Moving, Unplugging, and Getting Creative…

So the last few months have been crazy. We’ve moved into our first house (WOOHOO!) and I’ve spent the last month or so getting that together. But all the boxes are unpacked, and things are (mostly) organized. We have our own space, and there have been lots of projects involved in getting that the way we wanted. 

I also left my teaching job, and will be starting as a high school librarian in the fall at a new high school. I’m SUPER excited for this new chapter to begin!

Alas, in all that, writing has been put to the side. BUT – we’ve discovered something I hadn’t expected at this new house. When we moved, we decided to just get internet, and skip cable. We only had super basic anyway, and we didn’t really watch it. We turned it on for noise. However, in the last month and a half since we moved, I’ve discovered that I must have been paying more attention than I thought. Because I have been more creative in the last 30 days than in ages. I’ve painted. I’ve drawn. I’ve made a serious dent in the hand quilting I’m working on now that the frame has a home again. (I’ve got two quilts to hand quilt in under 6 months. *gulp* ) 

Being unplugged has been very… educational. Even the first week I couldn’t believe how much time I had. Don’t get me wrong – we still have a huge movie collection, and we have Amazon Prime and Hulu. But those require me to actually think and make a choice about what to watch. I can’t just snap on the TV and have it there, instantly. I’ve found that most of the time, I don’t want to pull anything out. And when I do, I actually watch it. 

I’m going to make a concerted effort to get back into writing a word count goal every day once this week is over. 500 words a day. I’ll keep you all updated on Instagram (vbarger13) if you’re interested in seeing the progress.

And if you scoff at this whole idea that “unplugging” doesn’t do anything, or that you don’t watch that TV in the corner, I encourage you to try it for a week. 5 days. Its not much. Don’t turn on the tv. Read a book, do art, write. See if your creativity doesn’t surprise you.