Thursday Thirteen

This week's Thursday Thirteen is dedicated to all the things I've accomplished by limited my time on the internet.

For one whole week: No constant IMing, I only checked my email in the morning and evenings, no online shopping, no home searching and certainly NO NESTING!

What I learned: being online all day long is exhausting (I felt sluggish, lazy, bored after a day of doing not much but being online) and counter-productive, in my opinion, when you have a toddler, a house to care for, meals to make, hobbies you love, chores to do, play dates to plan and attend, and a certain amount of "me" time you should be indulging in so, I've re-thought my daily activities and decided to stop being online so much from here on out and wow, would you look at all I've accomplished in one short week:

1. I had the time to make our bed every single morning (something I normally never do because I just don't have the time!)
2. I have dusted and then, cleaned all our baseboards and crown molding (a three hour project!)
3. I've reorganized our bookshelves to be a bit more efficient AND alphabetized all our books
4. I cleaned out and reorganized our pantry, freezer, fridge and snack drawer and took all the non-perishable foods over to the Alameda Food Bank, which I have been meaning to do for weeks now!
5. I finished Emily's scrapbook, from birth to 1 year (a total of 5 hours of work)
6. I completely reorganized our filing system here at home, shredding all old paperwork we never needed to keep in the first place (it required four bags of trash, by the way!)
7. I cleaned out both our closets and took 5 bags of clothes to the Goodwill
8. I finished two novels I had previously been working on for months!
9. I have been to the gym every day this week, without guilt!
10. I returned some things that were too small for Emily to Baby Gap, Old Navy and Macy's
11. I added 16 recipes to my Tastebook
12. I purchased a crockpot and tested 5 new recipes!
13. I made it to Whole Foods, Costco, Target, The Home Depot, the Post Office and Walgreen's in just one week!
14. I rearranged the furniture in Emily's room, washed all her bedding (bumpers, crib skirt, sheets, pillow case) and cleaned out her closet/dresser/armoire of clothing that is too small and dropped it off to a friend
15. Completely revamped the folders on our external harddrive, moved older items from our harddrive to the external harddrive, uploaded 6 new videos of Emily to her blog, updated her babysite for the entire last month (including photos!), organized our online bookmarks (what a mess those were!) and updated all our applications, including our IPhones
16. Swept and moped our entire house (we have 100% hardwood) EVERY SINGLE DAY!
17. Washed my car and vacuumed the inside
18. Washed Emily's car seat cover
19. I removed and dry-cleaned the couch cushions
20. I finally contacted SWA and change my Rapid Rewards Membership to my married name (yes, I have been dragging my feet on this one!), mailed them all the proof of the 8 flights I've taken in the past two years so I could get credit for it, and logged on the AMEX.com to transfer over 100,000 points to the Rapid Rewards account in oder to obtain almost 5 free, round-trip tickets.
21. Got my eyebrows waxed and my hair cut
22. I got the oil changed in my SUV
23. I organized my coupon folder, complete with labels!
24. I made an appointment with my Dentist, my Ob/gyn and my Optometrist!
25. I cleaned out our "junk" drawer
26. I cleaned out our Medicine Cabinet (so much expired and/or half-empty Rx that needed to go!), which meant I spent a lot of time flushing things down the toilet!
27. I signed up for a library card and got the official tour
28. I had lunch with my husband twice this week!
29. I did two loads of laundry (Laundry is David's job, which he normally does on Sundays but I had so much free time, I decided to do some of it).
30. I arranged two play dates with friends I hadn't seen in a while and actually attended!
31. I cleaned out our "Emily cabinet" where we keep her sippy cups, utensils, bibs, etc.
32. I called my dad
33. I sent four birthday cards
34. I found and purchased Emily's Easter Dress and a few books for her Easter basket
35. I helped plan a St. Patrick's Day party with our neighbors
36. I updated my address book!
37. I wrote four new book reviews on goodreads.com
38. I took a nap three times this week!
39. I baked a sourcream pound cake and took it to a retirement home here in Alameda
40. I attended the Pixar Daycare seminar, eventhough we have no interest in using it until Emily is near preschool age
41. I downloaded 25 new songs off ITunes, finally using the gift card I got for Christmas
42. I helped a girlfriend pack for two hours one afternoon


Okay so, I couldn't chose the top 13 things I did this week and it turned out to be the Thursday 42. Wow! Who knew I could find so much free time just eliminating the normal time I spent online? In case you were already thinking it, NO I didn't work all day long, miss lunch, stay up until Midnight... I didn't put forth any extra time in the last 7 days, I only used the time I would normally be online to do something meaningful. :) And you know what, I feel so much better about myself and my role here at home knowing I am accomplishing so much every single day rather than wasting time online doing things that my family and I don't honestly benefit from. Being online all day long is like an addiction and it's easy to get carried away and let things slide, it took a lot for me to shut down my computer and ignore it but after a week of "detox", my house is not only cleaner and well organized but I have lifted a lot of responsibility from my husband, I've made more time for my friends, I am well rested and have lost some weight AND I'm just so much happier! :)

I challenge YOU to step away from your computer for one week and type up your own Thursday Thirteen!