isolation

Quarantine Boredom Busters – for adults!

Juli

Social media is being inundated with ideas of how to occupy your children while they’re out of school/in quarantine this spring. But what about you? You might be juggling working from home and trying to help your kids with their distance learning, but in the event you have free time and can no longer socialize or go out on errands, what could you do?

Here are some ideas for beating quarantine boredom.

I’m an introvert – I’m essentially an expert on staying home and occupying myself!

Learn a language
Or brush up on the one you learned in high school. Many local libraries have free access to https://www.duolingo.com/ or other language learning websites/apps. Maybe you even still have your old workbooks gathering dust in the basement. Now’s the time! (Double down and teach it to your kids or spouse or pet, too.)

Declutter
If you’ve been meaning to get on this minimalism bandwagon (or you did so several years ago and the clutter has crept back in…. hahem…) now is a great time. Plus you’ll be sitting in your house looking at all this STUFF that makes you irritated – great time to get rid of it!
I have a dedicated “purge” closet where I toss anything I find on a given day that I want to declutter. It’s probably best in the event of a multi-week quarantine declutter to have a dedicated space. I guarantee you’ll find more than a tote full of stuff!

Little home improvement projects
Have painting you’ve been neglecting? New hardware to put up in the kitchen? A piece of trim that’s come loose? Outlet covers to replace?

Catch up on memory keeping
Whatever it is that you do – order printed photos online? Scrapbook? Baby books that are years past current (raises hand!)

Cook/bake
I think a lot of us secretly enjoy cooking or baking, but not in the “just got home from work and have to make dinner” kind of way. Take the opportunity to try fun recipes if you can find the ingredients. Or start some sourdough bread (takes hardly any ingredients!) Get creative with weird pantry items you find way in the back.

Work on that TBR list
What?! You don’t HAVE a TBR (too be read) list??? Time to get one, I guess.
I have a TBR shelf. Bookshelf. Two 6-foot-tall bookshelves. =)

Start your garden
Every year, we pledge to start our garden earlier. We never find the time until late May, so our veggies never really get a good start and never produce much. If you’re finding yourself at home for the majority of spring, order some seeds and get them started indoors! (You can garden in flowerpots if you’re an apartment dweller.)

Spring Cleaning
I know, I know, that doesn’t sound fun. But might as well pick one small thing a day and get it done. Baseboards one day? Dust ceiling fans one day? Scrub off kitchen cabinets, clean the inside of your washing machine, vacuum under the couch cushions… you get the idea. It should take 10-15 minutes to do one of those, and by the end of three weeks your house will be SO. CLEAN.

Any more adult boredom-busters to share? Leave a comment! We’re all in this together.

Loneliness

admin

Professional motherhood is great in a lot of ways.  But goodness, it’s lonely.

It seems nearly impossible to find anyone that is actually in my same season of life.
I meet lots of wonderful middle aged folks.
Lots of wonderful peers who don’t have children.
Lots of mothers with small children who work outside the home.

And maybe this is low self-esteem talking, but none of these people can possibly really want me in their life.
With me comes two messy, loud, funny little boys.
A definite schedule of being in my home during nap time, every day.
The truth that I will fall asleep on the couch by 9 pm (if you’re lucky.)
A 30-year-old who wants to be treated as an equal adult, not like your psuedo-children that you are “helping get a start in life.”
A mom who wants to talk about anything other than her job of raising children, but can’t for the life of her stop talking about them.

People can’t possibly fit all of that into their hearts, can they?

And I’ve met lovely people recently.  People who are very kind and friendly and welcoming (we moved six months ago) and even say things like, “We should get together for coffee/dinner/board games some time!”

I have never actually gotten together with any of these people.
They never actually went the next step of making plans.
Which means the suggestion was just a nicety.

Surely, out here in the wide world of the internet, there are other mothers who feel lonely.  And that is why I’m writing and recording.

Let me assure you, there are more of us!
This is the beauty of the internet.  Though it has its share of mom-shaming and political saturation and “perfect” life comparisons that leave you feeling irritated and down on yourself, it also has community – if you can find it.

Leave a comment.
Watch a video.
Visit the Facebook page and post.
This is your official invitation to join me for coffee!  Right now, today.  You will get a response.   I can relate – so can lots of others.

Let’s stop being lonely.