This is it – March 2019. The month when I spend 30 days observing a digital minimalist diet and taking a much-needed step back from my beloved iPhone.

I don’t know exactly where I fall on the spectrum of addiction to my phone. I’m probably not the worst phone junkie in the world, but I definitely use my phone more often than I’d like to. The idea of cutting back on my phone usage came from a few different places: this NY Times article by Kevin Roose; this Ezra Klein interview with Cal Newport; and just the general feeling of YUCK that I get when I know I’m not living my life in a healthy and present way.

When I decided to try out this digital minimalist diet for 30 days, I got excited and a little nervous. I got nervous because I use my phone a LOT – especially when I’m anxious. I find myself checking it even more frequently when I’m in a nerve-wracking social situation, and it sometimes helps to calm me down when I’m sad, frustrated, or nervous. I got excited because deep down I KNOW I want to change my relationship with my phone, and it’s exciting to think that maybe with hard work I can shift some of my daily digital habits.

A few days before this endeavor began, I sat down and tried to think through the logistics. I definitely was not going to live completely without my iPhone – not even close. We don’t have a landline, so my phone is my only connection to Tamara, the boys, and our extended family when I’m away from them all.

I also was not going to live without other tools for technology. I’d use my laptops, both at work and at home, and I’d use our iPad. In fact, my guess is that I’ll be using the iPad more often than I usually do; I think by shifting some of my digital diet from my phone to the iPad, I’ll be able to decrease the time I spend using technology, since the iPad most definitely does NOT fit in my back pocket.

The big goals of these 30 days are as follows:

1. No social media.

2. Delete as many apps from my phone as possible.

3. Significantly reduce the amount of time I spend on my phone.

There are two major challenges I’m going to face with this digital minimalist diet. The first is my bedtime routine; I usually fall asleep listening to a podcast or a TV show on my phone, and I want to reduce or eliminate that habit. The second challenge is TV.  Recently, I’ve been using my phone a LOT – way more than usual. This is mainly due to watching TV via the Amazon Prime app on my phone.

Oh, television – I love you and I hate you. A few weeks ago, I was ready to give up watching TV indefinitely – but that was because I was so frustrated with my annoying habit of watching reruns of my favorite shows over and over when I’m anxious. I’ve been tired and stressed and subsequently watched almost all eight seasons of Monk on my phone over the course of the past month.

However, something shifted for me at the end of February. I started to remember why I actually love TV. If it’s a good show, then it’s smart and funny and highly entertaining. There are two shows  that there are 2 current shows – The Good Place and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – that I love to watch and am 4+ episodes behind on currently. I also started to watch 2 new-to-me shows via Amazon Prime – The Good Wife and House – and I’ve been enjoying them tremendously.

So when I sat down to figure out my plan for March, I got a little puzzled when it came to television. On the one hand, I want to cut down on my screen time; on the other hand, I enjoy TV and this time of my life (low energy, midnight feedings) is sort of a perfect time to enjoy some new TV shows. It would be lovely if I could just sit, holding and feeding J.J. mindfully, fully present and in awe of my baby boy – but that’s not really me. I am literally holding a sleeping J.J. as I type this blog post on my iPhone.

For now, my plan is to just focus on using my phone less. I’ll use the iPad if I want to watch one of my new TV shows, and I think just making that switch will help me  decrease my TV time. It’s harder to go get the iPad to watch a show than it is to take my phone out of my back pocket to watch something.

I’m excited, I’m nervous, and I’m ready. Expect updates on my successes and failures in my All The Things post at the end of March!

It’s been a busy month, wrapping up an incredibly busy year!

I’m going to try my best to get back to biweekly blogging in 2019, but to do that, I am thinking I’ll have to be okay with some short-but-sweet posts early in the year until I am readjusted to my routine. (This will be one of those!)

Things I’m Reading: Earlier this month, I finished A Ladder To The Sky by John Boyne. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. Boyne is officially one of my favorite writers. Right now, I am halfway through Louise Penny’s latest Gamache book, Kingdom Of the Blind – also good so far.

Things I’m Watching: So many reruns of The Good Place and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that I’m almost getting bored. But I feel way too tired most days to invest in a brand-new show. Sigh – first world problems.

Things I’ve Been Celebrating: Baby J.J.’s first Christmas, Edgar’s first Christmas when he really understood the magic of the season, and my 36th birthday!

Things I’m Excited About: A new year, new writing goals, and the chance to set a new rhythm for my routines.

This weekend, I spent several delightful hours at The Book Thing, a free (!!!) bookstore in Baltimore.

Yes, the books are literally free. It’s magical. Nothing is alphabetized, which would drive some people crazy. For me, it adds to the serendipity of the place. I wandered the aisles, feeding Edgar graham crackers and watching out of the corner of my eye as he looked through a book about airplanes, and every once in a while, a book would catch my eye and I’d slide it off the shelf and into one of the five reusable shopping bags I’d brought. (The all-star customers showed up with shopping carts. GENIUS.)

My goal for this weekend’s trip was to stock our Little Free Library full of new books, and I was able to find a lot of my favorites at The Book Thing! It was amazing to browse and know that there was no limit whatsoever to how many books I could take. It felt similar to how I feel when I check out 20+ books from the library – like I’m splurging in a way that hurts neither my bank account nor my personal well-being. (Unlike the way I feel when I realize I’ve spent $100 at Target in 20 minutes, or when Amazon packages show up at my house and I can’t remember ordering anything. THAT feels gross.)

There were so many great titles there. I took about 60 books home! And I was amused by the frequency of certain titles. I saw at least five copies of Empire Falls by Richard Russo and The Kite Runner, both great books. Why so many copies? Why those books? It’s a mystery.

A friend of mine asked about the Little Free Library and my trip to The Book Thing, and I explained – I want to stock the library with my favorite books (I’m trying to only include titles that either I or Tamara have read and loved) so that they can be read and loved by others. Kind of like my own little literary public service project for my community. It is simultaneously pointless and purposeful. I love it. More Wild Peace Farm Library updates to come!

Oh, man – this mommy thing is tricky.

I love it.  I’ve waited for a long time to be a mother, and it’s the greatest joy I’ve ever experienced – pure delight.

However, I’ve noticed that I’ve been struggling to recalibrate – to figure out how to maintain good self-care as a new mother.  As always, when I am stressed – even when it’s good stress! – I slip back into my vices.  For me, it’s candy, junk food, caffeine, and TV.

When things change in your life, you have an opportunity to achieve a brand-new equilibrium.  That’s what’s been happening with me, as I adjust happily and tiredly to having Teddy – Our Baby! – home.

The biggest area of struggle with me in New Mommy Land is #body.  Figuring out how to get the exercise I need while also spending as much of my love, time, and energy on Teddy as I possibly can – that’s challenging.

And now, my return to working full-time is looming.  I’ve been working part-time – two or three days a week – since Teddy was born.  My work days have been long, to make up for having Thursdays and Fridays home with Teddy.  That means, from Monday to Wednesday, I get through my days via sugar and caffeine.  Then I spend Thursday trying to physically and mentally recover from that (while snuggling with Teddy, of course).

Honestly, that’s always been one of my major work patterns.  I often power through my work days with caffeine and no food.  I get through the day – but then, when the work day is over, I am DONE.  Wiped out.  I come home and I crash.  When I didn’t have a kid, it was fairly easy to take the time to recuperate.  Now, if I were to come home and need to crash and burn every night, I wouldn’t be present and alert for precious Teddy time.  And that’s just not how I want to live.

Additionally, I’ve had to spend a lot of time working from home while being on part-time maternity leave.  That’s been a big adjustment for me – one of my primary self-care strategies is to leave work at work – mentally, emotionally, and, most importantly, physically.  So, as much as I’m dreading being away from Teddy five days a week, I’m also eager to get back into a regular routine and find a balance that works for my career and for my family.

Here are the strategies I’ve come up with so far:

• Leave work at work.  I’m planning to leave home at 6:30 a.m.  I’ll work my butt off until 4 p.m. – though there will be breaks to look at the Teddy photos that Tee will send periodically!  And then I will leave work at 4 p.m. to drive home.  I will maintain those boundaries, and once I leave work, I will focus on my family and my self.  It’s never been so important to practice mindfulness – keeping myself in the present moment.  
• Take a walk with Teddy after work.  Even when it’s dark out!  That’s what head lamps are for.  Teddy loves being in the Ergo, snuggled into my chest, and an early evening walk will help me to get some much-needed exercise.
• Make the most of the weekends…  Before Teddy, I used to throw a few things in my purse on a Friday when I was going away for the weekend.  It was easy to just kinda go with the flow.  Now, my plan is to be more intentional about how I spend my time.  Life’s too short.
• …including exercise!  It’s going to be really hard to get any running in on winter weekdays.  So it’ll have to be saved for Saturdays and Sundays.
• Slow down.  Take it easy.  Stop trying to power through anything and everything; stay in the moment.  This is your life.

Man.  Well, we’ll see what happens.  November 28th is the big day; until then, it’s vacay in Vegas, baby!

If I were a day of the week, I’d be a Monday.

I love the beginning of a fresh new week.  (A little less now that Monday means I have to leave Teddy for three work days in a row.  Being a working mother is not my fave.)

I love fresh starts and clean slates.  And I’ve been finding myself making many resolutions, big and small, that I’d like to put on paper.

This week, I’m kicking off my week working on a new program that I am feeling excited-but-ambivalent about.  It’s called the Whole30 Program, and it’s all about food – spending 30 days with a lot of foods eliminated from your diet and then reintroducing them one by one and evaluating how the food affects your mood and your functioning.

I have a complicated relationship with food, so in general I avoid dieting of any kind.  However, I’m pretty excited to do this – to learn about how eating dairy affects me, what foods might cause acne or lethargy, etc.  (See this website for more info!)

That’s Resolution Number One – eat well.

And for Resolution Number Two?  Wean off tea and coffee.  With the Whole30 Program, this will happen pretty organically.  I’m allowed two cups of coffee each day, but no cream.  When I drink coffee, I typically am drinking a cup of coffee-flavored Organic Valley half-and-half, so I’m thinking it’ll be natural to cut back.

And then, there’s Resolution Number Three – improve my bedtime rituals.

My current bedtime ritual is crap.  I don’t need to read articles on sleep hygiene to know that I am doing it all wrong.

I really, really, really want to be realistic about this goal.  I set this goal for myself all the time – I want to try to fall asleep without listening to a book or a podcast, specifically.  I am frequently able to achieve this in the short-term but have trouble sustaining it.

Pretty soon, Teddy’s going to be getting into a standard bedtime ritual.  He goes to bed at around 8 p.m. each night – that’s when we start the process, at least.  And as we work toward having healthy sleep habits for him, I really want to try to have them for myself, too.  This mean: no phone, actual pajamas, and no late night snacks.  

I’ll write more about sleep later.  Fingers crossed that tonight will be a good night’s sleep for all!