There is this tugging force, pulling at all ages from all angles. It's the need to be accessible at any time, the need to plug in anywhere and to access anything. It's something that started as a positive tool for our future, but turned into an addictive addition to our families which is a silent threat to most things good.

It's the Internet. But more specifically, it's smart phones, it's Facebook, it's Pinterest, it's blogs, it's Youtube and dating sites, it's Twitter, Instagram and all the cool sites I don't even know of yet, but it's out there and it's consuming.

I can't point a finger as we have the internet and I am on Facebook. I use my blog on a regular basis. I have been at times so tempted to head to Pinterest and sign up...buy that iPhone or iPad, because I know just how "handy" they can be. But the truth is, for me personally, they will do little to help me and more just to destroy the small amount of time I have to raise these:

Sure, it's not the end of the world. But from my perspective, the world was a better place without them. I thank the internet for hours of research done on my family's health. I thank the internet for directions and how to's on building things and sewing things.

But I strongly dislike the internet for increasing my weaknesses. My needs for things that have no value.
I can be a bit obsessive. It's alarming to me because my firstborn most definitely has that trait. If you give him any form of technology, he becomes fanatical, obsessive, annoying.

It's a good reminder of how unattractive it may be when I am sitting in front of a screen, appreciating the details in different boots, all while a life-filled game of red light/green light is taking place.

And like that it caught me and reminded me.
I was upstairs on my computer, mixing work with browsing, when I heard them having a great time outside. A tinge of guilt stung at me as I knew I was doing nothing productive and was missing out on a moment that I would want to remember and want them to remember.
I grabbed my camera and stepped outside.

In the dusk of the evening, the most glorious, glowing time of night, when the sun hides behind the mountain and the warm of the day is steadily replaced with the nip of fall, they laugh.
They run, they play.
They dance.

And I am again reminded why I don't need any of those gadgets or sites listed above.
This is important.

Without these, I am lost.