1- Interesting Podcast: SmartHer News: “I Gave Up Alcohol for 100 Days – Here’s What I Learned”
This was interesting, because she went into some details about the wine industry (struggling) and then shared her own experiment results. Her overall conclusion: eliminating alcohol reduced decision fatigue and simplified life a bit, but that was about it. She decided she wanted to continue to have a drink in celebratory settings or on occasion with friends.
My personal alcohol policy (for now) is that a) I only ever have one drink (this has generally been my practice, but made this a bright line decision after my heart stuff – just never want to tempt fate and alcohol does make my heart rate go up) and b) I only have the one in social situations or while out to dinner.
For now, this works for me. It means most weeks I have 0 or 1 drink. On vacation I definitely have more (but never more than one per day). It might be fun/interesting to track my drinks (as if I need another thing to track, lol).
2- Just realized that All Songs Considered puts together an Apple Music playlist (Spotify too though I happen to use Apple) of all of their top songs throughout the year. Sometimes I just want to hear the picks without the banter, you know?
I really liked that Ellis Island track (piano, modern, super calming).
3- I broke my NO REDDIT policy for August already 🙁 PMS strikes EVERY TIME! However, I have noted the days in my Hobonichi (because then hopefully at the end of the month I can zoom out and at least acknowledge success in the big picture) and reminding myself that every day can be a fresh start!
4- Weekend plans: Take call, mostly! The hospital looks busy once again. But I KNOW my future self (not even very far into the future — my next call week is 8/18) will thank me heartily for doing this.
I’m also going to take C to a back-to-school pool party on Sunday. He’s new to the school so this will be a great chance for him to meet people. He does already know a couple of his classmates from his prior school + from soccer so I’m sure that will help!
Also, I have assigned myself ONE organizing task and that is to sort through G’s socks and underwear drawers and ONLY have functional / paired / items that fit in there.
5- I am very ready for back-to-school and I think the kids are too. Unfortunately G still has another full WEEK while the other 2 return. This is sort of hypocritical because I did note that I felt like the summer was too short, but the unstructured time at the end (camp is definitely over everywhere here) does kind of pile up! That said . . . I’m still glad we didn’t travel in August this time!
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It seems like tracking your drinks wouldn’t be a very useful exercise since you drink so little!! It would sort of be data for the sake of data, and I say this as someone that LOVES data. I think tracking would be most useful if you wondered if you were drinking too often/more than you’d like, but that doesn’t seem to be the case since you don’t regularly consume alcohol? I have stopped drinking except on very special occasions. It’s easier for me to abstain than moderate which is frustrating but the way I’m built. With all my work travel, it was too easy to have a glass of wine with dinner as a “treat” and then the one glass could turn into 2 very easily and then I could be drinking 6-8 glasses of wine/week which felt like too much.
BTS is still quite far off for us so it’s weird to read BTS posts! We have our annual lake vacation the week of 8/18 which will be week 2 for most of your kids! I can’t imagine going back to school now – but summer is our prime season whereas it’s more so something to be survived in the south!
Oh I bet that decluttering task would be a satisfying one! We are BTS next week and I’m trying to get a few house jobs done between now and I go back to teaching (mid September). I’ve ordered a bigger bookcase for my office and am on the hunt for a vintage dresser for the hallway. Two of the house swaps we’ve had had a dresser in the foyer and it worked so well as a charging station, storage for hats, mittens, sunscreen etc.
I still have little baskets in my son’s closet, which helps because you can pull them out when sorting laundry and it keeps things from piling up. But I did realise he had one very small set of underpants the other day. I like to set aside the holey socks for vacation, and just bin them once they have been worn. Feels satisfying to set out with slightly less than i started out with.
Re. decluttering generally, I’d like someone to generate a list for me of 50 15-minute tasks I could work through each week. Our house is small (3 beds, 1000 square feet) so we are minimalist by necessity but there are random things lurking. Like I swear we buy batteries more often than we need to because they fall through the junk drawer. I’ve convinced my husband to take a dry weekend day and go through the shed. It doesn’t seem overly full but you have to move something every time you go in there, so it’s a faff.
Hi Coree, your comment re: decluttering sounded like a perfect ChatGPT prompt. Here’s what it came up with
Prompt: “Please generate a list for me of 50 15-minute decluttering tasks I could work through each week. Our house is small (3 beds, 1000 square feet) so we are minimalist by necessity but there are random things lurking.” (copying a few from some of the categories to save space)
Kitchen (10 tasks) Declutter the junk drawer – Toss dead pens, mystery keys, random hardware. | Purge the pantry – Check expiry dates, combine duplicates, toss stale snacks. |Tidy under the sink – Remove old cleaners, empty bottles, and unused sponges…
Living Room (8 tasks) Declutter bookshelves – Donate books you won’t reread or reference. | Edit your media collection – Let go of old DVDs, CDs, or games. | Purge coffee table items – Remove unnecessary coasters, magazines, or clutter.
Bathroom (6 tasks) Declutter medicine cabinet – Safely toss expired meds. | Sort bath products – Toss samples or nearly-empty bottles you won’t use. | Organize drawers/cabinets – Remove duplicates, expired, or broken items.
Other areas it offers tasks for: Bedroom (8 tasks) | Closets (5 tasks) | Entryway & Storage (5 tasks) | Office/Digital Life (5 tasks) | Miscellaneous (3 tasks)
I find ChatGPT to be helpful for these types of tasks. I’ve also used it a couple times as an adjunct to my weekly review and found it reasonably helpful (and surprisingly empathetic… which was weird). Anyone else using AI in these tasks? How are you finding it?
Love the use of ChatGPT in creating lists like this! Personally, I would not seek out additional work like this in particular, but for people who find decluttering to be a form of release, it seems like a great application of AI!
I wish the AI robot could actually DO the decluttering part 😅😅😅
We were doing yard work earlier this year, and I said the only AGI I wanted was artificial gardening intelligence, lol.
What a great idea!!! I LOVE decluttering (brings me so much joy/relaxation) but it’s hard to find the time to do it right. I try to keep a running list in my brain of things I can do in 10 minute spurts but it never occurred to me to have AI help put that list to paper. (that seems to be my MO so far: use of AI never occurs to me, even though when I do use it, I find it…useful!)
We have the weird situation where E goes back to school next week (but not until Thursday) and A doesn’t start until Labor Day. I don’t think it will “truly” feel like back to school until they’re both back, especially since E can drive himself and manage his own things. He’ll have soccer practice start up but no games for a couple weeks either yet; when those start it will feel more like “fall” to me.
I am happy with how our travel schedule ended up this year! We had a big/busy sightseeing trip in June right when school got out (for A) and now a relax beach trip this week. Sort of bookended the summer. I don’t mind being away at all this week because this trip is totally relaxing. Might feel different on a busier trip and then right BTS, but like I said, for us, we won’t truly have that “back to school feel” anyway until they’re both back later. We have done June trips last few years and I generally like that time frame too! The only disadvantage in my opinion is that it can pile up a bit too close to spring break, doing trips in April and then June close together, then a long break with no time off/travel (if nothing planned in August). My husband prefers to have trips more spaced out… or like this year, just add in another one in August. 😅
I’ve also had a truly enforced limit to my drinking because the medication I’m taking for my skin (Roaccutane) interacts with alcohol in a most unpleasant way. If I have any more than one drink, nausea results. Plus, the combination is hard on the liver, so its better not to drink anyway. I used to like having 2-3 glasses on a Friday night, which I know isn’t healthy but very tempting at times (its my version of Reddit!), so I’m actually glad that I now have a hard line to ensure moderation. But you TRULY moderate your drinking anyway, which is great.
I think its good that the post camp phase the kids just got to chill, and you had a chance to feel ready for summer to be over. It would be kind of sad to send them back feeling like you wanted summer to continue! What a great summer you all had (even if G did it with a broken arm – the trooper!).
I have the same alcohol policy- only one drink, and then only on “occasions”, like going out or with a special game we’re watching or something. I did go without any drinks for the whole summer, and didn’t really miss it. It’s just hard not to drink if it’s a special occasion and everyone else is, right?
I’m also ready for back to school- I thought I would have mixed feelings, but nope- I’m all in now. It will help me get back on a better schedule. I get a little lazy during the summer!
Sarah, are you still doing the thing where you have to pay your kids if you do Reddit? Am I remembering that right, lol?
Nope 🙂 I did at once point but that definitely ended.