In mid-August, our dishwasher stopped working right before we left for a trip to Toronto. We took it apart and put it back together, thinking we had found the problem. We put a load in and left it until we returned from our trip to find dishes were still dirty and hadn’t done their job. We took it apart again and have since left it as we wait for someone to come and look at it.

So, I have been doing the dishes for our household multiple times a day. At first I found it an inconvenience and was not thrilled with it. With a bit of time I now take the time that I do the dishes as a gift. It is time that I get to be thankful for the fact that we have food on our table, we are able to share in meals daily as a family and for the fact that I have two sons that are slowly learning that using the same cup more than once is an okay thing to do.

This is also time that I am away from my phone or computer. I start the dishes as the rest of the family is finishing up dinner. We are able to visit while I do this and although we do this during the meal sometimes this is where I get more out of my boys.

It takes me back to being at the lake which is one of my favorite places and all the memories of doing dishes there and the dishtowel fights my siblings and I would have. It was a simpler time and one that I would like to get back to. I am not saying that I do not want the use of machines or technology but I know that I need to be aware of the amount of time that I am interacting with these rather than the people in my life. Relationships are so important and can easily be broken when we do not make time for them.

Are there machines in your household that you do not feel that you could live without? Have you ever taken a technology break? What benefits did you find when you did this?

Hi, my name is Andrea. I am a 40—and almost 41-year-old mother of two, wife, Principal of a small rural school, and Kindergarten teacher. My life is busy, but I enjoy taking time to learn new things.

The only time I have ever BLOGGED was when I took EC&I 831. I fumbled through but could slowly find steady ground beneath my feet as the course continued. Now, almost two years later, I need to BLOG again. I read this in the syllabus and instantly felt a large knot forming in the pit of my stomach. What is a Blog & How do I start? Would I remember how to do it? Can I get back into the swing of BLOGGING?

I took a few days to settle back into being back at school before I decided to dig into this world of BLOGGING and see if I could figure out how to make a section for EC&I 832 and all of the sub categories. I will not lie I had to sit and watch, pause, re-watch, pause, before I was able to fully understand what I needed to do. I felt like a fish out of water. Slowly I was able to get my feet wet again and figure things out.

So, here is my first post for the class. I plan on setting aside a bit of time each day to work on BLOGGING. I know that some of my posts might be boring but I do hope that there is at least one little piece in them that might speak to others that read it.

I know that in the past when I decide to set time aside to do something that I am either passionate about or that I am dedicated to learning I feel a sense of accomplishment in the end. I am hoping to find that at the end of this class and this journey of BLOGGING. I plan on learning a few new skills that I might have felt too intimidated to try during the last class as well as some other ones. I know that setting the goal of posting something everyday is biting off more than I can chew so instead I am going to aim for two posts a week. One will go along with the course and the other maybe part of my personal journey of teaching, BLOGGING and learning.

I look forward to embarking on this journey with each of you!