Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Too Much Television: My Day in the Dark


I have recently realized that I watch WAY too much television and spend too much time sitting on the couch. I look at the coffee table that is cluttered with papers, items that need to go to the basement but instead have been sitting by the stairs for a month, unfinished craft projects and unwritten thank you notes on my mess of a desk... it's all strong evidence that I've been slacking. And television has a lot to do with it! So, I'm trying a little experiment.

One day without:
  • Television
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
What is allowed:
  • Music
  • Email
  • Calls and texts
I'll keep some notes and check in here in this post on what gets done with the tv gets turned off. Here we go!

8:00 AM
We're all awake by now, and I spent some time snuggling in bed with my favorite little guy. Instead of watching tv, we listened to some music on my Amazon Prime music app. I sang and danced a little to a couple songs and got precious smiles and a giggle or two in return.

10:00 AM
We're back from a walk around the neighborhood (sans puppy due to humidity levels and the fact that he'd just returned from his morning walk with my husband so he was tired), and I discovered an epic diaper blowout which warranted a wardrobe change for both of us. We sat down to nurse and I read "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV". Seemed appropriate!

12:00 PM
Another diaper change and more nursing, plus I finally finished up the last two thank-you notes I needed to send to people for gift cards after the baby was born. Finally!

2:00 PM
I've been vacuuming the family room (the main area for the pets to hang out) and listening to Amazon Prime music. The baby is enjoying the white noise of the new vacuum and I'm enjoying the fact that it's actually cleaning up the pet hair! (If you're curious, we got the Dyson DC65 Animal Complete.) I even used the attachments to clean a YEAR of pet hair off the couches. Moved the furniture and got everything cleaned up.

4:00 PM
More nursing and instead of staring blankly at the tv while he eats, I read some of my "It Starts with Food" book on my Kindle. Continued vacuuming the other rooms downstairs, tidied up the coffee table, organized/tossed greeting cards we've received recently, and pulled all the nipple shields together in one place to be cleaned and put away.

6:00 PM
Hubs came home from work with a frustrating problem that I helped him troubleshoot and solve. I hung out with baby (who was being his usual awesome friendly self, by the way) and logged into my various accounts to pull financial information (savings, retirement, student loan) to update our spreadsheet of assets/debt. Then I updated my virus definitions on my work computer and changed my work network password because it had expired. I'm not back to work for a while, but I still check in every now and then so I'm not completely slammed when I return. RSVP'd to a baby shower, paid my Visa bill and a hospital bill, tidied up the fridge.

8:00 PM
Things started to get squirrely here. The time spent helping hubby with work meant I didn't get food prepped when I had someone around to entertain baby... so I still hadn't eaten and had only had a light, early lunch so far. Texted a good friend and started prepping veggies for a vegetarian stir fry dish (carrots, onions, red pepper, toasted cashews and pineapple... YUM) and a shrimp and broccolini entree. My husband was out with friends... 'cause you know, he needed a night out of the house *eyeroll*. Kept getting interrupted to nurse hungry tank baby.

10:00 PM
Stood in the kitchen up against the stove (so I wouldn't fall over from no food) and crammed a plate full of food into my face, chugged some water, and did the dishes while my husband played with a very happy and full baby. Practically limped upstairs to take a shower, nurse one more time, and hit the hay.

My day without TV, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook was, all in all, a good day. It reminded me that there are plenty of hours in the day to get things done, take in the special moments with my son, throw shade at my son's clueless father, and still get a homecooked meal in my belly at the end of the day. It was exhausting but productive and the house looks great. It's finally feeling a bit organized and put together again. It got so bad while I was pregnant and then when baby finally arrived, it took things to a whole new level! If you find yourself mindlessly staring at the TV and constantly closing the day with too few checks on your To-Do list, try going dark for a day and take a look around you. It's amazing what you can get done.

Cheers,
Kelly

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