Time Waster Fast

First, you should know that I'm still severely sleep deprived and my already minimal writing skills have lessened even more. It's a good thing you're a patient person, right? 

Alright, let me just tell you that the whole idea that the life of a stay at home mom entails watching Lifetime and eating brownies all day is just not true. 

Man, I wish it was.

It's BIZ-ZYYY!

It's a different kind of busy than work and school, of course, but I've still been constantly busy. I feel like I've been so far behind on everything. Behind on the housework (seriously, our house was a hot mess), errands, duties for my church, I haven't spent nearly as much time at the hospital with my brother as I would have liked, etc. 

Since Clint's plate is already full, all of the cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and billion other errands that somehow stack up are put on my plate. Oh, and not to mention I'm still recovering from giving birth to the cutest little baby girl and I get to take care of said baby girl who, by the way, hates to sleep with a passion. And oh yeah, I still have to do pain-in-da-bum things like brush my teeth, take showers, eat lunch, and sometimes even get dressed. 

I'm not trying to give you my to-do list but you should just trust me that there's been a lot on it.

Basically, I was living in a mess of crazy and I decided something had to give.

I decided to cut out TV.

You guys, I've been TV free for a week. 

My TV has not been turned on for over a week. 

Yeah, that means even being TV free for a week I still haven't had a spare 15 minutes to sit down and write about this (did you know typing with one hand is really hard?). That doesn't happen. Not to mention, my to-do list is still a mile long. Better than two miles right? Anyway..

Now I'm not someone who sits and watches TV all day. Sometimes I would watch TV while I nursed or folded clothes (in the unlikely event my baby was sleeping) or ate my lunch (in the even more unlikely event my baby didn't cry alligator tears when I set her down). No big deal right? Well, the problem is that nursing my baby  or folding clothes or eating lunch may only takes 30 minutes, but I'm watching a 42 minute show on Netflix and I'm not going to stop it when I'm done doing above task and there's only ten minutes left in the show. Ya feel me? Those extra few minutes here and there watching TV were starting to stack up over the course of days and weeks and months. I also felt like I wasn't as present as I should be for my daughter. I want to soak up every coo and smile and fuzzy hair on her head! Through doing this, I've seen a difference in that regard. I'll only be at this stage of my life once and I want to really enjoy it. I want to be here not distracted by a silly TV show. 

In addition to TV, I've cut down on social media like instagram and facebook. The problem with this is when your baby nurses 10 times a day and you conveniently have access to them on your phone and you're really just trying to stay awake through the day.... I've still probably been on them more than I should. There's room for improvement. I'll try harder!

Still, through doing this "Time Waster Fast", I have been able to do a lot of the things I thought I'd never be able to cross of my to-do list. Here are some:

I was able to vacuum. That's been on my to-do list for weeks. I know, gross. I was able to fix several real meals. I was able to visit my brother in the hospital several times. I went to the grocery story twice. My husband and I were able to spend a day with his family. I am starting to get caught up on my church responsibilities. I packed up Ainsley's 0-3 month clothes and unpacked her 6-9 months clothes (have I told you lately she is growing WAY too fast?). I've exercised daily. We've made an appointment to work with the missionaries. I've re-watched the Saturday General Conference sessions and part of the Sunday AM session. I intend on continuing to subsitute TV and social media time to watching conference which is a much better use of time. My house has transitioned from hot mess to mostly presentable. And most importantly, I've enjoyed my sweet little girl even more.  

I think that's one of the biggest problem with being a technological-crazed society. We're not present for our daily lives. You're in line at the grocery story checking instagram for the 5th time even though you know there couldn't possibly be a new post since you last checked it 2 minutes ago. You do it because it's a habit. Did you know people used to talk to each other? Yeah, in person too. Now it seems like constantly being up to date is such a habit that we're living more in technology than reality. Do I sound like the 89 year old man who asked my mom at the hospital yesterday what her iPhone was? I promise, I'm not against technology. Technology is the very thing that allows me to watch conference over and over and be uplifted and strengthened. I just think that sometimes this wonderful technology that allows you to have access to an insane amount of information that was invented to improve our lives can sometimes decrease the quality of life we're living, even if it's something as simple as not enjoying a conversation with a stranger in the grocery store. 

My name is Alexis, and that's what I think.

p.s. I had just laid down my baby for a nap when I started writing this, and she just started crying. Girl is crazy.