Like many others, I've experienced a wide range of emotions over the last 3+ weeks of quarantine so far. Thankful that we have a home and jobs, sorrow for those struggling, longing for my old life back, missing my family and friends, anger for having to cancel trips and other plans, fear for the unknown, sadness for my kids when school got cancelled, and so on and so on.
But more that anything, anxiety for all the things above and the unknown of this situation still to come jumbled up at once . For me, it's helped to not pay too much attention to the news and to take one day at a time. I'm choosing to be concentrate on the thankful feeling and think about all the things I can do vs. can't do.
While my husband and I compete for the quiet spots in the house for our work meetings, and the kids are starting to get the hang of virtual school in-between kind of plying together/mostly fighting, we are finding a rhythm and comfort in other activities to make the most of the time home together.
Here are a few things that we have been doing:
1. GO OUTSIDE
Work outside
Eat outside
Walk outside
Draw with chalk outside
Draw on your friends' driveways
Nap outside
Just stay away from other humans outside.
Getting outside has been my personal saving grace, and I can tell it helps my family, too. Even when the weather has been cold, we bundle up and go on a daily walk.
2. EXPERIMENT
On a Zoom happy hour with some friends, we were talking about some at-home products to take the place of services we often get done elsewhere. We decided that we should each try something (that we can order online for delivery) and then we can share our findings!
This is the time when you can hide (or strategically position yourself) behind your computer, so a little experimentation isn't so scary. Now is the time to take chances!
I have never done at home tanning/tanning lotion. And now with the sun peaking out, my pale skin is glowing and no one will see if I mess it up - I'm going to give it a try (I'll report back). I did some research, and found that St. Tropez Self Tan Express Bronzing Mousse was the easiest to apply for beginners (read: hardest to mess up).
One of my friends is going to experiment with at home hair care to cover her roots and another friends is testing out some at-home manicure products.
{I also took this time to test a new hairdryer and skincare products!}
3. VIDEO CHAT (sometimes)
I dove headfirst into video chatting with all my friends, co-workers, family every day and night at first. And while that is really helpful and makes me feel good to connect with my loved ones outside my house, I'm getting sick of staring at a screen!
So, I pulled back a bit on the quantity of additional screen time activities outside of work and am focusing in on quality time each week (not every night). I'm loving Zoom best for video chat. Google hangouts is too walky-talky, FaceTime is running slow for me, and WebEx is glitchy for me.
Blue blocking glasses have also been a new purchase that I feel like is helping me. I was starting to have a constant headache after so much screen time, and since wearing these glasses (only $15 and come in a lot of colors) most of the day, I haven't had a headache (so that's a win in my book!).
Take up a new project or skill, like try a new type of art or dance. Maybe a house project you've been putting off or better yet, a new skill, just for fun. I know we are all learning some new skills for thriving in this new WFH, virtual school facilitator and keep everyone alive stage - but something else, something purely for fun...
Even better, learn something with your kid(s)/family/partner. I haven't done this yet. Trying to get into our new schedule with virtual school and work, but I have two ideas on my mind:
1. Learn to play the Ukulele (tons of free lessons on YouTube + relatively inexpensive to get the instrument if you don't already have one. We already have one!)
2. Stop motion with Stop Motion Kids Camp (for kids and adults). I plan to do this with my son!
My friend has been working on her Tarot Reading skills - which can be done on our virtual happy hours, so already very useful and interesting for us all.
...into doing things that helpful, but also while having fun. This is the ideal time for me to brush up on my creative parenting skills.
For example, we have a lot of big trees in our neighborhood/yard, so a lot of sticks laying around. If I asked the kids to pick those up, they'd complain all day and probably hardly actually do it.
So, instead, I gave them the idea that they could build a house out of sticks! That's all I had to do for them to get to work collecting allllll the sticks into a pile! Success.
I have also resorted to paying them to be outside. Well, paying them to clean out all our flower beds free from dead leaves, which happens to be outside. They are outside using energy, we get to get work done quietly, AND the yard work is getting done! It's a win-win situation.
And finally, my kids came up with a "secret family language" (kudos to them for this idea) that is keeping them busy writing notes in this language. Busy + practicing spelling in a new way! Win-win.
6. COOK MORE
This could also fall under "experiment" or "do something new" but I've been using this time to get a little more actual cooking in vs. just warming up dinner in the microwave. Get creative with pantry staples and items that can be more easily found in the current landscape.
I had gotten two new cookbooks for Christmas and just ordered another one to keep my creative juices flowing (while being healthy), but you can also find a wealth of recipes online!
Something, anything... small or big... it'll help! I've been cleaning out closets and drawers when I need a break from all the screen time for something more hands on. Seeing the progress relatively quickly has been encouraging for me.
