Summary Sunday: Cancelled Cable Edition

While everyone else is watching the Superbowl today, we are lounging around the house. Collin is in playing SimCity and I'm surfing the internet and watching Netflix. Why aren't we watching the game? Well...we have no TV at our house. Traditional TV that is. We have cancelled our cable in a bid to save some cash. We decided that we weren't really watching it and throwing $100 a month at something we weren't using just seemed ridiculous. It's just our latest decision to try and tighten the budget at our house. And honestly, it seems to be working out pretty well. We've been cable free for two weeks now without incident. Of course, that's mostly because I'm a huge fan of Netflix. We also have PlayOn and are considering adding Hulu Plus to our lineup. Exchanging the $100 TV bill for a $15 one...not too shabby. Even better? We're not missing out on anything with today's game thanks to three main things:

1. We aren't big on professional football around here. It's just not our speed. We aren't football haters, we actually like college ball quite a bit (as is evidenced by our having season tickets for Boise State for the last two years). We just aren't big on the pompousness and the money grubbing that seems to be the primary fuel for the games. There are good players and there are good games, but it's just not the same. Oh...and for those of you wondering, yes - we will still be rooting for Boise State next year even though Coach Pete has moved up to Washington. And no, we aren't bitter at his move.

2. The power of the interwebs. We typically only watch the Superbowl for the commercials. Yes, we're that family. But this year has let us watch the ads without watching the game. They are all over the internet. I know that some are angry that they were released early, but it works out well for us. Do I think that it will diminish the number of people watching the game and make those spots less valuable in years to come? Yes and no. I think the number of people watching will reduce, but only slightly. Even though a lot of people just watch for the commercials, I still think that there are a lot of them who watch the game as a part of popular culture whether they like football or not. And of course there will always be thousands of die hard fans who watch the game because it's the game. Because of the sheer number of watchers who will continue to watch regardless of commercial leakage on the internet, I think that they will continue to be very coveted spots. Worry not, advertisers.

3. This is really subsection 2 of number two, but social media has kept us in the loop in a way that cable alone could not. We have updates from the news outlets and our friends. We have the banter of Seahawks fans and Broncos fans. It's like one big digital party.

So...that's our Sunday. It's probably different from yours, but I like it just the same.

And how about the rest of my week?

Posts I Posted: This last week, I cleaned up my scrapbook room and have been reveling in the ability to see my desk tops. I had full intentions to do some more cleaning of the house today, but laying around doing nothing has been way more appealing and so, I have succumbed to the laziness. I am enjoying my sloth.

Before I completely crapped out, I put together a list of things we want to attack around the house to get things revamped and redecorated before the year is out. My next step with that is to organize it into a priority list and then start checking things off one by one. It will be nice. There are a couple of projects in the list that I am particularly excited for.

I reviewed the month yesterday for the blog and have jumped forward into the theme for February. I'll have a project up at the end of this week. Good times.

But I still stand by the fact that the best part of my week has been seeing the sun. I love where I live, but January is always interesting for us. We always manage to get an inversion before the winter is up that socks us into a pit of gray. After nearly three weeks, the sky cracked open and the sun came out once again. It was very much a welcome sight.

Books I Read: I'm still two books behind on my Goodreads challenge goal, but I did finish a book this week. I read Daddy's Little Girl by Mary Higgins Clark. It didn't do as well as her books usually do, but it wasn't a dud. I gave it 3.5 stars. Next up, I'm reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. I've been waiting to read this series for quite a while, so I'm excited to get it rolling.

Projects I Worked On/Finished: I haven't finished anything this week, but I've been working on a couple of things.

I'm working on a craft project for Valentine's Day that should be finished by the end of the week.

I'm doing some planning on the remodel for the crop (soon to be sewing) room.

I like this idea for a revamp to my baker's rack:

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 And I like the idea of a wall length cubby system for the rest of the organizational space.

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*** Now...a short PSA about being a responsible Pinterest pinner. If you follow either one of those links, you'll notice they both send you to Pinterest pins. I don't like that. I am really big on making sure to give credit where credit is due. But...if you click on those pins, you'll also notice that one of the links is broken and the other one takes you to a homepage rather than a post. This irks me. This is what I call irresponsible pinning. I have somewhat perpetuated the problem by repinning things that weren't linked properly the first time, but when I post an original pin I always make sure to pin properly. Please pin responsibly. Give credit where credit is due. I can tell you that the second picture is one from Becky Higgins' personal scrapbook room. I know this because I've watched several of her videos where she is hanging out in this particular room. But I know nothing about the person who came up with the organizational idea for that first photo. That is annoying to me.

So how do you pin responsibly? When you find a pin you like, follow the link to check its authenticity. When you find something you want to pin, make sure you are pinning the original, not a post that is a link to the original. Make sure you pin the specific post, not the blog homepage. And be helpful. If a link is broken or goes to the wrong location, note that in your pin. Help future pinners and help the people whose ideas you are sharing. There you go. PSA over. Continue on. ***

Recipes I Tried: Ya...this week went crazy fast. I'm trying to think back on it and it's all a blur. We didn't do anything fancy for dinners this week. There were a lot of leftovers, Collin cooked a pork chop dinner on family night (Tuesday), and Darian made soup for us on his night (Thursday). We've been working to try and spread the responsibilities and to teach Darian how to do more and more on his own. It's been nice to lighten my load, but it doesn't make for much in new stuff here on the blog.

This Week's Favorite Pin: I did a lot of Valentine's Day project pinning this week, but my favorite pin isn't even a craft one. My favorite is these Boston Cream Pie Crepes from girl. Inspired. How yummy do these look??!?!

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I'm excited to try them out.


And...that's it for now. Enjoy the game if you're watching, and if not...enjoy your Sunday night.

How do you celebrate Superbowl Sunday?