{"id":4688,"date":"2011-11-09T06:49:29","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T23:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/?p=4688"},"modified":"2011-11-09T06:49:35","modified_gmt":"2011-11-08T23:49:35","slug":"how-i-unconnected-with-my-family-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/how-i-unconnected-with-my-family-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Unconnected with My Family This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Lori Cunningham<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About our Weekend<\/span><\/p>\n

Just wanted to give you a brief update how my weekend went with my family after we accepted the Shout Unplug & Play<\/a> Weekend Challenge. \u00a0I wrote about my apprehension in my Can I Unplug for an Entire Weekend? <\/a>article. \u00a0Before starting\"\"<\/a> my weekend, I was\u00a0chastised\u00a0by my mom tech friends, though not all of them, for taking up such a silly challenge.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, my daughter held strong and was very eager for us to start our unplugged weekend. \u00a0She was pretty strict, insisting that I don’t even used my electric toothbrush! \u00a0I carried no phone, no cool Striiv pedomete<\/a>r (of which I’m pretty addicted to), and I didn’t check my e-mail once.<\/p>\n

Here’s what we did this weekend:<\/strong><\/p>\n

SATURDAY<\/strong> – we enjoyed my five-year old son’s football game and my eight-year old daughter’s soccer game in the morning. \u00a0Afterwards, I was feeling under the weather from a bad cold I’ve had all week, it finally got the better of me. \u00a0Off\u00a0I went to bed for a couple of hours. \u00a0My husband worked outside and played with the kids enjoying the California\u00a0 sunshine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After my nap I noticed a little bit of wind (outside that is!) \u00a0We set up the ultra cool 3D kite we had purchased years ago\u00a0and ran outside to see if we could fly it. \u00a0The kite soared into the wind streamers flapping, amazing everyone. \u00a0Soon afterwards, it nose-dived, but we tried again, finding spurts of wind and soaring success…until it got caught in a tree. \u00a0Oh yeah, I remember kites in trees now from my childhood, that’s usually how each of my kite flying sessions ended! \u00a0With some ingenuity (and a folded up paper lying around), we\u00a0retrieved\u00a0our princess fairy kite and headed inside.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Later we played Blunders, a fun game I found at the ASTRA toy show<\/a>, that teaches kids about manners. \u00a0We had a great time and I loved how the game taught kids how to set the table through play. \u00a0Then, the kids went off to bed. \u00a0Without the computer or TV’s interference, my husband and I talked for a couple of hours, catching up.<\/p>\n

SUNDAY<\/strong> – despite the time change, we arrived on time, even early, to church. \u00a0Unfortunately, it rained all day long. \u00a0Our ideas for a fun picnic at the park were squelched, well, at least partially. \u00a0We set up our blanket on our family room floor and had a picnic. \u00a0The kids loved this idea. \u00a0I had done this once before when my daughter was 3. \u00a0Wow, it took me 5 years to do it again? \u00a0We all had a blast.<\/p>\n

After the picnic we baked shrinky dinks, another favorite from my childhood. \u00a0Later, my husband took the kids for a dunk in our hot spa, enjoying the rain clouds and rain drops. \u00a0A fun end to a fun day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lessons Learned<\/span><\/h2>\n

I learned a number of lessons from this unplugged weekend:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • If I can unplug for a whole weekend, I can do anything!<\/li>\n
  • By the excitement of my daughter anticipating this weekend, I’m obviously a little too “connected.”<\/li>\n
  • Weekends last longer if you disconnect from your work and your tirade of e-mail’s.<\/li>\n
  • My kids aren’t the only ones preoccupied with their Pet Hotel, Pet Shop, Bakery, Garden Glee, Smurfs and other games. \u00a0I’m always “helping them out” by working on these games when they’re at school, but they are a time sucker.<\/li>\n
  • Flying a kite is so fun…I found a new great activity that the whole family loves doing together.<\/li>\n
  • My husband and kids are the best and I’m so thankful to have been in the moment with them this past weekend.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    How about you, are you a little too “plugged” in with your gadgets?<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A summary of my weekend after unplugging from ALL gadgets for an entire weekend! Lessons learned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,14],"tags":[728,936,159],"class_list":["post-4688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gadgets","category-moms","tag-blunders","tag-connection","tag-manners","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}