The Simple Life at Home

Are you as addicted as I am to Facebook?

I just can't seem to stay off it. I love hearing from friends from near and far, new friends and people I haven't heard from in 20+ years. I love the opportunity it provides to stay in contact with so many people, especially people who once meant the world to you, but through time and circumstance lost touch with.

I know some people hate those "I ate a meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner" status messages and deride the posters for being mundane and boring, but I love them. I love the little peek Facebook provides into other people's daily ins and outs of life. I love knowing I'm not the only one who's lost her hairbrush or who is still watching "Survivor." I laugh hysterically and am thrilled each time I'm reminded how funny my friends are. I can weep when I know my friends are hurting - when a child is diagnosed with a serious illness or a parent passes away.

Living so far away, I often marvel how missionaries and others who left their homes and travelled far, far away coped. How did they manage without a reliable, quick mail service? How did they stand not having Skype, which allows me to not only hear loved ones' voices, but to actually see them as well? No email for quick little jots home. No Facebook to keep up with the lives of those you love.

So, yeah, I spend waaaaayy too much time logged in to Facebook. I usually have it open in another tab while I'm doing a myriad of other things. I'm down near addicted, but I have no desire to cure that addiction. I love having the live updates to find out what my peeps around the world are up to and I'm not ashamed!

Life is great in the 21st Century!!! Can you only imagine how life will change in the next 50 years??

I am less that two short weeks away from our annual trip home to the States. In between now and then Daniel will finish his last year of middle school, Emily will become a high school junior (meaning it's just two short years we have left with her at home), and I just have to make it through the next 10 straight days of work while still preparing for an almost three month vacation.

There are so many things I look forward to about being "home." Family, friends. Shopping. Freedom to do what I want, wear what I want, say what I want.

As if to reinforce the desire to escape Doha for the summer, the weather has recently been very cooperative. It's suddenly gotten very humid - combined with temps above 110, it's been simply miserable. Then today we a horrible dust storm blow into town, lowering visibility to a couple of hundred feet. Yuck!! Yep - it's time to get out of Dodge!