Hi guys! How’s everybody doing?

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Are you done screaming yet?

Yeah, it’s been a rough few weeks. On top of the world news and he whose name I shall not speak, I’ve also had 4 weeks of my 2 year old in a body cast followed by almost 2 weeks where he couldn’t walk. Then my grandmother died, so the 2 year old and I had to solo road trip down to Florida for the funeral (thankfully that was actually a fairly painless trip … turns out my kiddo loves hotels!). Oh, and I’m way behind on a project that’s due … well … today. But I just can’t focus, and it’s partly the world out there, and it’s partly my own fault. I need to find a balance.

So in that spirit, I’ve decided to take a Twitter hiatus for the month of February. I’ve been heartened by seeing the activism present there, and it’s been great for mobilizing, but the fact of the matter is it’s too much for me right now. I’m 5 months pregnant, and I’m starting to feel the stress of the news cycle in a physical way. I’m also parenting a toddler, and I’ve caught myself way too many times helping to set up brio trains or lego towers with my phone in my hand, constantly scrolling and feeling the acid rising in my throat. So for the next 28 days, I’m going to take a break from it. I’m going to get my news by making a once daily visit to NPR.org and my weekly listen to the Slate Political Gabfest. I’ll be doing Dahlia Adler’s Author Life Month on Instagram (follow me at laurenmorrill) and probably taking silly videos of my dinner and my kid on Instagram stories. But otherwise, I’m tuning out for a bit.

No seriously, I am. I’m about to change my Twitter password to something random, which I will write down and hide in the back of my desk. Then I’m going to delete the app off my phone. No more Twitter first thing when I wake up. No more Twitter last thing before I go to bed. A real, actual hiatus.

And hopefully with some time off, I’ll be able to find my own version of good again. I know that sounds selfish, but the road is long, and I can’t burn out now. And I especially can’t burn out when I’ve got two little guys counting on me. I’m hoping to use my extra free time to get back to writing and read some books (seriously, all I’ve read lately is The Handmaid’s Tale, which is excellent, but not exactly heartwarming). I want to take more walks outside (February is basically the start of spring where I live, so it’s lovely to be out and about). I’ll share what’s making me happy on Instagram stories, and I may even pop in here from time to time. But otherwise I’ll be focusing a little more on the home front.

And if you’re looking for permission or encouragement to take a breather, let this be one. There is a hell of a lot of resistance to be done outside of Twitter, and sometimes it’s ok to find out about the news a few hours later (and actually it can mean skipping a lot of the alarmist insta-reactions and getting the actual, factual stuff). As the great Jerry Springer used to say at the end of his show, “Take care of yourselves, and each other.”