Smart Phone/Social Media Controversy

I've been thinking about this post for quite a while.

Right now, I feel moved to add my two cents. 

There is a building momentum right now, that people are addicted to their smart phones.

My thoughts on that. Duh. Couldn't see that one coming...

I went to my kids swim lessons, years ago, and watched parents sit with their nose in a phone. Paying no attention to their kids. I assume their thinking must have been that the swim instructor has 'got this'. 

I've watched countless kids look over at their parents, eager to make eye contact, to show them 'I did it!' and their parents had absolutely no idea. No clue at all. I wonder what those conversations sounded like on the way home? 

kid: 'Did you see me tread water?'

parent: 'No.'

kid: 'Did you see me go off the slide for the first time?'

parent: 'No.'

kid: 'Did you see me swim the whole length of the pool?'

parent: 'No.'

That makes me feel sad. Very sad. It also makes me mad. 

Seeing the disappointment on the faces of kids, once they realized their parents were NOT paying attention to them, or what they were doing, is gut-wrenching.

We are our kids cheerleaders. Us. The parents. I'm not saying every single thing they do, deserves a party thrown. But when your kid is learning to swim, and looks over to you watching for your reaction to what they just did or accomplished,  a smile and a 'thumbs up' means the world to them. I'm using swimming as an example, but I mean anything. When they skate by, and glance up at you, you should see that. When they run by during a track meet, pretending NOT to look for you in the crowd, but they're looking for you in the crowd,  you should see that. When they get their first goal, you need to say "I know! I saw it".

I spend a great many hours, sitting in arenas from September through March. There are a lot of kids that would benefit from a thumbs up, a way to go, a smile from their parents. There are a lot parents who miss seeing special moments because they are simply not present. **Spoiler alert, minor sports don't have replays on the jumbotron. When you miss your kids first goal, you can't re-watch it.  

I was late to the game with a 'smart phone'. I never texted. When people told me that was how they communicated with their children, I was kind of shocked. "You mustn't have teenagers" people said to me. Six years ago, I didn't have teenagers. I had a flip phone, that I used for phoning people. It rarely got used, and if I forgot it at home, it wasn't a big deal.  

I got my first iPhone the Christmas of 2011. All I wanted was interested in was having a better camera feature and to subscribing to Instagram. 

Fast forward to 2018...

Firstly, I'm no different than anyone else.

I'm absolutely addicted to my iPhone. That became perfectly clear the first time I got to my destination and realized I'd forgotten my phone at home.  I was sick to my my stomach until I got it in my hand again, knowing it was at home without me... Or rather, me without it... 

I depend on my phone like every one else does.  I haven't memorized a phone number in years. All the information of my life is stored in my phone. I pick it up and mindlessly scroll through apps and websites. 

We have become a society that can't stand to be bored. And that scares me. Because let's face it, a lot of things in life are boring. What scares me even more, is kids that don't know how to be bored. Kids who can't be in the car without  a digital device. In a shopping cart without a digital device. At a restaurant without a digital device. In a stroller without a digital device. 

And nearly every child I know, has a smart phone. 

It's not the having a smart phone that scares me, it's what they have access to that scares me. 

It's not like we're not in this as well. My kids each have a smart phone. It's easier to do family share plans, when you all have the same devices. Apple isn't dumb... Like that wasn't part of their plan all along. 

Each of them got a phone once they started Grade 7. To go from elementary school, within the community and moments away from home, to junior high that was a considerable bus ride away, was kind of scary for this Mumma in particular. It was more me, that wanted to have access them them, should I need to. 

We have placed pretty strict restrictions on their phones, some them being as follows: 

-Neither of them have data on their phones, so can only access apps/websites when they have wifi. 

-Phones do NOT go into their bedrooms

-Phones all have a 'place' over night. 

-No apps are downloaded w/o permission.

-We have the right to go through messages and check things over. At any time. 

-No one is allowed phones at the kitchen table. 

Having these rules in place, makes us feel better, but by no means removes the dangers of having a smart phone.  

It's actually like handing your kids a loaded weapon. If that doesn't scare you, it should. 

There is so much controversy right now over social media apps. 

I'm heartbroken about young kids these days, who feel inadequate, or can't stop comparing themselves to others. That see things posted on sites such as IG as real, when it's just simply not. 

The ones who are cyber bullied, and can't get away from it. Ever. 24/7. I mean put yourself in someones shoes, someone who really feels there's no way out. So terrifying. 

I feel scared for kids who get exploited, kids who do the exploiting. Kids who think an image 'disappears', not thinking about the good old 'screen shot' that will last forever. 

Kids that film themselves doing dumb things, not thinking about their future or the consequences associated with them. 

All I really wanted an iPhone for, was to become part of the Instagram community. I feel a bit bad that IG is getting thrown under the bus right now. I'm a grown woman. I don't compare myself to other filtered feeds. I also know my house will NEVER look like a show home.

There is a big push to delete all social media apps. I don't really know where I stand with this. Some social media sites appear to be unhealthy, I get that. I also know that my teenager communicates with his friends via these social media sites. It is monitored, and he's got a good head on his shoulders. When I was a teenager, I talked on the phone All. The. Time. So much so, that my Dad installed my own phone line. [It's safe to say people were tired of getting  a busy signal] Kids don't 'talk' on the phone these days. But they text like the dickens...

I can't imagine deleting my IG account. I love that I've connect with like minded people. I love that I have the photos I do on it. The memories. My kids have changed so much over the past 6 years, and I have captured all of it. 

Random Photo Collage January 2012 - April 2018:

  

My hope is this: 

Make sure your kids know they're important. Make sure they know you're a total supporter of theirs. If they think you're not, they'll find that support elsewhere. Likely they'll find it online. That is a very dangerous proposition. 

Talk to your kids about the dangers of being addicted to their phones. I believe that digital addiction, is the same as smoking/drugs/alcohol. Talk to them about bullies and cyber-bullies. Talk to them about pornography.  Talk to them about things that are uncomfortable, so that they know they are all that really truly matters. 

Teach your kids that you value them more, than your phone. That what they're doing, is more important than what you hold in the palm of your hand. 

Watch them play hockey. Watch them play ringette. Watch them at a school performance. Watch them at swim lessons. Watch them at dance lessons. Watch them at lacrosse practice. Watch them at choir. Watch them play baseball. Watch them at soccer practice. Watch them practice badminton. Watch them play field hockey. Watch them play football. Watch them play soccer.

Watch them at [insert your childs 'thing' here]

Just go and be present. We have to show them the way. We have to lead by example. 

Put your phone down. 

The following product was used:

Paislee Press - Pressplate No 25 - http://the-lilypad.com/store/Press-Plate-No.-25.html

PL2018 - Week 11

The SNOW IS GONE!!

I honestly thought we'd be staring at it until mid-July. But we've had a few warm days, and a bit of a warm breeze, and suddenly the snow is behind us.  Thank goodness.

In regular Calgary fashion, we went from a heavy snowfall warning a little over a week ago, to 23 degrees Celsius yesterday. I even took Miss Madelyn for a slurpee right after she got off the bus. She asks on a daily basis when it warms up. For a change, I surprised her before she could ask. Mum win. 

Hoping we can put that crummy, longest - winter - ever, behind us. 

Here is week 11 of my project life album: 

• Catching a glimpse of Madelyn in her element, at school. I love that I have a few photos of the kids at school. It might be neat for them to look back at one day. 
• Flapper Pie... That's how we celebrated Pi Day. And it was as good as it looked. 
• A glimpse of what's to come, with the sunset happening a little bit later and later each day. 
• Barry definitely 'owning it'. Proudly using this newly decorated ringette stick.  
• Celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a 'sort of' fruit rainbow. Pretty heavy on the red colour. 
• Miss Madelyn, preparing a batch of cookies. 
• Ringette team sleep over... The coach had 14 twelve and thirteen year old girls sleep over to celebrate the end of the season. #crazy
• The next morning, Madelyn had to sell Girl Guide cookies, at a cookie drive through. The weather was less than desirable. But Girl Guides are always prepared.

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

Calendar Card Stamps - http://the-lilypad.com/store/2018-Calendar-Cards-Stamps.html

Like a Boss: http://the-lilypad.com/store/like-a-boss-kit.html 

Like a boss journal cards - http://the-lilypad.com/store/like-a-boss-journal-cards.html

Like boss elements - http://the-lilypad.com/store/like-a-boss-kit.html

PL2018 - Week 10

We're officially in mid-April, but yesterday we had yet another heavy snowfall warning. 

On Sunday, I actually saw a glimpse of the grass on my front lawn, but it's since been covered with snow, again. Last year at this time, buds were coming up. My peony and rhubarb were sprouting. Currently, they're still covered in snow. I'm supposed to be planting sweet pea seeds, but in order to do that, I have to first get at the soil...

I'm having a hard time being optimistic. I'm afraid this might be the year, we don't get spring. 

Or summer. 

This season can go down in the books as the:

Longest.

Winter.

Ever.

My sister-in-law sent this yesterday, and it couldn't be truer...

Here's week 10 of my project life album: 

• We may never be rid of all that snow, and I'm currently beginning to wonder...
• Trex girls went to archery. Of course there's no surprise that Miss Madelyn loved it. 
• Still some activity in our little Baba-built bird house. 
• Miss Libby sunning on the back deck. If you close your eyes, and pretend you're somewhere else, you can forget for a few moments that the yard is covered in 3 feet of snow. 
• Fun Mrs. Whatsit filter on Snapchat. 
• Family selfie from the front porch of our [fingers crossed] new lotto home. Tickets have been purchased, and we're looking toward to a summer on the lake!
• Mason's last hockey game of the season. 
• Date night! Once hockey and ringette wrap up, we're beside ourselves with 'free time'.

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

Calendar Card Stamps - http://the-lilypad.com/store/2018-Calendar-Cards-Stamps.html

Photo Journal No. 2 Templates http://the-lilypad.com/store/Photo-Journal-No-2-Templates.html

Photo Journal No. 3 Templates: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Photo-Journal-No.-3-Templates-and-Stamps.html

PL2018 Week 9

This layout is from week 9, looking back a few weeks.

Our weather is just as crummy as it was the last week of February. The calendar insists that it's 'spring'. However, last Saturday's heavy snow fall warning disagrees.

It's cold. And there's a ton of snow in both our front and back yard. I'm beginning to think we'll be looking at mounds of snow until August.  It's pretty hard to get into the 'spring' spirit, that's for sure.

This week two years ago, we came home from our trip to Mexico. Mason was raking the front yard. Note the short sleeves...

One year ago, Madelyn was collecting cat-kins... I think that's what they're called. No snow, in any case, and heavy jackets were a thing of the past...

This year...

We will never.

Be. Rid. Of. All. The. Snow.

A little dramatic maybe, but that's how it seems. Trying to patiently wait for spring to come...

Week 9:

• Miss Libby's before and after 'spa day' photos. 
• Walking girls with an impromptu photo on the George C. King Bridge, that joins goes across the Bow River to join St. Patrick's Island to the East Village on one side, and to Memorial Drive on the other side. 
• A call from my girl at the school. She never calls home... She turned the radio off on the way home, and then slept for 3 hours. She has a high pain tolerance, and seemed fine the next day. 
• Last exhibition ringette game, both NWR teams jumbled together and played. The girls had a riot. Especially loved when all the girls came onto the ice to play for the last minute of the game.  
• Mustangs, play until they lose. They won this game, so they continue on. Go Mustangs Go!

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

Calendar Card Stamps - http://the-lilypad.com/store/2018-Calendar-Cards-Stamps.html

You Are Here Kit - http://the-lilypad.com/store/you-are-here-kit.html

You Are Here Journal Cards - http://the-lilypad.com/store/you-are-here-journal-cards.html

April Template Freebie

I often gravitate towards multiple photos.

This month's template freebie from Sahlin Studio [available through April only] has the option to add multiple photos or pieces of paper. I like to challenge myself with a theme. When I saw this template, I knew right away what I wanted to do.  This September is our 20th wedding anniversary. 20 years! In a row! So of course I started looking for photos of us that have been taken in the past couple of decades. 

Barry and I laugh all the time, because we have been taking photos of ourselves or 'selfies' right from the start. I used to either set the camera up with a timer, and hop into the photo, or hold the camera as far away from us as possible and click the shutter. Selfies have now become very, very easy, thanks to the iPhone.  

I started taking photos this way in high school, it started in Mr. Leavitt's Comm class grades 10 - 12. We got to fiddle with cameras take photos and then develop our own film in the dark room. I have loved photos and picture taking for more than half my life...  In fact, it's been over 30 years. Eeks, you read correctly!

The 'selfie game' is strong now. Especially with the ease of digital era.  Back when I was taking selfies, you clicked and hoped for the best. You had no idea until you developed the film. It was either a hit or a miss. There were lots of misses, and the occasional hit. What it allowed you to do however, was get everyone into the photo. Even as a high school student, I wanted to get in on the memory game. 

Collecting, keeping, remembering. 

I can count on 2 fingers, the people I'm still in touch with from school, but every time I go through photo albums, it all comes rushing back...

Any way... Sometimes I get a little bit off track. Here is what this months template looks like. 

And this is what I did with it. 

I love it. And I love that we have all these photos, that have captured our life together. 

And I love that after all these years, we still like to hang out with one another. For that, I feel very blessed. 

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

You and Me - Elements - http://the-lilypad.com/store/Me-and-You-Elements.html

You and Me - Paper - http://the-lilypad.com/store/Me-and-You-Papers.html

PL2018 - Week 8

Here is week 8 of my project life album. 

• Miss Libby, looking rather homeless. It's shocking how quickly that happens. 
• At the rink, for ringette. We were gathered around the tv watching our men's olympic curling team. 
• Mason got invited to go to an afternoon Flames game with a friend. They had awesome seats, close to the ice, we actually saw him on tv, during sports highlights later on that night. 
• Dad and Barry, installing our new shelving unit. It looks so good!
• I was asked to take photos of the girls during a ringette game.  The camera and lens were pretty spiffy. I forgot how much I loved taking photos with a good camera vs my iPhone. 
• Boys kicked butt in this game, and came away with a well deserved win. They play again. 

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

Highs and Lows - Journal Card: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Highs-and-Lows-Journal-Cards.html

Highs and Lows -Paper - http://the-lilypad.com/store/Highs-and-Lows-Papers.html

Highs and Lows - Elements: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Highs-and-Lows-Elements.html

Calendar Card Stamps - http://the-lilypad.com/store/2018-Calendar-Cards-Stamps.html

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Sahlin Studio just released another Project Mouse collaboration, this one is called Paradise.

There are a lot of pineapples and palms trees in this collection, which leads you to believe you have to focus on capturing more  of a 'tropical' type of memory. 

But living somewhere that it rarely feels like the tropics, challenges me to use these products to suit my needs. 

Exactly what I did with the following layout. 

Back in October 2016, we made a quick trip out to the West Coast, [Vancouver Island]. You can click here and read the blog post I had done, shortly after returning home from our trip.

Back then, I had created a single page layout shortly after our trip, but never actually documented our little get away.

Until now...

To create these pages, I simply cut down the page protector. This will slide nicely into either my project life album for that year, or I'll put it in my 'scrapbook' album. 

Either way, it gives a little insight into our trip to the coast. 

When we picked up our rental car, at the airport, it was absolutely P O U R I N G. And when I say pouring, I mean the windshield wipes were on full speed, most of the time, pouring. We made the trip to where we were staying, probably about an hour ride from the airport. We checked into our hotel, while it was POURING... We went for lunch, and when we came out of the restaurant, it had stopped raining. And I'm not kidding, when I say, this was the only time during our stay, that it wasn't pouring. As in P O U R I N G...

So the photos where it's not raining, all happened within a few hours. And the rest of time it rained. 

We hit 3 beaches during our trip. Day 1, French Beach, where it stopped raining, and we could wander up and down the waters edge, searching for treasure. The sun actually came out that afternoon, giving the beach a misty look, that my heart so desires.

Day 2 we made our way up to Botanical Beach, in monsoon-type weather. Power had been knocked out to many of the places along the way, due to the storm. The island was preparing for an epic storm, the tail end of the Super Typhoon Songda. How lucky that we just happened to be there for it!

Our trip to Botanical beach, was CRAZY. Windshield wipers never stopped and were on high speed most of the drive. We learned quickly, that water resistant and water proof are vastly different.

Day 3 and 4, we hiked down to China Beach. In the past, it's been my favourite. But the tide was high, and it was stormy, so we really weren't able to get close to the waters edge.

The coast has our heart, for sure. And I'm glad I was able to use this product to capture these photos. Sometimes when you see paper, elements, paper etc, that scream tropical and it's hard to imagine using them anywhere else. I hope this shows how flexible you can be with different kits.

The following Sahlin Studio product was used:

PM Paradise - Journal Cards: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Paradise-Cards.html

PM Paradise - Paper: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Paradise-Papers.html

PM Paradise - Elements: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Paradise-Elements.html

PM Paradise -  Word Art http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Paradise-Word-Art.html