posted with gratitude

I started preparing for dinner at 7.30 yesterday morning, putting a gigantic piece of (home kill)  corned beef in my slow cooker - and reflected on the marvels of modern appliances as the day wore on.

I walked to school with kids, in the sun, and stopped to chat a while with other mums not seen for some time.

Back home to work - remotely and in the quiet - before I  picked up my son and took him to an ear/nose/throat specialist who explained the amazingly complicated human body in simple and 6-year-old friendly terms, and handed me a quote for $5000 to fix some ongoing health issues.  We stopped at the McDonald's drive through for some hot chips and returned to school in time for a PTA fundraising sausage sizzle.

All the while, the slow cooker bubbled away, the potatoes baked in the oven.  The bread maker did it's thing. The spa pool heated gently.  The ice cream waited in the freezer.   The ipod blasted out sounds whilst I vacuumed and steam mopped before guests arrived.  I wandered about Facebook in between times, catching up with friends in three different countries.

At three o-clock, I met with four other friends and their children at the ice cream shop, where we sat in the sun and the kids chased each other with over sized sticks and threatened each other with sticky fingers.

By 4.30 I was back home, pouring a glass of wine and surveying a clean house and a nearly cooked meal.

And then my friends arrive for dinner.  Four adults, 4 kids and teenager all enjoyed slow cooked corned beef, baked potatoes, massive platter of salad and home made bread.  We had a simple dessert of ice cream in a cone and warm mini donuts.

After dinner the children jumped in the spa pool (a new addition to my outdoor living space) and the adults talked about everything and nothing for an hour or two.

It was a day of amazing simplicity - and also a celebration of the marvels of technology.  But overall, it was a day of gratitude.  What an amazing place I live in.  What fabulous friends I have.  How blessed I am to have such luxuries and conveniences at my fingertips.

What are you grateful for today?

the double edged sword of technology

Some months ago I was introduced to Google calendar. I was sceptical - I'm organised, efficient, with a relatively good memory, and a perfectly adequate calendar hanging on the wall (in the same place for the past 5 years in fact). Why did i need an electronic calendar? just more information to remember to input right? just more reminders and emails to wade through each morning surely?

Well, because I am so openminded and willing to try new things (;)), I gave it a go. Now, a year down the track, I seriously don't know what I would do with out it. Everything I do is on there - the hours I put into my jobs, the pickups and drop offs for school, dancing, visits to Dad, play dates, sleepovers, my hobbies, church and community commitments, my dance classes! I find now i've turned into one of those people that says, 'oh the 15th? eerm, let me check my diary and get back to you...'. It's brilliant!

But the one thing that worries me...have I - have we all - become too reliant on technology? Sure, i would remember MOST of the things on each days schedule, but certainly not all. And I love being able to input something 3 or 6 or more weeks (or months) away and then be able to put it out of my mind until much closer to the time. Add on my mobile phone, the only place i keep easily retrieveable contact information. Places like Facebook where I can catch up on my friends comings and goings. Email. Blog feeds. Twitter. TradeMe to buy anything I want. iTunes and the MP3 player. Live updates on world events on the internet.

downside: I have a pile of books beside the bed, largely unread. Can't remember the last time I read a newspaper from front to back. I hardly watch the TV (oh...that's good, right!).

upside: Both of my main jobs are done largely via email and telephone which affords me the luxury of working from home, at any time of the day or night, to fit around kids. I compose the Village Voice using email, send it off via email for formatting and get it back as a finished publisher document. so so easy. The time i spend with 'real people' is real time - meaningful conversation with friends, fun with the children, being in the outdoors, enjoying music.

Conclusion - reliant? yes. addicted?..well maybe. balanced...yes for sure.
converted? absolutely!