What if?

You know how I’ve mentioned that I’m like a small child and need my routine?  Well, I have seriously been off my routine for a few weeks.  Here I am, back at it, and starting to feel a bit normal again.

This weekend, I received one of my books on hold from the library.  Isn’t that an exciting feeling when you’ve had a book on hold for so long that you can’t remember why you wanted to read it?!

This book has been pretty amazing.  I read 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker.  You can click on the link to read more about it.  The gist is that Jen goes on a fast of sorts, giving up something new each month, and takes a look at what is really important.  I finished it in two days.  I couldn’t wait to see what the next chapter (the next month) would bring.  I was laughing out loud while reading it.  Billy kept asking, “What’s so funny?”  He doesn’t get reading.  Her reflections were so honest about these sacrifices.  She was genuine about her discomfort (even hatred at times) for these sacrifices.

She is also really honest about how these were not forever sacrifices.  This was meant to take a hard look at those things that were coming in between her and the life she wanted.  At times, she would reflect about how her family could sustain some of the changes.  For example, one month, her family gave up media.  No tv.  For a month.  This created a lot of great opportunities for everyone in her family to find other things to do.    

It’s one of those books that has me thinking, what if?  The internet is one of my biggest time wasters.  I get sucked in and then time is forever lost.  Outside of my early morning alone coffee time, what if I didn’t get on the internet until after the kids were in bed?  What would that look like?  Would I spend more time with my kids?  Would I have more time for crafting?  Would that unfolded laundry with the permanent wrinkles actually get put away?

There are some other ideas that I’ve been tossing around in my head, rolling around with all of those movie quotes.  I love it when a book or thought stays with you like that, challenges you to be a better version of yourself.  I’m excited to see how I can use this with my goals for this year and my focus to be awake.