Update on Challenge

I have to admit that I have struggled with this challenge. I did well for a few days and then fell off the wagon. It is a seductive pull. That screen. It calls you.

Things that I began doing again:
1. carrying the phone around the house with me
2. texting some
3. googling a little


However, my biggest "fail" was in substituting! ahhhhhh!  I put the phone away and I had all this "free" time. So how do I fill it up? I grab my laptop and begin digging my way through 3+ years of family photos to compile a folder that I can then use to create a digital photo album to print from a site such as Shutterfly.

So I have spent the better of the last 6 or so days doing that. My daughter just traded her "you're always on your phone" complaint for "you're always looking at photos" complaint. UGH

Now I have completed my task. I compiled a folder of 418 photos, 412 photos uploaded to Shutterfly, and successfully created a 75 page family photo album of the last 3+ years!!!!  I am equal parts elated and embarrassed about this.

Elated that I found the time (finally) to make a family photo album, as I was so, so, so far behind. And honestly, I want my children to have those photo albums to remember our family trips, events, and daily silliness later in their lives. Yes, we have digitally saved ALL photos EVER taken of our family. Unfortunately, they were in no certain order and several (SEVERAL) different folders and very mixed up to look at in that format. Now, they will have a chronological order of the past 3 years of family life and not spend hours trying to figure out their parents' scattered way of saving photos. LOL

I am embarrassed that I traded one screen for another. To me, that is a big fail.

What's done is done at this point. So, to move on......

I will begin again and revisit my thoughts on this challenge. While I feel I have made great strides in curbing my phone usage (and I have evidence by looking at app usage under the battery function!!!), it will be a continuous work in progress.

My family is highly into screens. We have TVs, tablets, Ipads, handheld video games, as well as video game systems (more than 1....more than 3). My kids spend a lot of time watching cartoons, YouTube, and playing video games.

This challenge is for me. But also for them. I want to show them that life can be lived without devices and that it can be fun and rewarding and adventurous even. I need to set the example. I need to BE the change that I want to see. This is my challenge. I will succeed.