Staying Home. It's the Little Things.

Staying home. Social distancing. Self-isolating.

Whatever term you want to use we are all (most of us) doing it. 

For some it is not an option and I know many who are working tirelessly right now: medical personnel, first responders, delivery drivers, grocery store employees and more. 

All with vital roles to fill. 

Thank you.

The virus is not good.

 The reason we have to stay home is not good but staying home can be pretty good.

Even if you are an extrovert staying home can be great.

I know this because I have been here before.
More than once. 

It can be done.

When Mollie was young we had to self isolate for a month or more at a time for medical reasons. 

Twice we were on lock down at Christmastime. That was hard. 

Other times we were hanging out at home to stay well pre-op or post-op 

or because she was actually doing okay but there was a lot of "stuff" going around.

It was extra hard because we were the ONLY ones on lockdown. 

The rest of the world was full on. And we were isolated. 

There wasn't as much online - internet was still dial up at a big old desktop (and it wasn't that long ago!)

No Netflix or Hulu and Disney. No Facetime with friends because no Facetime yet!! No Instagram.
We had cable TV. And a VCR (remember that one?)

I share this with you only to say that we did it, we survived it and some of our fondest memories of good times come from those days. We don't really remember the slow movement of time or the bad parts. We remember being together, the fun and or/silly things we did to break up the boredom and what we laughed about. 

And it really was the little things.
There was stress and worry then too, because, you know,
waiting for a child to have major surgery or trying to prevent another hospital stay.

We made ice cream in a baggie. 

We made wax paper and crayon shaving hearts for Valentine's day. Do you remember that craft?? 

Old School but those are the things that are new and fresh for kids if they've never done it. 

We played with shaving cream and food coloring. 

We baked (and talked about fractions without anyone realizing we just had a math class, cooking class, and nutrition lesson all rolled into one!) 

We read and we took naps.

We set the table and did napkin folding. 

We had tea in the afternoon using my grandmother's china cups.

We played with nerf guns in the house.

We dusted. 

We made collages from magazines. 

We tried pitching playing cards into a bowl.

We danced.

We built blanket forts.
She played in the bath tub. She played with a spray bottle full of water.
We used whatever we had to keep us occupied because this was waaaay before Amazon Prime.

 And as Mollie got older and she  needed to do school work then she did it at the time of day she felt most productive. I get that some families need more structure but that worked for us and as long as it got finished I didn't care if it was after lunch and not in the morning because she had slept in. 

Working when you feel productive and not by the clock is what has made some of the greatest companies today so successful!

And we also made plans for things we were going to do when she was well and back to normal activities. We put lists on the fridge and made calendars with drawings and stickers to help her to see when exciting things were coming. We crossed off days.
That taught us to hope and to plan.
To look forward to something in this time of instant gratification is something to be learned.

And almost every day and whatever the weather we dressed accordingly and went outside . Even if it was messy and we only walked around the yard once or played with bubbles on the back porch we went out into the fresh air. If it was nice then we soaked up the sun - warm or cold weather. 

Even 5 minutes on a swing is quite therapeutic. 

So this extended stay in our own homes is possible and can be productive
and even a time to make some happy memories.
I pray you find some joy in each of these days.