Daily Mini-Goal(s)

As I am trying to simplify my life & home, I have decided that on top of my large "FruGoals" (the term I came up with, which my friend abhors, so I am now using it just to irritate her), I'm going to have at least one daily mini-goal.

Yesterday I declared the dinner table (both at home and in restaurants) a cell-phone free zone. I am in love with my iPhone and am somewhat addicted to it. Our iPhones tend to be frequent guests at our meals, so that rather than talking to each other and engaging with our son, Diesel and I are busy surfing the web or texting or whatever. Last night I realized (as Diesel was e-mailing during our meal) that this is interrupting our ability to connect with each other, so I declared the cell-phone free dinner table  (for the record, I am MUCH worse about being distracted by my phone at the table than he is). Now, the only reason a cell phone may be used at the dinner table are as follows: #1 using the calculator to figure out the tip or how to divide a bill when eating a meal out, #2 to take photos of something adorable that the boychild does, #3 some type of actual emergency.

Today I had two mini goals.
Mini-goal #1: Clean out the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
I've broken my house up into "zones" that need cleaning & organizing. Using a floor plan of our house, I denoted what needs to be done where. Rather than trying to set aside an entire weekend to try to clean and organize my house-- which hasn't happened since the week before Little Man was born-- each day I'm going to try to clean out/reorganize one of these zones.
Today's zone was the cabinet under our kitchen sink. I forgot to take a before shot, but imagine it crammed to the top with plastic grocery bags, spray bottles, drying racks, etc.
NOW it looks like this:

 

I feel a great sense of accomplishment just by cleaning and organizing ONE cabinet. I look at this photo and I am happy to see things all neat and tidy and in their places! HOORAY!

Mini-goal #2: Reduce "eDrain" (on-going goal)

eDrain is the term I came up with for the way that our electronics can suck us in and eat up huge chunks of our time. You know how one "quick" check of your email can suddenly turn into two hours before you know it? THAT is eDrain.

This goal came to me last night as I was sitting on the couch, using my laptop to Facebook and check on my thread on Babycenter. As I was sitting there I could hear my boys reading and playing on the bed in our bedroom.  Suddenly I had an epiphany. I constantly complain that I don't have enough time with my boys, yet here I am frittering away that time because I want to see what is going on in my social network. This appalled me, so I shut off the laptop, got up and engaged with my family.

Since trying to simplify and minimize isn't just about reducing what we own and what we spend, but also about creating more quality interactions with the people & things we love, I'm also going to try to focus on reducing my (and my family's) addiction to all things eDraining and thereby increasing our meaningful engagement with each other.

How are we reducing eDrain right now? On weeknights, no computer/TV until after the baby goes to bed and AFTER all the necessary tasks for that evening have been completed. I haven't come up with a plan for weekends, but I'm working on it-- I'm thinking set "okay" times to watch TV and use the computer, but haven't nailed that down yet. Like with the cell  phone rule, there will be some emergency usage allowed, but going forward my family will be the priority before my Facebook status!

So far this has been a fairly peaceful evening. It was such a difference to sit on the couch and chat with my husband while the boychild play; however as soon as he went down Diesel is on the laptop & I'm blogging. But, as soon as this blog is complete I'm going to go crack open the good book I'm reading and enjoy that!