Day 12 of Month 5 Already?!

Wow this month is flying by, slow down time, slow down!  Blogging after my piano lesson as I sit here listening to my girl have her lesson. 

Recycling is going well, I can not believe how little trash we have now. I found a recycling center in town that recycles practically everything! Why did I ever put this off for so long, it's really not hard and makes me feel good that our family is doing a small part to help our earth.

Doing good using reusable bags at the stores, I thought the store clerks would hate me, but they have all been so obliging and kind, yay!

Haven't been able to cut driving down as much as I wanted to, might have to scrap that one from my list...it's impossible! My girl is attending a cooking camp at church, which she is loving, so now I'm driving her back and forth to that this week, it's farther then her school...oh well, I'm looking forward to her making our family dinner afterwards! :)

I've bought nothing but groceries and gifts lately so I haven't made it to any second hand stores yet...and right now I'm window shopping online for great deals on toys and sports equipment for our mission trip team to take to Haiti in a few weeks...it's coming fast! So much for only shopping locally ;)

I am being more conscience of turning off lights and using less water by taking shorter showers so that's good.

This seven month experiment has been good for me, it's making me appreciate everything we've been blessed with so much more. I really desire to be a blessing to others...it takes time, and I'm sure I'll never feel like I've arrived.  One thing for sure there are numerous people in my life that have been a blessing to me, and I'm truly grateful to God for all of them!

Month 5, Day 1- 7 Habits for a Less Wasteful Life

Starting month 5 focusing on the area of "waste" this entire month.  I'm positive I'm one of the most wasteful people on this planet. How do I know? I can remember even as an adult with my kids still toddlers,  while cleaning the house in a hurry and "accidentally" throwing away a penny or even a nickel, mostly I was too lazy to fish it out of my own trash can after it had fallen in somehow.  How wasteful is that?  Thankfully I've matured some since then, and now I truly appreciate all God has blessed me with.  I've learned I need to be a good steward, and literally throwing money away is not being a good steward, so I don't literally throw money away anymore, but I still have a long way to go before I will call myself a good steward. 
So this month I will focus on 7 habits for a less wasteful life.  I need to think "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". I wanted to garden this month, but that just never happened, previous posts explain why, but basically it was going to be too expensive for what I wanted to do... So this month I will shop Farmer's Markets instead, which I never do, so I'm actually excited about it, and since the kids will be on summer break, they will be coming along to shop with me on those days.

I will not overbuy! I do this so much!! I think, oh we'll eat that before it goes bad, and then we wind up throwing it away! Right now I have to throw away 2 bunches of bananas that we never ate! I also forgot to throw them in the freezer this time and I never got around to baking banana bread with them.  It's not "literally" throwing money away, but it is throwing money away and not being a good steward! What a waster I am!!

I have a couple of reusable grocery bags, but I've NEVER used them to buy groceries with, so this month I'm going to be using reusable grocery bags. 

We will be conserving energy and water more, I'm the worst at turning lights off that I'm not using.  I love to have lights on all over the place, I've done a poor job at teaching my kids to conserve energy, because well I can't tell them to do something that I never do! So this month, they are going to learn, and so will I.  I'm going to set up a timer with a buzzer by our showers to help limit our shower time. My kids take too long in the shower sometimes, and I'm sure I could cut some time off of mine as well.  Confession time, last summer on my mission trip to DR/Haiti, we took showers out of big buckets of cold water by using a cup to wet ourselves and rinse with, so one of the things I said I was going to do when I got back home, was to continue taking showers that way by turning the water on only when I rinsed, instead of having it run the entire shower time.  Um....yeah I failed miserably at that, it lasted for about a week when I got back and I tried to do it occasionally after that.  The only good thing that came out of that failure, is that every time I am in the shower I think about the Dominicans and the Haitians and all those in this world who need fresh water, and I pray.

We will be recycling EVERYTHING this month.  I have the 3 little red, white, and blue recycle bins still,  somehow living in a gated community has kept us off of the new city wide recycling program and we have never received the huge new recycle bins where you don't have to sort any of it.  So as of now, we still have to sort and our bins are usually overflowing, especially because we always miss recycle curb pick up days, so overflowing bins make me not want to add anymore recycables to it and I wind up throwing stuff away that I shouldnt. I just haven't made it a priority, but I need to, so this month, I will!

This month I will be shopping garage sales, thrift and second-hand stores for any items we need.  This will not include gift items though, unless they are practically brand new!  I will not be shopping online this month, I will only be buying locally.  This does not include Itunes for music, I just love music!

Driving will be cut down considerably this month, one good thing is I won't have to drive back and forth to school this month since school will be over for the summer in just 4 1/2 days. I will try as much as possible to stay in my little area of town too.

So that's it 7 areas to work on cutting down on waste this month.  Looking forward to new wonderful habits being established in our family.  We all need to do our part in taking care of Earth, it's God's amazing, spectacular, beautiful creation,  that we all call home.

1. Shop Farmer's Markets
2. Do Not Over Buy
3. Use Re-usable Grocery Bags
4. Conserve Energy and Water
5. Recycle Everything
6. Shop Local
7. Reduce Driving Frequency and Distances

Day 31 Month 4- Last day of "7" Media Fast

Tomorrow the kids get their TV back! Not sure I want that to happen, I mean just look at my son before school these days. Instead of eating a bowl of cereal while watching TV, he's now eating it while READING!

We will be limiting how much TV they watch though, especially with only one more week left of school, they absolutely will NOT be watching TV entire summer days.  There is so much more to life than television!  I'm glad this month proved to them that they can survive without Disney and Nick TV shows, those are really the only shows they watch, and they are funny, but I admit they were watching them too much!

Am I happy this month is over?  Yes and no...always mixed feelings for me.  I'm happy I'll have the radio back in my truck while driving, it really is weird how the drives can feel so much longer when there is no music to sing along to while driving.  My daughter and I tried singing on our own and that worked fine, until we couldn't remember the words and just kept singing the same parts over and over again.  I'm so thankful for God's gift of music to us!!!

Twitter, I still can care less about. Fun phone apps, I can live without, but of course will be fun again. Fun websites, there have been a couple of times I wanted to play on one with my kids so that will be nice to have back. Texting, will be nice to have full access to again, it was hard to limit, but I think I did ok. Phone conversations, those don't happen to often these days anyway, texting takes their place, I would much rather have a face to face or walking conversations over both of those though.  Youtube, that's where I failed the most, it was just too much fun watching the comedians on there, I'm glad I'll be able to watch it freely now and not feel guilty for it! Facebook, yeah I want it back I have no clue what's happening in some of my friends/families lives or the world for that matter! HA!!! I definitely will be limiting it like I will be limiting TV for my kids though.  The hard part, I have my phone with me constantly which will have facebook access once again, unless I decide to just keep it off of my phone and only access it through the computer...hmmm, I'll have to think about that one.  It's a good idea but I'm not sure I want to!  It just provides something to do on those times when my honey is driving me around places.  I would read a book but for some reason, I get sick while reading a book, I don't get sick while reading a phone screen though.  Has anyone else experienced that?  Maybe I need a Kindle! :)  Well enough about Media, it was nice to unplug, but I'll be happy to have it back.  I'll have to catch up on the news, anything interesting happening lately?!

Day 26- Youtube Media fast?! Really? Are you sure?!!

Ugh! I can't do it! I just can't give up certain forms of media for an entire month! I failed again today and I only have less than a week left! I was doing mostly good on this Saturday hanging out at home. First I went on a wonderful brisk morning walk with friends, read the Bible, then cooked my family some sausage, egg and cheese scramble with chocolate chip pancakes. Then helped the kids clean up their toy room so their friends could come over to play.  Sore and tired from the walk, I relaxed as I organized files on my new laptop and did some research.  All was going pretty well... after eating grilled hamburgers for dinner, we continued reading one of my son's favorite books of the moment, the first book in "The Mysterious Benedict Society" series...which so far is a fun read! We are really enjoying it as a family.  Then it happened, my mind went back to a conversation with a fabulous friend from my morning walk, I had asked if they knew of any stand up comedians that my son would enjoy, because that is what he really loves, comedy. To laugh and make others laugh.   So my friend suggested Brian Regan. I had never heard of him and tonight we just HAD to Youtube him. So as a family, we sat and watched an hour long show. It was HILARIOUS! We laughed soooo hard! I'm a Brian Regan fan now, and my son loved it!  So I'm failing my Youtube portion of my media fast, BUT, we are making some priceless memories together as a family, and so....it's worth it!!! Now go Youtube Brian Regan if you've never heard him!!! :)

Day 22 month 4-now, what did I miss?

Yeah not really liking this media fast...I'm seriously the last to know anything that's going on! I think Facebook kept me updated on more than I thought. Weather, News (including family and friends news), sales,  my calendar of events, solar eclipse phenomenas etc... I'm missing out on so much!I didn't even know about the upcoming solar eclipse and I usually love knowing about stuff like that happening. I'm fascinated by this world God created. I love learning new things about it and love seeing new things even more. I am definitely one of those who feel close to God through nature and creation. Anything natural that God created just excites me! Feeling very thankful for media in all forms. We have it really good here in America, don't ya know?! :)  Luckily I was told about the eclipse right as it was happening so I was able to look directly at the sun and see it!  Ooops, they didn't tell me not to look directly at it until AFTER I already did!  It was so cool though, loved seeing it, and my eyes are still ok! Crazy thing is I've been looking directly at the sun since I was a kid, must be why I'm blind! LOL!
  
I'm driving the car around this week because something is wrong with the truck, (cha-ching!), don't tell my honey, but I think something is wrong with the car too (cha-ching cha-ching, cha-ching!) When I arrived home after lunch with my mom and running around doing errands for the kids the rest of the afternoon, the garage immediately filled with smoke...uh-oh, I'm no mechanic but I don't think that's a good sign, (sigh) I hate when things stop working right. Ice Maker quit last week, outlet with second refrigerator plugged in went out and we lost lots of good meat  and outlet is still not working right. Then truck problems, now car problems. I know it's satan trying to get me down and make me think I can't afford to pay for the rest of my mission trip to DR/Haiti...he's not going to win though, so he might as well stop trying!  God will provide, He always has and I have faith that He always will!!! 
Used my Hobby Lobby Mother's Day gift card and bought a new floral arrangement for my dining room table, Thank you Sister, I've been wanting one for years now!!! <3  My son was stung by a bee last night INSIDE our house! The kids say the bee came in the house because it thought my silk flower arrangements were real, then when it discovered it was fake, it must have got mad so that's why it stung my son.  Crazy kids! I'm just glad he wasn't allergic and I was so proud of what a tough guy he was about it. He's really growing up. I love my sweet young man!  :)
God is good....All the time!!!

Month 4-Day 19 Surviving a "7" Media Fast

So how have we (especially the kids) been surviving this media fast? Easy with hamsters, reading and basketball of course!
We love our hamsters. We taught them how to go up and down the stairs.  We made them a maze to run through out of cereal boxes. It wasn't the best so we decided we were going to make a better one soon. We need to make the walls higher so they don't try to cheat their way through the maze by climbing over them! Little rascals, they're fast too! 
Basketball, playing Risk and wrestling after reading their books and finishing homework, seem to be what the kids have been enjoying this week with Daddy.  They really love their Father! Me too! :) Going on 4 hours at the pool today, the weather is sunny and warm and the water temperature is perfect, especially in the spa! Picked up my cell phone to "play" on it and realized it's boring now with all the fun apps deleted off of it! Might as well not even have a smart phone this month. That's ok though the kids and their cousins and an extra 4 year old girl whom I love a ton have been keeping me quite entertained. Love these little people wish they would just stay little! :)

Day 17 of Fasting "7" types of Media

I still miss Facebook! LOL...I know I'm pathetic! I just love how it keeps me feeling connected with my family and friends in the midst of everyone's busy lives though! I normally have fb notifications come to my phone if anyone writes on my wall, tags me, or sends me message. I still have fb messenger which I figure is more like email or texting. It's private communicating and really I've only used it a couple of times for PTA meeting info. I normally have selected 50 people on fb that I follow and all their updates are sent through a text notification. I love that feature because you don't even have to be on fb to know when someone updates, having that turned off is really keeping my phone quiet. Twitter I can do without, pandora and radio I can do without as long as I have my Ipod which I constantly forget while driving and driving in complete silence is not fun! So as long as I have my Ipod it's all good. The Ipod is better anyway because I have more control over what I am listening to. The news....well I've not been the best at avoiding that completely, I still have to check my email and the first thing that I see is the news, I just can't help but read some of it! Youtube...I gave in the other night and watched lots of stand-up comedy bits of Anjelah Johnson with my mom. We were painting our nails together and I remembered about the funny nail salon one and I just HAD to show my mom, of course we couldn't stop there and wound up watching probably every one of her bits on Youtube. I have no self control! It was so fun though, my mom and I laughed together, I would do it all over again :) I guess that means I can't live without Youtube. I already know I can't live without my mom! I love her so much!!!

Let's see fun websites- I've done pretty good at avoiding those, I was tempted to play on Webkinz with my daughter, but I didn't do it! My awesome husband got me a brand new laptop for Mother's Day so I can't wait for Media month to be over so I can really play with it. I have so much I want to do on it! One of the main things I want it for is to be better at scrapbooking and organizing my pictures. I might even try digital scrapbooking or order some shutterfly type books. My honey doesn't know it yet, but I might even make him do some digital scrapbooking of his own, I would love for him to help me journal on them, he has a better memory than me, or maybe we just compliment eachother well, he remembers things that I don't and I remember things that he doesn't.

Ok what else, I have used the internet to look up recipes, it's so much faster than looking through cookbooks, I just had to! The kids are doing wonderful with no TV shows. Since the first day of May when I unplugged the TV's they have not really complained about it at all. I am sooo proud of them. We have plugged in the TV in the family room for popcorn bar family movie night though, but only for those special times which was well worth it. Here are some pictures of the popcorn bar my girl and I just decided to make on a whim :)

First time ever making Caramel Popcorn and I looked up a super fast microwave recipe...It was Delicious! Turned out GREAT!

So what am I forgetting? Texting... well it's been limited, I think! Seriously though that one is extremely hard to give up! And phone conversations, I've only had a couple. I deleted Skype on my phone, which really didn't work right anyway but now I have it on my laptop. I can't wait to try it out, should be fun, anyone want to skype in June? ;) Ok well all this media talk is making me want to stop blogging and go do something productive. Time to get back to work going through every closet, drawer, and cupboards...this is taking me longer than I thought it would, slowly but surely, at least it's getting done right?!