Apples and Bananas

Let's hope there was some fruit from my 10-day Sabbatical from computer use!

Well, I did make some decisions and goals. Things I want to change or do differently. While my aim is for more sanity and peace, that often comes about through order, structure, rhythm, and routine. Decluttering. Simplifying. Organizing. Slowing down.

I thought I would document some of my plans for the sake of accountability and to get my thoughts out of my head where they will be forgotten and not implemented and onto paper to make them a visible reality.

In case one of these inspires you to do some reevaluating of your own, here are some of my ambitions (skip this part if you want):

• learn the verse references for the book of Philippians before other memorization endeavors
• leave the computer off the last Friday of every month; I always leave it off on Sundays
• have short family devotions every morning, in addition to the evenings
• make a homemaking notebook online
• only utilize the Internet for one hour a day (4, 15-minute intervals with explicit intention to avoid getting "sucked in"), during her first nap
• must recline and read for 30 minutes - one hour a day, during her second nap
• I am not allowed to get on the computer when Aolani is awake
• drastically reduce the number of blogs that I read
• set apart a brief time every week to read my mission statement, jot down plans for the upcoming week, and pray for our family's direction
• going on weekly dates and starting a weekly devotional together

How will this blog be affected? Since I am drastically cutting down my computer time, there will be two scheduled posts a week (plus any random posts): Mural & Mosaic and Prayers & Ponderings. The content won't change.

Breaking To Brake

We will reconvene on Monday, January 24, 2011 as I am going to take 10 days off from not only the Internet but the computer, too!

The five R's are beckoning: rest, relax, read, reflect, and reevaluate.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit (Philippians 4:23),

The DiMartino Chronicles

The construction phase is over. I don't know if this site looks better, but I think it more accurately represents our hearts and vision for this blog. Take a look around!

We based the blog on 2 Kings 19:30, which reads, "The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward." Why? Because that is our heart's desire for us as individuals, for our marriage, and for our family: To bear fruit upward by taking root downward. By delving into the LORD, we hope to impart nuggets of truth He reveals to us. And, we hope that this blog will encourage, inspire, and bear fruit for you!

We are just a small family right now, but, God willing, we will grow and flourish in quality and quantity! This is just the recordings of our daily life, the musings of my mind, and the ponderings of my heart as God quietly does His work.

I will hopefully start implementing a structure to these posts next week. Structure? What? Sounds daunting, but it's not! It will ideally be something like this: Monday's Mosaic, Tuesday's Tip, Wednesday's Word of Wisdom, Thursday's Thought, and Friday's Frogs n' Flowers. Yes, I will miss days, skip some, and have random posts whenever. However, the structure is for my sake because it helps me to be accountable and spurs me on. No, I am not trying to meet the demand of some non-existent fan club. Since I no longer physically write (too tedious), this blog is like our family / my personal journal of things I would like to chronicle. So, the posts really won't change much. I just wanted to give you the heads up.

We pray that you would join us in taking root downward and bearing fruit upward!