Monday, October 14, 2013

it was a nice and needed weekend - days 11, 12, 13 & 14

Friday was that last day in a Very Long Week.

We spent a lovely fall morning meeting new friends and celebrating one of our favorites at a birthday party at the park.  Then I came home and did the only thing that seemed to make any sense at all in the moment and put both kids *and myself* down for a nap.  I needed a "start over" to the day.  

That night we got to enjoy a very fun one year old birthday party for Cora's first friend and watch that sweet little girl take her first step!  

Saturday and Sunday I relaxed.  Truth be told, I'm not very good at that.  I always have a "to do" list but this weekend I did really well and I needed it.  

Saturday we went up into the mountains on our second annual trip with my brother, sister-in-law and cutie nephews to soak up fall color, hike, cook out and roast marshmallows.  






After church on Sunday, I sat on the couch holding my baby and reading a very good book and walked to an estate sale and was fed good meals by my sweet husband who does most of the cooking around here.  I am so thankful for him.  

I also did something I've been known to do from time to time which was have a "computer free day". This time it felt a bit like a  warm-up to "media month" in our 7 experiment.  I'll be honest, I *really* don't know how that's going to go - what to give up exactly, whether my family will buy in, whether I'll be grumpy about it . . . hmmm.

Thoughts?

I also gave up dairy this weekend.  Nothing to do with 7 but we're suspecting that sweet baby girl is allergic to it just like her brother so we're experimenting with taking it out of my diet so she is not getting it through my milk.  

So, 7 . . . 

I haven't forgotten about it but decided this weekend that living was more important than blogging.

Honestly, here we are in the middle of "possessions month" and I feel like I'm drowning in stuff.  For "clothes month" I had a plan.  I was excited about the plan and it seemed do-able.  The amount of possessions residing in our house and what to do with them and how to make sense of them and where to find the time seems DAUNTING.

I have piles, lots and lots of piles of things all around.  I do think life would be simplified if I got rid of A LOT of it but I am not sure where to start, where to find the time, what to do with it once I decide I can let go of it, etc.  

Any thoughts on this you guys?

Anyone want to come over and help?  :)  

In other news, I'm going to hear Jen Hatmaker speak later this month.  I'm excited!  This wasn't in the plans at all when I began writing this series at the beginning of the month but a friend e-mailed and said she was going to a women's conference and did I want to join her and well, yes!  It's at the end of the month so I'll have more to tell you about it later.

So let me just throw out a few things and we'll call this a catch up post.

One quirky thing about my 7 outfits experiment was that I missed my slippers.  I've had one other season that I can think of when I was a "slipper" girl but most of my life I haven't been.  Last May when Adrian and I went to Portland, the hotel gave me slippers and since I've had Cora and been getting up in the night to nurse her I've put on my slippers so my feet aren't cold when I get back in bed.  It was interesting to me that something that I am so recently "attached" to is something that was the hardest to give up for a month.  Now that I "have them back" though I do still rather take them for granted I realize.  

Also, narrowing down to four pair of shoes was probably a bit harder for me than narrowing down to 7 outfits.  I wouldn't have expected that.

The four pair of shoes I wore for a month were:

tennis shoes
my "Colorado shoes"


black flip flops
funky, slightly dressier flip flops








Do you tend to wear the same shoes a lot?  Do you think you would find it hard to narrow down to four pair?  What would you pick?  

Another thing I decided to do during clothes month was not to wear jewelry (except for my engagement ring and wedding band which I never take off and actually didn't even think about as an "exception").  

One thing I learned about myself was that I use jewelry (and the VAST majority of it very cheap, beads bought at estate sales, etc.) to "distract" from fairly boring, cheap clothes - plain t-shirts, etc.

It was so interesting to me to feel like I was learning things about myself through this experiment.  I'm still not sure how important these discoveries are or what to do with the knowledge but it is interesting.  

What about you?  Do you think it would be hard to go without jewelry for a month?  Would you rather go without jewelry or make-up?

For the most part, 7 clothes month was way easier for me than I expected and I really enjoyed it.  The limited choices made things kind of nice and streamlined.  Two of the times that were the trickiest to me were one Sunday for church when all I had clean to wear were khaki shorts and a black t-shirt.  Now wearing shorts to church at all while not a big deal to many I'm sure is *very* new to me.  But when I have worn shorts before they've been dressed up with "nice" flip flops with a little heel and jewelry.  But plain shorts and  plain t-shirt?  Quite a stretch.  

Wanna know something though?  I don't think one person really noticed.  I felt self-conscious for a very short amount of time actually - much less than I would have thought *and* I found it interesting when I asked my mom at the end of the month if she had noticed anything about what I was wearing lately that she absolutely didn't!  She knows me better than most anyone, sees me at church and lots of other times during the week and she had not noticed that I was dressed more casually, wearing the same things over and over, not wearing jewelry or anything!

The other tricky time was when I went to a monthly gathering of a women's group from church where we dress to fit the theme each time.  The theme was patriotic and I thought about "cheating" and pulling something else out but one of the t-shirts that I had chosen for the month was one that my cousin made for our family reunion.  So I wore that and Cora had a matching one that she wore and I just went with it and you know what, it was *fine*!

Okay, so let's call that catching up and I would love to hear some of your thoughts.  




1 comment:

Kori said...

Wow, several thoughts. :-) possessions month - I need this every day of my life. Stuff multiplies! Flylady says try to get rid of a certain number of things a day so that's a thought. And I have a friend doing "30 day power purge".
http://hannahkeeley.com/blog/30-day-power-purge
I am currently just trying to go through a room at a time - making room for Baby has some motivations!
Media month sounds awesome and terrifying. We have done a day or a week but a month seems so long. But what blessings will flow!? We had to think through our days and even weeks though. We use the computer and ipad for school - required school, not "learning games". We allow required school (audio books, audio Bible, online math class, online discussion classes, timeline creator...)but not extra learning games. Email is the hardest because it's one thing not to sit and waste time on it - but that is how people reach me for some of our school commitments and classes. So it truly takes just examining what is required and what is totally wasteful and what can be delayed for a while. But oh the family fun we have any time we drop electronics for a while! And this is a great time of year with wonderful weather and outside things to do!
Keep it up - what a great journey!