Over the last three weeks I have spent more time at home than ever before (somehow I have a feeling that you can relate :). Though I am definitely looking forward to getting back to “normal” at some unknown point in the future, spending all of this time at home has been different than I expected, and has led to me taking up some new hobbies that I would love to incorporate into my regular old life, once all of this is over.
I haven’t yet made a list of projects to do. Many people are being extremely productive in this new reality which I definitely admire, but I don’t think it would be fair to put myself in that same category. I’ve really tried to lower expectations and let things fall into place organically.
What surprises me most about the “shelter in place” situation is that I’m actually more of a homebody than I realized. For me, life normally consists of running from here to there trying to do a thousand things. Although I miss many activities and people from my regular everyday life, I really like having more space and time to do things, and I love not feeling super rushed.
As far as work goes, just like everybody else, I have transferred all of my meetings to Zoom, and still spend my “work” days for the most part working. But I sleep in longer in the morning, enjoy a leisurely breakfast, and take long breaks throughout the day. I still spend way too much time checking the news.
These are a few ways that I have been spending my time at home that have been particularly satisfying:
Rock Creek: Photo by Holly O’Brian
Being Outside and Taking Lots of Walks….
As we are currently enjoying a beautiful Spring in the DC area, and my family and I are so lucky to have Rock Creek Park right outside our back door, I have been taking an hour for lunch on workdays to sit out on the back patio, eat lunch (with my feet up; I’m a bit of a hedonist:)) and spend some delicious time reading and listening to the birds. I’ve been prioritizing spending more time in nature (because I really need to get out of this apartment) and feeling lucky that we are able to (where people in Italy and Spain are not allowed to go out for exercise). Taking regular walks in my neighborhood and in Rock Creek Park with my daughter and husband has been a wonderful part of almost every day.
Enjoying Small Rituals with my family……
Our family has been enjoying some very delicious food (mostly made by my husband, Jose, who is the most amazing cook; lucky me!). We’ve found we spend a lot more time at the dinner table, and talk a lot more than we used to. Because it doesn’t feel like there is anything to rush off to.
My 15 year old daughter and I have baked brownies, cakes and cookies. We have watched movies as a family where we hadn’t done this for such a long time.
My husband and I have also taken to watching documentaries, and now we are focusing on Music: We highly recommend the following on Netflix:
We have come up with a cleaning ritual that’s really working for us: we spend one hour per week deep cleaning our apartment together as a family. The music goes on and the three of us clean together, each responsible for different tasks of our choosing. This new practice takes away the feeling of drudgery of having assigned chores around the house. There’s no more nagging, because we’re doing it together which somehow feels more “fair”. And we all have come to realize that having a clean house is worth it.
And lastly, my daughter even cut her Dad’s hair. She did an amazing job!
Reading for Pleasure…..
I have gone back to reading fiction, and more specifically, mysteries. Over the last three weeks I have read three books in Louise Penny’s Gamache Series and they are addicting:
My Mom introduced me to Louise Penny. All of the books in this series center around the charming detective, Armand Gamache. The plots of each of the books take place in or around a very small town in an idyllic setting south of Montreal in Quebec called Three Pines. The character development is fascinating and dabbled with lots of humor and suspense. It’s oddly comforting to me to that there can be a murder one evening, and then the next morning all the characters can be found enjoying a delicious brunch together at the bistro :).
I love the way Louise Penny’s writing captures a rich sense of place through the architecture, the natural setting descriptions and character development of all the lovely though very complex characters living in this small town.
On Penny’s website there is even a page dedicated to the correct pronunciation of all of the French phrases that appear in her books. This is especially interesting for me, because another just-for-fun activity that I have been dabbling in while at home has been learning French via Duolingo (for free!). www.duolingo.com
Connecting with people near and far……
I also like the way my day to day feels connected to family and friends who are both near and very far away. We get almost daily updates from my husband’s family in Spain through a group Whatsapp where everyone shares hilarious videos about being confined to their apartments. My sister and her family live in Italy, and I speak to her regularly about what’s going on. Through Zoom, WhatsApp, Facebook, email, texting and the good old telephone regular connection with family and friends means we can still stay connected through our shared experience.
Rock Creek Park Trail: Photo by Holly O’Brian
Here in the United States the news tends to be fairly U.S. focused and we typically don’t have a great sense of what’s going on in the world beyond our borders. This is the first time in my lifetime that we as a country are experiencing something so significant along with much of the rest of the world simultaneously. I really don’t wish for this to happen again any time soon, but I do hope that we all remember how this collective experience has brought people together from all over the world.
Life has become so fast-paced and overly scheduled that this time of more simplicity and less doing can feel surprisingly refreshing. I read somewhere that with the lockdowns life as we knew it has basically been cancelled, so it’s up to us to decide what we choose to bring back in.
Ironically, this strange situation (though definitely very challenging in many ways) has given me a chance to reconnect with activities that make me happy and with people that really matter to me.
What has surprised you most about being “Sheltered in Place?”. I hope that you and your family and friends are all doing OK. I would love to hear how you are doing and what you are doing with your time at home. Take good care.
-Holly