Family and Technology

Every day, I am thankful for all of my family. However, today, I even feel more so. My parents have been traveling a lot, and we have been sending family emails on most days. I know it probably seems silly, but I feel so close to them when we do this (thankfully Grams and Papa have provided a lot of opportunity for this lately!). It is so fun to have updates from everyone which funny stories and shared experiences. We can do this via email (or Facebook if I could get the fam more on board there) much more than we can even by phone. We are all on the chain for one thing, and that would be difficult to coordinate by phone. We can all do it at the time of day that works for us. When Grams and Papa were on their cruise, it was much cheaper than telephone calls and we could get the emails when we were awake too!

I often facebook or email with the kids while traveling, and it is so nice to see what is going on in a way that parents didn't previously get. Even some of the silly facebook groups are insight into the kids that I wouldn't normally get without this wonderful Facebook invention.

As I type this, Katie is doing a school project on the computer making postcards for European countries, Michael is writing an article summary using a computer, and Morgan is writing a book report using her Kindle and the computer. It is a hectic environment immersed in technology, but I can't help but think of my childhood where we sat with Encyclopedia books or (gasp) went to a library. Book reports or article summaries were done in silence at the table or in a bedroom. As noisy and chaotic as today is, I feel closer to my family because of it. Of course, it has taken me 10 times as long to type this as it would have without the questions, "Where is this in Europe? How can we print this? What is that address again? What genre is Shiver? What is a non-political, non-religous, appropriate for school news article? However, I am very thankful that we had google, kindles, laptops, and more. Of course, I really amd thankful that I had the time with my family more than any of it.