The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me here at The Gyde Zoo (TGZ)!

I suppose in starting a blog I had better declare my purpose for doing so. Simply put, one major goal for myself is to spend less time on social media that doesn’t serve me or my family well.

I love YouTube. All five of us learn there almost every day. I learned to quilt on YouTube and how to plaster finish a wall. I learned how to keep our home organized, manage a high school chemistry lab, and find balance in my exercise regime. Jamie learned to replace broken parts on our car to save our dollars. James learns how best to catch things like fish and amphibians and reptiles across the globe and in our back yard. Lillian and Kathryn hone their music skills by watching videos of famous and amateur cellists and bassoonists.

Instagram is an awesome place with pretty pictures of all good things in my life. Photos of my current and past students as they prepare for fancy dances or first days of work at their new job. Photos of their friends and family members doing things like hunting or fishing or shopping or eating together. I cherish those photos! As a teacher I love the opportunity to see my students grow long after they exit my classroom. Instagram shows me all kinds of wonderful things to do with birds and fabric and gluten free flour. Instagram shows me how my own children spend time with their friends. I love that their friends allow me to follow and follow me too. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to see and know how time passes in their lives when I’m not there. Now, Instagram even shows me nice photos of my husbands cooking…because Kathryn reminds him to post (after cropping and filtering, of course)! I spend time over on Instagram because I think it’s like Facebook, but less political and more friendly.

This brings me to Facebook. I like so many things about being on Facebook, especially the ability to interact with family members I don’t see often. I love the memories that come up in my feed about my first triathlon or the Halloween costumes I’ve made or the awesome places I’ve traveled. However, I don’t love the incessant ads, violent videos, hateful politics, and overall rantyness that I see on Facebook. I loathe entirely the constant need to protect my account from hackers or my schema from fake news.

Therefore, I will be deleting my account on Facebook and Messenger on December 25, 2018. Merry Christmas with love to Thea, from Thea. Not “archiving” while I think about it but “deleting”. Full stop. Instead, I will post here and, hopefully, interact with those of you who I’ll miss from Facebook and Messenger. Please consider adding a shortcut to this blog to the home screen on your computer or phone. Stop by once in awhile, read TGZ content, look at the photos, and comment if you’d like.

You can also find me on Instagram and via text or email.

I wish all of you well!

Much Love,

Thea

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton