WTF Do I Do With Myself Now????

I think one of the biggest hurdles for most people when they start to play around with the idea of  becoming alcohol free is what do you with yourself???

Well, the answer to that is, quite simply, is whatever the fuck you want. Except drink alcohol of course.

I’d be lying though if I said I knew what to do with myself right off the bat. I was completely at a  loss. It was Christmas when I stopped drinking last year so the weather was absolute shit, which ruled out pretty much doing anything outside [yes, I live in Arizona, yes, I’m likely being a baby - shhhhh - I live here for a reason].

It was hard for me to remember the things I really enjoyed doing before I really started drinking heavily. Seriously. What did I do? For the past seven years my whole life revolved around when I could drink, who I could drink with, where I could drink, etc. etc. etc. But what did I do before that?

During one of many failed attempts at moderating [laughable to me now - sit back down drunk Brenna and be quiet] I remembered that I used to love to do needlepoint with my Aunt. So, I ordered a needlepoint that I was going to gift to my grandmother for Christmas that year.  I ordered it in 2017. I’m still not done. I’ve made some serious progress on it though since I quit drinking for real.

That was just the tip of the iceberg into my increasingly vast list of hobbies. Over the past year this is what I have accomplished:

I planted a garden.

I raised chickens.

I helped my husband build the chicken coop.

I was sober at every single one of my kids baseball games.

I go the library again. Man I love that place.

I read again. A lot.

I make all kinds of cool stuff with my Cricut.

I learned how to grow my own weed - still a work in progress but we’re getting there.

We bought a boat.

We bought a roof top tent  that I am STOKED to take out this coming summer when we go to visit my sister in Wyoming.

I helped Luke finally renovate our bedroom.

I have plans in the very near future to:

Learn how to decorate some really amazing cookies.

Re-learn how to play the violin.

Really start to think about becoming a book narrator - my dream job would be to get paid to read books.

Renovate my bathrooms.

Renovate my kitchen.

Redesign my older son’s bedroom.

Create a cut flower garden to sell my beautiful home-grown blooms at the farmers market.

The best part of writing down my near-future goals and looking at them on paper is that I KNOW that I’ll be able to achieve those goals now.

It seems overwhelming and a little hopeless at first. You start to question whether you’ll ever be able to have fun again. I can assure you with the upmost sincerity - you will. Sometimes it’s the simplest things too that you forgot that you loved so much: completing a jigsaw puzzle with your ‘person’ [Hobby Lobby and Walmart have some COOL puzzles too], bundling up, sticking your headphones in, cranking up your favorite jams and taking your dog for a walk, frisbee golf, fishing, curling up on the couch with a good book, baking cookies….as corny as this sounds - look for and really try to enjoy the simpler things in life.