So I’ve been off Facebook for like…two weeks now? Only two weeks? It feels like an eternity. My Facebook app is sitting on my phone mocking me with its little notification bubble at the top right corner. I have 54 notifications so far. I’m sure by Easter that will have doubled. Maybe even quadrupled. I am really missing keeping up with my friends. And it has been hard to keep myself from thinking in “status updates.” And to not post adorable pics of my little people doing the adorable things my little people do.
On the flip side it has been really nice to spend less time feeding the addiction that is Facebook. It has been a little weird to not know what’s going on, to ignore status updates and messages and pokes or not to be posting things like “Had an awesome day!” or “Elly just took her first steps!” I haven’t shared pictures of my new tattoo or uploaded any videos of Evie singing. Definitely just weird.
I gave up Facebook for Lent. And so far it has definitely been a challenge and a sacrifice. I considered several other things, like chocolate or wine, and while those would have certainly been missed they wouldn’t have been irreplaceable voids in my daily life. I’m kinda trying to regain some religious focus in my life and felt like giving up something really hard for Lent was a good place to start. My family hasn’t really been going to church recently, especially since some interpersonal drama has been going on at the church where I am technically a member. Not being on Facebook has reduced all the social media noise in my life.
So, what am I up to? What have I been doing since I gave up Facebook?
Well, this past Sunday the Dowd family went to Mass at the Catholic church in Mount Airy. I have enjoyed every time I have been there in the past. Since the first time I went back when I was preggo with little Evie I have felt something…a push, a desire, whatever…making me want to go back. My husband works late and isn’t usually able to accompany us to church and with the girls I am a bit outnumbered taking them anywhere by myself. I have always sorta wanted to go to church as a family with my parents and my children so that we are all there together. So despite my desire to go to the Catholic church I was kind of cowed into going to the Baptist church with my parents so that I would have some help with my kids and so that it would be more of a ‘family’ church experience. I’m not really sure why I felt that was so important. But I did.
Now that the girls are a bit older it isn’t quite so daunting to take them places by myself. And I get absolutely nothing from going to my parents’ church about 98% of the time. Occasionally I get mildly offended by someone using church to preach about their political opinions. And every once in awhile I might get something from the message. But most of the time the service was more discouraging than uplifting and rarely did I leave church feeling better than when I went in.
In direct contrast, every time I have left Mass I have been excited to come back. I have felt uplifted and have felt like the message was exactly what I needed to hear. Even this past Sunday, when we were 10 minutes late and both girls were a bit fussy during the service, I enjoyed it. And I’m looking forward to going back this weekend.
Some people have had less than nice things to say about me going to a Catholic church. Which kinda bothers me but not enough to deter me from going. I don’t have an opinion on where other people go to church as long as they are getting something positive from it. I fully support religious freedom and a person’s right to choose where and how to practice their faith. I wish everyone would show the same respect for me and my family. So many people claim to support religious freedom but really what they support is everyone being free to believe the way they believe and go to the kind of church they go to. It really offends me! Some of my friends have been really supportive, even excited for me. Excited that my family may have a church that we can go to every week and enjoy and get something from. Supportive of our decision to go where we want to go, practice how we want to practice and believe what we want to believe. I really appreciate that.
The only thing I don’t really like is that to become “Catholic” or a member of a Catholic church you have to be confirmed first. As an adult you have to take a sort of class and become knowledgeable in the faith and kinda be tested. Children go through it as a normal part of their Sunday school classes and all.
Other than the religious news, I have also taken on a rather large personal task in the last week: I am relearning Spanish. I was mostly fluent when I was in college. I took two years of classes in high school and then two more years in college but after fulfilling the course requirement I pretty much stopped using it. As a result, I lost the language. At my job, I regularly need to be able to speak Spanish and it would be a handy skill to have out in the world. Also, studies have shown how much easier children can learn a second language in the first few years of life. And they have done studies showing how much more efficiently a bi-lingual person’s brain can work. I don’t know that my children will need Spanish in their adult life but I feel like knowing a second language would be beneficial. And they’re already learning some vocabulary from their Dora obsession. Evie has used Spanish words SEVERAL times without any prompting. Like saying “arriba” when she raises a car to the top of the ramp and then “abajo” when she releases it to go down the ramps. I’m thinking I will get back to a regular speaking level and start talking to them some in Spanish as well as letting them listen to the Spanish CDs with me. When they are old enough to start reading and using a computer, they can then use the PC software to learn to speak, read and write more Spanish so that hopefully by first grade they are reading and writing English and Spanish.
Still need to find a couple of Spanish speakers to help me keep it up once I get back to speaking fluently. But in the mean time I have been spending about 30-60 minutes every day working with Rosetta Stone. I have been doing some written assignments and listening to the audio companion that came with the software. I have only finished one unit so far. There are four units in the first level and there are five levels in total in the program. So I have quite a bit of work ahead of me. But I absolutely love Spanish (no really!) and so far, even though it has been time consuming, it has mostly been review for me. The hardest part will be picking back up all the vocabulary and remembering some of the weird verbs. But so far so good! And it feels good to be doing something other than just the same old routine every day. Who would have thought I’d like getting re-educated?
Hmm, what else…?
Still loving my minivan. Driving it is awesome. We made a family trip this past weekend for a birthday party and it went great. We let the girls watch Dora in the back while Josh and I listened to the radio up front. Babies fell asleep on the way home and we easily transitioned them from their car seats to their beds for a brief nap. Life with my two is much simpler with a minivan! Who would have thought?!?
Also got a new tattoo. My first foot/ankle piece. Absolutely love it but dreading having to go back to get it touched up. Because honestly it REALLY hurt. Haha. Pics to follow! Maybe I will even do a post on the whole meaning and reason behind the tattoo.
Hope everyone is doing well. I miss keeping up with you all but Easter will be here before you know it!
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