home
about
contact
archives
-
photos
-
zines
- newsletters
A 6-Month Experiment Lasting 8/2/2024 - 2/2/2024
Mornings:
We wake up in the morning together. No phones/tech within the first 20 minutes of waking up. (All days). Weekends - wake up time not structured. Sleeping in allowed!
We eat breakfast together, and chat about the day to come. It is nice.
Must make the bed every morning, no exceptions! This sets a nice tone for the day.
If time permits, consider a morning walk (with binoculars...), reading time, morning pages, etc.
Daytimes:
If working, go to work. Survive. Eat lunch/snacks! See “Diet” below for more information.
On weekends: do whatever, but eat a nice lunch. Try to engage in activities that feel worthwhile, like writing, playing guitar, drawing, reading, etc - things that aren’t technology-focused, and exercise our minds or bodies!
Evenings:
Eat dinner together every night (if schedules permit). Start cooking before 7:30pm. Eat at the table or backyard, no TV Sun-Thurs. Consider packing dinner to take to the park.
After dinner, do the dishes and then take a walk. Come home and talk, read, draw, listen to music together, or go to the movies.
At 10pm all screens are put away to charge. Lights out bedtime at 11pm on workdays.
General Structural Impositions:
No television Sunday thru Thursday.
Exercise in some form at least 5 days a week - even if it’s just a walk around the block, stretching, some push-ups, listening to music and dancing, etc. Just move the body around!
Drinking only once a week (Friday nights), exception for Jakob who can have a couple beers at shows if he wants, or a shift drink at work if working at night.
Continue to make an effort to host people for things like Hannah’s 2nd Saturday dinners, backyard shows, revitalize poetry club??, etc...
Be more thoughtful of other people.
Food situations:
Grocery shopping twice a week, on Saturday and Wednesday. Figure out a good list of staples, and make a meal plan for the coming days.
On Friday and Tuesday nights, dinner can be eaten out/fast easy dinner from grocery store allowed.
Eat breakfast & dinner together every day, and eat lunch together on shared days off. Lunch can be had out and about, or something easy at home, but try to still keep it healthy and nourishing.
If hungry and feel snacky, drink some water before eating.
Food not to keep in the house: no sugar above 10g/serving. No white bread, instead have whole-grain/sourdough. No chips and crackers without something substantive that goes with it.
Food to keep in the house: Carrots and hummus, cheese & crackers (maybe crackers that are low-carb?), variety of rice, corn tortillas, yogurt, in-season fruit, bacon, eggs, easy greens to add to things, in-season veggies, TBD
Try to prep snacks and things for meals on days off - i.e. peeling and cutting carrots, making braises/etc to be multi-use in dinners throughout the week, etc.
Dinners can be portioned to have leftovers available for lunch the next day.
Money:
Continue to put money into joint grocery every month so we can buy groceries and pay shared expenses.
Save as much as possible from each paycheck, working towards a 3-month rainy day fund for each of us. After that is established, start saving for a house (i.e. a boat).
If/when we move, we can also establish a savings to furnish the house with anything we may need.
No superfluous spending. No buying things without having a specific need or plan, no buying things when we already have a functional alternative. Hannah: no buying things online that can be purchased in person. This does not include buying art, books, etc. Hannah will keep track of spending in a small notebook or in her notes app for increased mindfulness.
Why?
All of this functions as a framework for living a healthier, more present life. It is an ongoing experiment in our forever quest to be fufilled, and content, and valuable members of society and our immediate community.