Keeping Sane During a Pandemic
Staying sane and healthy. That is our new goal in life. It’s a bit easier said than done. At the beginning of this people naively thought that we were going to learn how to live our “normal” lives at home for a few weeks. That’s impossible. I’ve gone through having long quiet days alone at home where I can work at my own pace and schedule. My days were very distinctly separated between work and family. Not so anymore. Like everyone. On top of that I’m sharing my sacred work spot with my new “co-worker”. It’s not just about the physical space but learning to accommodate for four different personalities in one home 24/7. Who knew that our road trip last summer would be the ultimate practice for COVID-19? I mean, if we could survive for 6 weeks in a car, we got this.
It’s probably important to note that we are on the cautious end of the spectrum. We have quarantined ourselves for a few weeks now. Josh hasn’t been physically into work for over a week and a half. We are trying to order as much of our food and needs online. We aren’t on the absolute end o the spectrum. I can’t afford to let things sit on the porch for 3 days but we have our own little system. Everyone is figuring out what is best for their family but for us this is how we are doing it. Two of us are high risk and to be frank, I’m not playing around. But with all that comes isolation and our sanity gets tested. This is how I’m handling right now. It will most likely be different tomorrow or the next day. Things I think are great today may fail tomorrow. For now, though…
Accept that there are no rules
I was pretty overwhelmed at the beginning with all the resources to keep kids learning and schedules. I was tempted to just throw my hands up and tell the the kids to just watch TV all day. And the reality is that, they’d be fine if we did that. There are no rules for how to our personal situations. We simply have to figure out what is best for each of our families without judging others. As a mom running my own company, I have had to come to terms with what this means for me and my business right now. I have felt a lot of guilt about not being good enough at either. I’m trying to give myself more grace. I’m still working but I’m finding ways to do that more creatively and around the needs of the family.
And now that I think of it, there are rules. Stay at Home! But how you handle your home is up to you.
Schedule for the kids
It took all of 5 minutes trying to work on our laptops before realizing we had to develop a schedule for the kids. Something that they could follow and not come and ask us every 2 minutes what to do now. For our schedule we are using Khan Academy as a base and personalized it further. We added Chinese, Art and Science for each day. We put art and science at the end of the day because they are the most “fun” and I do those parts alongside them. Each morning the kids log into their Google Classrooms for their teachers and write down assignments for the day. That work is their first priority for the day but then they supplement with the lessons on Khan.
Our quarantine family
When this all first started I realized that this was going to be a long haul. We asked my parents to be a part of our virtual quarantine house. We essentially spread the six of us across both of our houses. We aren’t in the same city but close enough to go back and forth easily. We are under a Stay at Home order but can transport the kids. This will help keep my parents from feeling isolated and give Josh and I some needed breaks. If things get stricter with travel/movement this may change but since all six of us are under strict quarantine it is working well for us.
Become an artist
I work with artists every day for my job. Creativity is what fuels me. Finding ways to stay creative while being at home is essential to my mental wellbeing. I’m finding silly ways like putting up the inflatable Santas in the front yard but I wanted to use this as an opportunity to learn and stretch. I’ve never considered myself good at visual arts. Why not start now? I found Art Camp and was enamored with their crafts for kids. It’s not your usual Pinterest activity. No shade to Pinterest. I found a few of the projects to try with the kids and got a massive Amazon shipment sent to the house. I later realized that I already owned some of those things but don’t tell Josh. We are going to do one project each week and work on it a little each day.
Plan virtual outings or events
There are so many virtual opportunities right now. It’s overwhelming. So many. It makes me wonder how we will go back to a society where things feel so exclusive and off limits. And expensive. We are trying to find new and fun ways to have family or date night outings. The options seem endless for kids but there are a lot for adults too. Have you heard of Creative Mornings? I’ve been attending these free monthly creative events almost religiously for the last few years. It is a place for the creative community to come together. Our Charlotte community is pretty top notch. You can watch speakers from past events online but now the CM community across the world is offering free virtual events called Fieldtrips.