I choose to fill the time with 45 meaningless things.

So I have made it through a week and it has not been too difficult. If you were my mom reading this she may have a different opinion. I might complain that I am bored often. But this is kind of one of my spiritual talents, complaining. Oh that isn’t one of the spiritual gifts? Well I beg to differ because I am pretty good at it.

Anyway, giving up social media for a month will not be too bad. There are many instances when I think oh I should tweet that or I want to take a picture of that and put that on Instagram or Facebook, but alas I do/cannot. I have been writing some of those things down. Here are a few of them

Library book stains. Ever wonder what in the world someone was doing while they were reading this book. Either eating very messily or bleeding profusely.

Someone said that it was John Smith singing these words to Pocahantas, “You’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts.” I know my silly humor.

I have also been floored by how much more time I have on my hands. As you know before I said I was excited to be so productive, but just because I am not watching TV does not mean that I now have a cure for my laziness. I am still lazy and not getting that much done.

I have read 2 books in a week. I read In Between Days which was really good, it is about a dysfunctional family. I found it very real and true. Then I read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. It is a young adult book but very different from the trilogies out and popular right now. Both great reads.

TV is very difficult to give up. It has not been a huge aspect of my life since I got back from Haiti. I am just not as concerned with keeping up with the shows as I once was. But I do notice its complete absence from my life. Week nights are not too bad because I have work to do and then can read or workout and shower. I can fill the time with essential things and then go to bed early. But the weekends have been a little more difficult. I enjoy have it on while I am doing other things.  The quiet has been eerie, ha.

I am this next week going to work on spending more time with God. I was just reading some of Jen Hatmaker’s reflections on this month and she also came to this realization that I have always made the excuse that I do not have enough time for God. But not having TV and what not and still filling the time with things has proven that I do have the time for God, but choose to fill the time with 45 other meaningless things. I will always find ways to fill the time with things other than God unless I make the effort to fill the time with more meaningful things.

 

An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

So I started month 4 which is media. So I have a lot of time on my hands not being spent watching TV or on my phone. So I am going to take this time to blog like crazy. Now I have not written about any of the other months that I have done. So let me give you a recap. Here it goes

Before I begin let me explain what this whole things is. I had read a book way back that was called 7 An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. Each month she limits herself from something and during that month she is stretched and challenged to live a simpler life. So a few friends and myself have decided to give it a try as well.

Month one was food. This was a hard month for me. I cut out seven foods, where as Jen Hatmaker only ate seven foods and I did not want to hate life that much. So the seven foods I cut out were bread, cheese, soda, alcohol, fried foods, desserts, coffee pretty much only water for a month.

Basically I ate a lot of salads, especially when I went out. I became a little irritable when all my friends were eating this cheesy fried goodness and I had to sip on my water, with lemon, and wait for my salad, which is just as expensive as a burger and fries mind you.

So that month was actually very difficult.

Then came the month of clothing. I limited myself to eight items of clothing, pajamas and workout clothes did not count. So I had 2 pairs of dress pants, a pair of jeans, 2 v-neck shirts, 2 cardigans, and a dress. Tights, scarves, and under garments also did not count. So this was actually not too bad. It made getting ready in the morning very easy and quick. And to my surprise no one even noticed that I was swapping the same articles of clothing week after week. I did this for three full weeks the last week I went to Haiti on a mission trip.

The third month is possessions. I was supposes to give 7 things away a day for a grand total of 210 items. I was really looking forward to this month because it would finally give me an excuse to go through my closet and my room and get rid of a bunch of stuff I had been hording. Now the key thing here was to give thoughtfully, not just to a middle man, Goodwill. I ended up giving away 148 things. So not quite the 210, but it averages to 21 days so not too bad. I did not do a good job with the thoughtful giving though, trying to find actual people who needed these items. I gave away 43 clothing items. 14 nail polish, 14 jewelry, 13 scarves, 34 books, 2 pieces of wall décor, 4 shoes, 11 purses and bags and a couple odds and ends.

 

So that brings me to month four, Media. This is meant to be giving up 7 forms of media. Mine are TV, Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, internet (within reason, I need to check my email, but I am not looking up things all of the time), texting (this is also within reason, only if it saves time, but not for frivolous-no meaning texting), radio, gaming/iphone apps (apps are within reason as well, I need the weather channel app but that is about it)

 

I have made one exception which some might think is a copout but I have to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs for my beloved Blackhawks. I just have to. You might say, “Well that is exactly why you are doing this right, because you actually do not HAVE to.” But I beg to differ, when I watch they win, when I do not they don’t. Simple as that. And stop judging me, I can sense it. Anyways.

Stay tuned for month 5-Waste

Month 6-Spending-going to be a hard one

Month 7-Stress