
(In case I've just given you an itch, French press coffee usually has less caffeine than drip coffee.)
It made me realize that my problem isn't that I tune out altogether--I'm not the mom who sits on the computer for two hours and ignores her children or yells at them when they interrupt her, as I had for some reason a fear I might be. It's that I'm too willing to pull myself away from a task "just for a moment" to look something up. I really don't want to be a mom, wife, or friend who pulls myself out of an interaction to look something up on my phone! I've only now realized I must have been doing that!
That's something I could not have discovered about myself, without giving this up, so I'm really glad I decided to try it.
I'm also really glad that I was able to start with a partial fast day because it was much easier to resist the temptation when I knew I would have an hour or two of internet use at naptime. I know now that Friday is going to be REALLY hard and hard in a different way than I expected. Forewarned is forearmed, and knowing is half the battle, etc.
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I finished Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives. The book's ending is kind of weird, it just ends. It did not feel like a conclusion, which I remember the other two books having. So that was strange. It could have really used some kind of epilogue or summing up.
I've started St. Augustine's Confessions and I am really surprised. I have put off reading this book for a long time because I thought it would be a hard slog and emotionally draining, but so far, it's nothing but intriguing, uplifting, and thought-provoking in a stimulating way. I wonder if maybe I've been affected by the typical covers of the editions I've seen. My own paperback has a picture of the saint upon it where it looks like he's seriously considering slitting his wrists.
Last time, which was the time we got the bifocal prescription, we were told, "if bifocals don't work, she will need surgery." So now I'm concerned about that of course. :(
---
Today was my first day of doing a partial internet fast. I was surprised to discover that the most difficult and challenging part was having instant gratification of curiosity denied. Stuff like, we have a French press, and within a half hour of waking, I was thinking, "I wonder if there's any difference in caffeine content between a French press and drip coffee." On an ordinary day, I would quickly whip over to Google and look it up. Today, I couldn't. And I had many many instances of that. I realized that it isn't that I sit on the computer for hours--I wasn't doing that. I assumed that I was going to really miss having my morning email check and blog read (which is what I usually do during or after breakfast). I hardly missed it at all. But having to WAIT until naptime to find out stuff that really ISN'T important was like having an itch I couldn't scratch!
(In case I've just given you an itch, French press coffee usually has less caffeine than drip coffee.)
It made me realize that my problem isn't that I tune out altogether--I'm not the mom who sits on the computer for two hours and ignores her children or yells at them when they interrupt her, as I had for some reason a fear I might be. It's that I'm too willing to pull myself away from a task "just for a moment" to look something up. I really don't want to be a mom, wife, or friend who pulls myself out of an interaction to look something up on my phone! I've only now realized I must have been doing that!
That's something I could not have discovered about myself, without giving this up, so I'm really glad I decided to try it.
I'm also really glad that I was able to start with a partial fast day because it was much easier to resist the temptation when I knew I would have an hour or two of internet use at naptime. I know now that Friday is going to be REALLY hard and hard in a different way than I expected. Forewarned is forearmed, and knowing is half the battle, etc.
---
I finished Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives. The book's ending is kind of weird, it just ends. It did not feel like a conclusion, which I remember the other two books having. So that was strange. It could have really used some kind of epilogue or summing up.
I've started St. Augustine's Confessions and I am really surprised. I have put off reading this book for a long time because I thought it would be a hard slog and emotionally draining, but so far, it's nothing but intriguing, uplifting, and thought-provoking in a stimulating way. I wonder if maybe I've been affected by the typical covers of the editions I've seen. My own paperback has a picture of the saint upon it where it looks like he's seriously considering slitting his wrists.