Tim and I made the decision to stop blogging a few weeks ago and I have to say that since that time I have had fewer and fewer doubts about the wisdom of the decision.

When I first hopped on the Internet express, I was alert and aware of all the potential ways that I could stumble into sin. It seemed the Internet could offer up any sin on a platter and my job was to be careful. I knew I needed to avoid evil.

In the end, it was not the evil things on the Internet, not even the arguments and negativity, but rather the good things that bogged me down. So many, many good things. Pictures of decorated houses, libraries, recipes, book suggestions (this alone has been enough to almost drown me), crafts, knitting, aprons, sewing, frugality, weather, poetry, audio files, friends, homeschooling suggestions, music and the ideas, the wonderful, wonderful ideas.

Almost all of my successes in life have come because I do less than other people not more. I realized this the other day. I am not one of those whirling women impressing the luncheon guests. If I have less of a garden and less of a house and less curricula, fewer hobbies, fewer errands, smaller expectations I accomplish more. My productivity goes up as my distractions go down. Maybe I shouldn’t admit this but my favorite books are English spinster schoolmarm books where the old maid comes home fixes herself an omelet and a cup of tea and reads. It is just a tiny glimpse of a tiny world and it is comforting to me. Please don’t take that to mean that I don’t love or want my children. I would have been perfectly happy with 9 more children. Honest. But what I have to remember is that I chose the children. That decision determined many other life choices for me. I have already planted the flag.

And in the midst of my small world comes the Internet, almost like a god, vast, unmeasured. Always like a siren wooing me with good things, great things, better things.
It is almost like if I have a problem my first thought is Google not God. I can search everything from marriage to murder, Bible verses to bedtime stories. The Internet really is a replacement for our current concept of God and it is a clue. It lets me know that something must be vastly wrong with my concept of God. I have never been able to get God to cooperate with me the way Google does.

Now, of course, I am not that theologically warped but the hint is there. I still love the Psalms. I still love the quiet moments when it’s OK that God isn’t giving away the plot, when I have to just trust and love without answers. Those really are the best times, the times when I am very, very small and God is vast, unmeasured, boundless, free.

It is my hope, that without blogging, the Internet will become a very tiny part of my life. I still love it. It has done much to make my life easier from bill paying to airfare. I will still use it to look up Rembrandt and Renoir. I will still stop by sometimes to say hi on your blog. I just don’t want to live in Pandemonium anymore. People used to treat us like we were so spiritual for not having a TV when in fact it was our lack of spirituality that led us to get rid of the thing. Same here! I have managed to avoid pornography and in-fighting on the Internet but I would love to write another story about that beautiful evil Pandora. In my story, she would release a box full of a million good things leaving restraint in the box.

So the last message of this blog is what it has always been. Less is better. Little things done daily are better than grand plans. Give your children lots of tiny moments. When they approach the computer turn your chair around and look them in the eye and if you find more in their eyes than on the screen get up and take them on a nature walk or read a book to them. Pandemonium will still be there when you return.

It has been a huge joy for me to blog over the last few years. Thank-you for joining me on my journey.

Buenos Noches, mis amigas and please remember as you are reading blogs that it was the woman who was deceived first.