Image Map

Thursday, June 06, 2013

The Day We Canceled Cable

I woke up with the urge to write. Things I wanted to say swimming through my head.

It’s 5am
Visit the Keurig, heat up a protein bar (it’s good you should try it), and here I am in my office, carpal tunnel braces on and all (instagram buddies get the inside scoop on this).

I used to have the urge write quite often. I wrote wacky post like this one or this one which to you may be just that, wacky but to me they are some of my favorite post.

What’s changed you may ask……..

Well today is an important day a day I want to remember……….

It’s the day we canceled cable.

Silly yes and I know tons of folks live without cable but for us it’s been a part of our lives for a very long time. We had cable when I was a kiddo, had it in my 1st apartment, 2nd apartment, and now our home. The same story rings true for Kent. Cable/TV in general has been a big part of our lives.

IMG_20121029_085326

I got the itch to put the dagger in our cable connection last fall while we were tucked away in a log cabin up in the mountains. Just us, a fire place, and the dogs. It was heaven. Our annual trip to the mountains also sparked my dream to move far far away, buy land, raise chickens, and honey bees, fill our home with barefooted children, and live a simple but beautifully inspired life. I became obsessed with shows like Alaska and Ukon Men. Hard life yes but their families were bonded, strong, they lived with little and they were happy.

Living with little and being happy…..hummmm

How could we achieve this but still live a life that fit what we already had going on. Kent has a great job that provides for us. I have a job I’m passionate about and a wonderful client base that I’m beyond grateful for. We have a nice home full of pretty things we worked hard for. Our family is close by. Kent’s parents live just a few streets away. Our friends are here and well I just couldn’t get Kent 100% on board with the whole mountain living idea so I started small.

I started cleaning out rooms, closets, created piles of items I wanted to donate and sale. This is still in the works.

THEN I started planting the seed about canceling cable. Mind you this alone has taken 8 months to come to fruition.

-Our cable bill is around $160 a month including internet.
-We spend countless hours watching mindless TV. One of us (not naming any names here *cough* Kent) can waste a whole weekend doing nothing but watching TV. Sun up to sun down just glued to the TV like a zombie. It drives me NUTS!
-We have a house that needs out attention. Things had gotten cluttered and projects needed to be done
-I had a pile of books I wanted to read.
-I longed to live an active life. For the hubs the TV and a comfy couch got in the way of this idea that he too thought was nice
-We wanted to cut some of the fluff so we had more $ to travel, work on the house, SAVE!
-Then we found out we’re pregnant and that’s what finally put the nailed in the coffin for my Mr. TV lover.

 

IMG_6308-editfoundout1.21.13ww

 

Mind you I’m 6 months pregnant so he still needed a little coaxing but he agreed with all my points and on June 4, 2013 he made the call to cancel cable! 

 

20130606_054051What came on when I turned the TV on this morning. It says “AT&T U-Verse is not available at this time.”

Today is our 1st day without it.

I’m not going to lie I was a little scared.
What would we do with our time?
How could I sleep at night without the noise of the TV?
Would I get bored?
Would we end up taking trips to Best Buy to stand in front of their TVs to get our fix?
What about all our shows? Would they survive without us?
I even had a dream last night that we could still get local channels…..NOPE! But to be honest here we still have NetFlix (starting small folks). 

Instead I woke up feeling…….
at peace
creative
hopeful
and excited about not having the old ball and chain to turn to.

20130606_062841

I mean really look at me. I’m cuddled up in my office at the crack of dawn coffee in hand cute pup by my side writing. I even have a new Bump Watch post all ready to go for next week.

Kent is sleeping so he hasn’t weighed in on the whole no TV/Cable thing. I have high hopes that it’s going to be a good change for the both of us.

In the meantime's here's to living a more simple life

one
step
at
a
time!

2 comments:

  1. I think cancelling cable is a great idea! I rarely watch TV when I am working from home, but when my husband comes home, it becomes TV time. We even zone out to the TV when we eat dinner. Your post inspired me to, at the very least, switch it off during meal times.

    Adrienne
    What Lola Wants

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this! I'm opting to read more and create instead of zoning out! Seeing you do it inspires me to continue! :)

    ReplyDelete

I LOVE comments and read them all so knock yourself out! If you have a specific question, feel free to
e-mail me by using my e-mail link in the side bar. I would love to hear from you :o)