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Married to Nick for 13 years, with 2 children; Sabrina - 12 and Dominic - 11. I am a girlfriend through and through in that I love girly things and anything that celebrates the essence of being a woman. I love vintage, shabby chic, the country and try my best to do my bit for the environment. SO yes...we have 3 bins in our house and try our best to recycle! I believe that with everything in life, the closer we stick to nature, the better off we'll be. I would love to have a balance in life, but have learnt that balance is not always possible, so strive for significance instead, in the hopes that that will be just as meaningful, and the rest will hopefully follow.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Garden gnomes in a techno world.

I am often reminded when I'm in my little "introspective" world that I live in so much of the time, how half of the things we worry about, (or 90%, according to self-help guru's!), never ever, EVER happen!!!...why then, do we even bother??
I then read something interesting in another self help book last night..., (I HIGHLY recommend, "The Monk who sold his Ferrari"), that in a study done of people's thoughts, which we know amounts to about 60 000 thoughts a day - (ahem...we can HALVE THAT for our male counterparts!! LOL!) ...of those 60 000 thoughts, up to 90% of them, are exactly the same thoughts we had the day before....oh no...you have GOT to be kidding me...truly!??? No seriously, I'm embarrassed!...but let's be honest, it's true...we rehash the same stuff over and over and over in our minds...ad nauseum....and then we sometimes wonder why nothing changes??...but it's true of course that our thoughts need to change before we can...oh and wait...my favourite one (yes yes gf's - I know some of you hear this one over and over), but my best is, 'if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get, what you've always got'....

So with that in mind, back to my story, ...one of the things I CONSTANTLY fret about are our children becoming anti-social, techno geeks and/or couch potato TV addicts, and therefore TV and pc's are "outlawed" in our home (me to my DH.."it's the devil I tell you"!!), and we therefore have strict times within which "the twins" (same height, same gene pool, same thing) are allowed to partake of the "forbidden fruit". On the flip side, I then worry that they may become fixated and/or (even worse) the total opposite - "techno phobes" (like some baby boomers I know), in a world where technology rules, (sweating) due to being deprived of things like playstation 1, 2 and 3, and tv on weekdays.
So after much deliberation (years) DH and I decide to take a leap of faith, and introduce some form of "pc/playstation type game" into our home...enter the WII ...(this is big). We then wait with baited breath for the WII hype/overkill/hysteria/"we don't want to do anything else but play WII" to start, ......tap tap... nothing...tap tap...still nothing...and so guess what they spent 5 hours doing on Friday.....?...uh uh...not WII.....but SQUATTING in the garden...building "informal settlements" on the lawn...ie. good old fashioned outdoor play...flitting in and out of the flower beds like little garden gnomes.....and I'm thinking ...."what on earth were 'WII' (me) so worried about??????".
Moral of the story: Why worry...as much?? If anything, I'm trying really hard NOT to worry about the things I know I CANNOT change...oh and one other thing...trying really hard, to think new and happy thoughts, that are DIFFERENT from YESTERDAY!

7 comments:

  1. oh bee we are all the same - and look - our children are balanced and normal and they will grow up just fine they will go thru pubity and develop and freak out and find their feet in life - with or without the tv and the Wii. so well done girlfriend - they look pretty darn healthy and balanced to me.miss you lots, linda

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  2. have no idea why i am now listed as anonymous???? anyhoo its me linda

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  3. I reckon we should pat ourselves on the back for a job well done in raising our kids - we're doing ok ....

    About those thought things - I believe you girl!!! I fret about the same things day in and day out!! It's freaking exhausting and the sad news is that I add something more to yesterdays frets everyday - freak of nature!!! I must have at least 120k a day and adding ... wish I were a man ... Did I just say that???? ewwwwww .... I take it back!!! The hair growth all over freaks me out!!!! It's bad enough that as a woman I have to pluck and wax and stuff .... ewww ....

    Thanks for the inspiration ...

    Love, Tracy

    P.S. I'm still "pimping" my hubby for a dishwasher ... tee hee ...

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  4. Thanks for your thoughtful comment on my blog. I know time is a serious factor for all, inclucing me. Love your brightly coloured photos. Sad that you say you have no time anymore to scrap...

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  5. Hey gf...love the post and I am so with you on the worrying....some wise person once said it is like sitting in a rocking chair, gives you something to do but gets you nowhere...so everyday I try and stand up from that rocker, especially where my 3 precious children are concerned, but I always end up there again I am afraid...sigh.

    Great photos....miss those little faces!
    xxx
    A

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  6. Love reading this post, which is so true about us humans ... fretting about things we have no control over. But, we try not to, but find ourselves fretting over and over again. Have a good Wednesday. Hugs from Desire

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  7. Great post and oh, so true. I must say when my children were growing up I always encouraged them to go and play outside and never ever put them in front of a TV with a video! I try and live by the saying "Don't sweat the small stuff".

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