LENT || and me

So for Lent (and this is the first time I've ever done anything for Lent) I decided to give up Facebook. I hated the way it drained so much of my day, pulling me in to scroll through things I didn't care about or didn't want to see anyway. Seriously, the things on the news these days, can people get a freaking grip? So many psychos! Very depressing... I figured I could replace my multiple-times-per-daily scrolling ritual with something more uplifting, like book reading or house cleaning.

But it hasn't been going so well. Although my Facebook activity has been down, my Pinterest usage has gone up by about 400%. Turns out, it's not Facebook that's my problem, it's just my dumb phone. The dumb internet and the way it has something new each time I refresh the page, giving me a nice little rush of dopamine every 30 seconds. It's a thing - I read a science article on it. Basically, My name is Jessica, and I'm addicted to scrolling.

So I'm going to try to try harder. In the words of a man near and dear to my heart, I'm planning on hoping to be better. Which is a very clever way of not committing to something while being very polite about it. Have you heard that story?

Good old Brother Nelson (Nelson was his first name) from our very first ward we attended as a married couple, a family ward in Providence, asked if we were planning on going to the ward BBQ. Because he was one of like six members to acknowledge our presence during our entire year in the ward, we really didn't want to be rude - even though we had absolutely no intention of going. So as we walked past him in the hall Kade smiled and said, "Yeah! We're planning on hoping to!" And Nelson kind of turned his head and furrowed his eyebrows, trying to figure out what he meant, but smiled and told us to have a good day.

Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but ever since then "I'm planning on hoping to" is the phrase Kade and I use when we have no intention of doing something but don't want you to realize it... just yet. And it makes us chuckle every time we use it. Ah, memories.

In related news, our old providence house is actually for sale. And the photos in the listing are photos they took while we lived there, of all our stuff, while we were both at work and unaware. I'm just grateful I had cleaned up that day! However that means they're selling the house in 2016 using photos from 2010. Take that for what you will. But anyway, if you're interested it comes with the slightly bigger, slightly newer house to the south. A two-for-one! But seriously, trust me when I say you don't want our old house. It should've been condemned way before we moved in. And there's a haunted underground root cellar in the back - turned our cat crazy. Poor Jerry. That's not really a story I want to get into though, because... reasons.

Jerry, that poor cat, and our awesome red chair that I wish we'd kept. It's the perfect size.