Day 2160 – Update On Living Light – or – We’re Still Sleeping On The Floor

We’ve been in our new apartment about a month a half and sleeping on the floor has been fantastic. I find that we are getting some of the best sleep we’ve ever gotten. Even when we had to get up early after we stayed up playing video games….still not that as tired. It’s crazy how refreshing it is. I also haven’t struggled with getting out of bed (as much). I still snooze, but I’m out of bed with a few minutes to spend with Bret.

day_02154a

I realized that I didn’t share our closet on a previous post. Just yesterday Bret said, wow, you have as many clothes as I have! But I showed him how I have a whole drawer of PJs and he calmed down….note – one of those BIG drawers. 🙂

day_02154b

day_02154c

day_02154d

The biggest thing I’ve found living this way is that it’s easy to keep everything clean….and I actually WANT to clean. Weird.

Day 2126 – Sleeping On The Floor, By Choice

We have been sleeping on the floor for almost 3 weeks. Here’s how it’s going!

First and foremost, we LOVE it! I feel like we get pretty restful sleep…even if it isn’t a full 8-9 hours. I want to say the last 3-4 nights, I’ve gotten between 6-7 hours…yet, I’m getting up with Bret and I’m feeling great throughout the day. I don’t really yawn (except for right now…because I said something about it) and I don’t really feel tired. I have no aches and pains.

Sleeping on a pile of blankets means that cleaning is SO easy. Just pull the blankets to the other side of the room, vacuum, move back and done!

There was one bad….a huge bug….a centipede bent on attack. Seriously, it RAN toward our bed! The alarms sounded and I was sitting up slowly and I saw his approach and I leaped from the floor with the grace of, well, there is nothing I can compare it to….I did not sound out a verbal alarm, only the wide eyed look of fear and Bret leaped too. This guy was in the corner of the room and RACED to our bed and ran around on it! Bret grabbed a shoe and that was the end of that. As far as I know, there have been no other attacks….but for the sweet sleep, a bug here and there is a small price to pay.

Since we’ve been trying to “live light” and only have things that we need, it’s helped with cleaning the apartment. I did a good scrub down and vacuum yesterday and I think I finished in under 30 minutes. What? I mean, that’s awesome! What have I learned in this area? By George, I want to get rid of more! It’s crazy how easy it becomes once you start. It is so easy to throw things away when your eyes are not on this world.

So, would you sleep on the floor?

day_02126

Day 2113 – What I Have Learned In A Week Of Living Here

I can’t believe we’ve been here a week already! It was just about this time last week that I got the keys and started the task of moving everything in. So what have I learned since being here?

– The porch is worth any additional amount we had to spend. We LOVE it out there. I can’t wait for this cold to pass so I can spend more time out there again.

– Living within minutes of Wal-Mart is a blessing and a curse.

– I’m not sure why I haven’t walked to Dunkin Donuts yet – seriously, it’s SO close.

– Sleeping on the floor has been fantastic.

– Our neighbors seem great so far. You can tell they care about the place. In some ways, it feels like a suburb neighborhood and not an apartment complex.

– I thought I got rid of a lot of stuff until I started unpacking. Thankfully, I have a lot to get rid of and plans to get rid of more.

– Living light means (to us) having what is important to you and not just keeping a bunch of stuff. Case in point, we bought a TV. A huge 40″ TV. I can plug in my laptop to play movies (hence no need for a DVD player)…this also means that I can do my work on a 40″ screen. I did in fact spend about 2 hours doing just that yesterday.

– I am so thankful for God’s timing and how it is not our own.

day_02109l

Day 2109 – A Tour Of Our New Home And An Introduction To A New Way Of Living

I know our move took a lot of people by surprise, including us. We’ve been thinking about moving out for about six months, we’ve had God impress upon our hearts to move, but we kept finding excuses. After a conversation with dear friends, we knew it was time. A mere two days after our conversation, we visited an apartment complex that had really stood out in our search. There was an apartment available, we filled out the application, were approved and able to move in 3 days later. Conversation on Sunday, apartment visit on Tuesday, move in on Friday. Friends, it still surprises us that we’re here! So, to all of those who were surprised by our move, sorry for not telling each of you personally, but it’s been a whirlwind of a week! lol, for practical reasons, I figured a Facebook post and a blog post would let most everyone know. Oh the impersonal nature of our current age!

Another thing we’ve been thinking about recently is “living light” and being sojourners in this world. We believe that this world is not our home, just a place to journey through to get to our ultimate home with Christ. To that end, we’ve been thinking that we don’t want to have a lot of possessions. While we were talking about moving over the months, I mentioned that maybe we should try to only have things that fit in my Honda Civic. I think that we’ve done pretty well at this new lifestyle. To be honest, we are SO excited about it! Let me give you a tour and show you what this looks like for us.

First, we have a low table with cushions for our dinner table. We tested it out last night!

day_02109a

After dinner, we cleaned up and set up the laptop and curled up to watch a movie.

day_02109b

I am CRAZY about my new kitchen! Everything that we have fits (I even took my 7 boxes of kitchen down to 5)!

day_02109c

day_02109d

This corner in the kitchen is empty and I have no idea what to put here…if I even will. Any thoughts?

day_02109e

Having a washer and dryer in the apartment has been very convenient too. What we do is put our dirty clothes directly into the washer, saving us from needed a hamper.

day_02109f

My bathroom that isn’t Batman themed (yet) but has my box of Frozen kleenex.

day_02109g

Here’s where we will probably lose most of you. We’re sleeping on the floor. We don’t have a bed, just a bunch of blankets. It has been a great night sleep, I’m not going to lie!

day_02109h

The plan for the living room (when we have guests) is a ton of beanbag chairs and camping chairs. Easy to move and super comfy.

day_02109i

We want our home to be a place of comfort, rest and a whole lot of reading.

day_02109j

Our balcony is most definitely our favorite part of the apartment. We have spent almost every evening sitting outside.

day_02109k

I mean, look at this view!

day_02109l