Boooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeddddddddd

Bored is considered a swear word in my house. I don't like to hear "I'm bored!" anymore than I like to hear the "F" bomb being dropped - or Connor saying "God Damn It!" so casually at supper time when he spills his rice. (yeah, my fault - gotta work on curbing that)

I sound remarkably like my mother when Emily or Mary comes to me and says "I'm bored!"
"Really? You're bored? Well, you could do the dishes-fold the laundry-clean the bathroom-tidy your room-read a book"

What "I'm bored" really means is "I've played all the Wii, watched all the TV and played all the Farmville on Facebook that I feel like today and now I need you to find me something to do that isn't chores but entertains me as much as electronics do because this is the electronic age and my mind has become mush and I can't remember how to play without the aide of batteries or electricity and have forgotten what the world looks like outside of a 32 bit colour scheme."

It worries me a bit. But it also puts me in a strange position. I too am an electronics junkie. Look where I am right now. I blog for the purpose of journalling. I could write it by hand but there are two problems with that. The first being that I type a heck of a lot faster than I write and second my blog takes up virtual space...a journal takes up real space and I don't need more clutter in my life. Plus, I'm inclined to think that if I had to handwrite this I wouldn't do it for very long. Deep down I'm pretty lazy and like I said, I can blog this in 10 minutes, writing would take me an hour.
I went to the trouble of getting my 2 year old his own computer. (I mentioned it before) He's got a circa 2000 Toshiba laptop. The thing is stubby and fat and not at all slim and sleek like the netbooks and laptops nowadays. But it works and has enough memory to store his little games. And he's learned how to work it and navigate through the start menu to get his games running. I've had to reconfigure his mouse, he can seem to left click but he's a master at right clicking.

So while I worry that my older kids brains are turning to mush I actively encourage my son to learn how to use a computer. Why? It's the electronic age. Did you forget that part? Ah see, your mind is mush too.
But seriously, he's going to need to know how to use the computer and internet when he goes to school. Mary had to do research last year online. She and Emily have both learned how to use Wikipedia.

Which brings me to something else. Do kids know how to use encyclopedias anymore? Do they even print encyclopedias anymore? My Mom and Dad won a set of World Book Encyclopedias on a game show in the 80's. I loved those books. I learned so much. And I did a ton of homework with them. Do kids know how to look for books in the library? Do they have card catalogues anymore? I don't think so but I can't be sure. Let's face it. It's a heck of a lot easier to search online for the book but do they learn how to read the call number and then find it in the library?

There is a point to all of this. It's not a rant about technology. I have nothing against it. Truthfully, as sad as it may be that my kids will likely never have a set of encyclopedias in their hands I think they hold something much better than I ever had with the World Book. They have the World - brought to you by Google. Easy access to everything and everyone with an interent connection. Not too shabby.

So why the title? Well, I got a bit off track. I was going to talk about how bored I am. Yes, I'm bored. This is why I could never, ever be a stay at home mom. (yes I know technically a work at home mom is a stay at home mom but I was working and hence, not bored) My own kids are boring. They live here. They only need me when they need me. They don't want to 'do stuff' with me because they've been 'doing stuff' with me for their whole lives and that gets old. So we 'do stuff' for a few hours a day and then they do their thing and I do mine. But I'm not working now so 'my thing' is kind of up in the air. What is my thing?

Well, in the technology world my thing would be Fertility Friend. But my membership ran out today and I've got no desire to renew. It got old. I've got FB but there's only so many times you can look there and since I don't play facebook games.......
I've got the Pumpkin Patch. Apparently I'm the leading poster there which could mean many things....I have too much time on my hands...I have a big mouth.... I'm bored...... I just love it there so much and all the ladies there that I have to post incessantly...... But again, there is only so much I can post there.
I've got my blog. I can ramble with the best of them (as proven here) but eventually that gets old too. And sometimes I have nothing to say (I know, shocking eh?)

So now that leaves me with this. I'm bored. Don't tell the kids but I am really and truly bored. I've played all the Wii, updated my FB status, confirmed that I have in fact run out my membership on Fertility Friend, posted in the Pumpkin Patch, updated our map, done my homework, watched M*A*S*H* all that I want today and now I need someone to find me something to do that isn't chores but entertains me as much as electronics do because this is the electronic age and my mind has become mush and I can't remember how to play without the aide of batteries or electricity and have forgotten what the world looks like outside of a 32 bit colour scheme.

It's going to be a long summer. I can't wait to start work.