Screen-Free Sundays

It’s been nearly two months of Sundays since I decided to go screen-free every Sunday as part of my 30 Before 30 goals.  Two months later, I am still in love with the idea of having a day where I don’t check email, Facebook or Instagram, and where my girls don’t have to wait for me to do something on someone’s website.  As I work to ramp up my business, there are more and more moments when I expect Nora and Zara to wait for my attention while I respond to emails or try to squeeze in an hour of website work.  I’m still not sure how I feel about the two them sometimes having to play second fiddle.  I am glad that if I am working at least I can do so from home with my little ones by my side, but I do sometimes feel a little guilty about the never-endingness of self-employment from home — and that is why I decided to designate a family day with minimal interaction with phones or computers, and during which the girls will feel like they always come first.

So far, my screen-free days have been going well, though they are not quite as screen- and work-free as I might like.  I have avoided emails and stayed off social media, but unfortunately the realities of life trying to sell our house has kept me from doing what I would really like to do, which is turn my phone off completely.  There have been Sundays when I spent much of the day texting and talking on the phone to potential buyers or renters.  It’s not what I ideally want, but it’s life right now, so I am just looking at this as a process.  Consciously deciding to forgo email and social media has already dramatically improved my Sundays; eventually the other aspects will follow.

For now, I am loving that Sundays have truly become a day of rest and simplicity.  Instead of using my phone while I nurse Zara at nap time, I have been going back to early newborn parenting habits and napping too.  Instead of working on websites after I put the girls to bed, I have been reading real, actual books.  We started going to the Unitarian church and have a nice little Sunday routine, enjoying fun-filled days with family, with friends, and as our own little family unit.

Here’s a peek at how we’ve been spending our Sundays:

{with friends}

At the end of March Nora and I went on a big girl mama-daughter date with our friends.  The girls got all dressed up like princesses, we went out for lunch, and went to see Cendrillon, the French Cinderella Opera.  The girls loved it, despite the fact that it was in French (Nora sat on my lap and I narrated for her), and were ridiculously adorable in their dresses sipping tea.  My friend Chantry shared a lot of pictures from the day on her blog if you want to see more.

{with family}

My mother and grandmother came out to visit us on Easter weekend.  The girls had a blast with their two grandmas — Nora kept saying, “Isn’t it neat we get to have TWO grandmas come!?” — and we all about died from delight at the meal Chris cooked for us.

{on our own}

Sunday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week.  ♥♥