Good evening blog friends! I hope everyone is well. I'm in the early stages of my annual summer colds...and summer colds suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. I am not going to let that stop me! We are are knocking out some bucket list level stuff this weekend and I'm so very excited. I'll tell you all about it in a few days.
Let me start this part of the post by saying that I have not received any bad news, I would tell you if I had. The "life is short" stuff has just been on my mind lately. Not because I'm doom and gloom, but because I've taken the time to evaluate what I'm spending my time doing and how it adds value to my life. The result is that I was spending way too much time on things which were NOT adding a great amount of value to my life. This is not a commentary on anyone else, it's all about me (insert my "All About Me" song here...if you don't know, I'll post a video someday so you can enjoy). Earlier this year I was in a situation at work which required that I work a lot...I mean A LOT. It wasn't just for a few weeks, it lasted months. I was truly concerned that it was going to have a negative impact on my health. I'm happy to report that I'm on the other side of that situation now, and I was able to put work and home life back into a reasonable balance. Yay! Balance! Once I was able to manage the work piece of my life, I took a good look at my personal life. Don't worry, no relationship concerns, I just took a look around me and decided it was time to make some changes. So began The Purge of 2017. I've been working my way through various aspects of my life and getting rid of things that I don't need. I started reading Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. It really is a fascinating read. I will spare you the details of the purge process (which Kondo says you should expect to take 6 months) but the number of trash bags and donation bags which have already been hauled out of this house is almost embarassing. I'm not a hoarder but dang! All of the family closets and have combed through and purged. I'm happy to say that I've kicked the "buy more storage options" mentality. If I end up with more stuff than I currently have places for, then I don't increase storage, I decrease the amount of stuff!
I've also taken a look at how our family spends our time. When the kids started school this year, we decided that weekdays would be tablet free. No iPads, no Kindles, no TV. Our goal was simply to try to ween the kids off of the devices so they would focus on school but we've gotten so much more. The kids don't complain, they've found other things to fill their time. They get their homework done, they play games with each other, they ride their bikes and enjoy the outdoors. Some of the things we didn't expect - the kids go to sleep faster and with less fussing. they don't seem to stall as much as they used to. Bonus!
I also had to take a look at my own situation. With a husband, 2 kids with (limited) activities, a full time job and long commute, my personal time is limited but valuable. I realized that I was spending a ridiculous amount of time on social media, having conversations about things I saw on social media, etc. When you do the cost/benefit analysis, you realize that makes no sense. I love keeping up with people and seeing pictures of friends and family, but it isn't something I need to do throughout the entire day, everyday. I removed Facebook and Twitter from my phone, though both apps remain on my iPad for my evening entertainment. I find that I'm picking up my phone less. I'm not completely distracted by those little numbers on the badge. I don't have to live my life through my camera and share it with the world. I can keep those memories as my own, experience whatever it is with my full attention instead of trying to document it and share it with the world. I'm not saying I'll never share with the world again, but I'm going to live my life in the moment. That's the priority.
There's still a lot of work to be done but I like my progress this year.
I'm under the weather so I'm off to bed but I leave you with the same question with which I started. Life is short, so what are you going to do with the time you have?
Love to all,
Andee
Let me start this part of the post by saying that I have not received any bad news, I would tell you if I had. The "life is short" stuff has just been on my mind lately. Not because I'm doom and gloom, but because I've taken the time to evaluate what I'm spending my time doing and how it adds value to my life. The result is that I was spending way too much time on things which were NOT adding a great amount of value to my life. This is not a commentary on anyone else, it's all about me (insert my "All About Me" song here...if you don't know, I'll post a video someday so you can enjoy). Earlier this year I was in a situation at work which required that I work a lot...I mean A LOT. It wasn't just for a few weeks, it lasted months. I was truly concerned that it was going to have a negative impact on my health. I'm happy to report that I'm on the other side of that situation now, and I was able to put work and home life back into a reasonable balance. Yay! Balance! Once I was able to manage the work piece of my life, I took a good look at my personal life. Don't worry, no relationship concerns, I just took a look around me and decided it was time to make some changes. So began The Purge of 2017. I've been working my way through various aspects of my life and getting rid of things that I don't need. I started reading Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. It really is a fascinating read. I will spare you the details of the purge process (which Kondo says you should expect to take 6 months) but the number of trash bags and donation bags which have already been hauled out of this house is almost embarassing. I'm not a hoarder but dang! All of the family closets and have combed through and purged. I'm happy to say that I've kicked the "buy more storage options" mentality. If I end up with more stuff than I currently have places for, then I don't increase storage, I decrease the amount of stuff!
I've also taken a look at how our family spends our time. When the kids started school this year, we decided that weekdays would be tablet free. No iPads, no Kindles, no TV. Our goal was simply to try to ween the kids off of the devices so they would focus on school but we've gotten so much more. The kids don't complain, they've found other things to fill their time. They get their homework done, they play games with each other, they ride their bikes and enjoy the outdoors. Some of the things we didn't expect - the kids go to sleep faster and with less fussing. they don't seem to stall as much as they used to. Bonus!
I also had to take a look at my own situation. With a husband, 2 kids with (limited) activities, a full time job and long commute, my personal time is limited but valuable. I realized that I was spending a ridiculous amount of time on social media, having conversations about things I saw on social media, etc. When you do the cost/benefit analysis, you realize that makes no sense. I love keeping up with people and seeing pictures of friends and family, but it isn't something I need to do throughout the entire day, everyday. I removed Facebook and Twitter from my phone, though both apps remain on my iPad for my evening entertainment. I find that I'm picking up my phone less. I'm not completely distracted by those little numbers on the badge. I don't have to live my life through my camera and share it with the world. I can keep those memories as my own, experience whatever it is with my full attention instead of trying to document it and share it with the world. I'm not saying I'll never share with the world again, but I'm going to live my life in the moment. That's the priority.
There's still a lot of work to be done but I like my progress this year.
I'm under the weather so I'm off to bed but I leave you with the same question with which I started. Life is short, so what are you going to do with the time you have?
Love to all,
Andee