Our First Unplugged Sunday

Written by Heather
This was originally posted on my blog, Beauty that Moves.

One week ago we made a decision to welcome Sundays acoustic style, sort of. Yesterday was our first go at it. Oh my, we are seriously onto something very good for our family. 

The plan was to not turn on computers, Ipods, TV, or other similar devices. Any items that could be used for pleasure such as the camera, wood working tools, stereo for music, etc... that's all good. It's the techy things that tend to represent an energy drain and time expense that we'd like a break from once a week.

"Sort of" acoustic style because we are not opposed to watching a movie at night to wind the day down together. But there is no random channel surfing just to pass the time. I think Adam and I would pass on the movie, but it is something Emily enjoys, and I'm all about teenagers having fun with their family rather than looking for fun elsewhere.

I also say "sort of" because we are very open to using the car... our home is in a relatively urban area with no green space in walking distance. It's a challenge for our tree and trail loving souls, but we make the most of it. So for our family, a car definitely has a place during Unplugged Sunday.

Fortunately, we are within very quick driving distance to some pretty cool places (we remind ourselves of this often during those times we feel suffocated by urban living). Yesterday, we never wandered further than ten miles from home. Very nice.

We, like so many of you, have a desire to slow our family down a little more. Those that know us in real life may read this and think I'm nutty for feeling a need to quiet things even more. We are viewed as a very family/home centered group of people, on the surface it may not appear there are too many places to cut back. But there are, there always are.

Our computers are centrally located in our home. This works really well for our homeschooling, mom working from home, teenager on the internet lifestyle. The downside is a quick email check or internet search when an idea pops into your head is a little too convenient - and it's easy to let thirty minutes pass when you only intended to be on the computer for five. Or a quick game on the Ipod lingers for an hour without the player realizing. You may know how it is...

So this is how we hope for Sundays to look from now on (adding a morning soccer game to the mix starting next week). It's a pretty bold step, and it feels a little crazy sharing about this after only one week of doing so, but we were all very inspired by the volume of time we had on our hands yesterday and the many enjoyable things we were able to experience at such a slow and easy pace.

Unplugged Sunday... seems to be just what we were looking for. 

Good Monday morning to you!