I hope that this post finds you and your family well and relatively sane. I have begun my fifth day at home and although I have made a couple of runs to the store quickly and early in the day, I have, for the most part been here in my house with two spoiled puppies while my husband is at work.
When I found out that I would be spending an unknown amount of time at home, I knew one thing right off the bat- I needed to have a schedule or my days would become long days of little motivation or productivity. I also decided to think of the time as a luxury. Even though what is going on in the world is scary and unpredictable, I am getting time to do things that I enjoy but never seem to have the time to do.
I got my planner out which doesn’t get nearly enough attention lately and made a few notes of the elements that I wanted to include in each day. My list looked like this…
Walk dogs when weather allows
Write
Craft
Devotions
Shower/ get dressed
Housework/ freezer meals
Relax
Breakfast/lunch
Laundry
So then I looked at the list and decided that I would create my schedule using these and a few other things that make my days and my mental health stay on track. My days look like this…
Wake up at normal time that I would for work- for me that’s 5:00 AM, even though this morning I slept until 6:30 AM because I had some trouble sleeping the night before.
While the dogs are out for their morning run, I make the bed and start listening to my devotions on Youversion- right now that is “Bible in One Year 2020 with Nicky Gumbel,” which I really enjoy because he has a little devotional at the beginning and then usually a chapter of the New Testament and two chapters of the Old Testament.
I pick up our bedroom, pick out my clothes for the day and pour myself a cup of coffee and get something together for breakfast.
I take my supplements/ vitamins for the day which includes something to keep my hormones on track, something to ease my mind and keep me from being anxious, and one for keeping my mood in a good place and fight off depression.
The dogs are let back in and by this time my devotions are done and I head into the living room with my coffee and breakfast where I watch ONE- 1- ONLY ONE… episode of whatever series I am watching on Netflix. Right now that is “When Calls the Heart.”
When that is done, if it is nice, I walk the dogs around the block, a little fresh air is nice and it breaks up all the “inside time” and they LOVE it!
Back home, and into the shower, even though I am home and it would be easy to be lazy, I do all the normal self care including shaving my legs. And to add to that I also dress and if I am going to see someone during the day- for me that means wearing something presentable but comfy and includes a bra, even though it has been a sports bra everyday and my clothes have been of the workout/ yoga variety, wearing a bra just makes me feel dressed for the day and is good for how I feel about myself.
When I am dressed, I put on some moisturizer and mascara. Again, this is for my mental health more than anything else and also it is nice to look like I put forth a little effort on my appearance when my husband comes home.:) It is important that I look and feel put together and ready to face the day.
Usually, I put in a load of laundry and then I go to my craftroom/ office and sit down for an hour to write. This part of my day is timed and undisturbed. I set my Pandora radio to a nature station and set my timer and then I sit at the computer and just write down anything that I am thinking, sometimes it’s just my mind rambling onto the page about nothing in particular and changing subjects in an instant. Other times it is more ponderings and may deal with one topic for the entire time. Usually whatever it is, when I have questions or observations- I usually address them to God and so the writing usually possesses a pocket of prayers here and there.
When I am done, I swap the laundry and go to the kitchen to see if there is anything that I need to do as far as sitting meat out to thaw for dinner/ prep work or freezer meals/ homemade dog treats, and then a quick glance to see what I might eat for lunch.
I go into the living room and just do a walkthrough of the house and see what housework needs to be done. I let the dogs back out to run during this time and especially if I need to vacuum, they are scared of the vacuum cleaner.
Usually by then the clothes are dry and I put them away and get my lunch together.
I take it to the living room and watch another episode of my series and relax.
After lunch, I spend an hour working on a craft project- I have several that I either bought things to do but haven’t or I have things that are half done and I’m getting those completed. I set the timer again for this because it is easy for me to spend the rest of the day here and a lot of times get distracted and not make much progress, the time limit keeps me focused and feels more like structured time.
After this sometimes, I might go work in the kitchen a little more and sometimes I might sit down and watch another episode of my series and if everything else has gone smoothly I might make some popcorn and watch a movie.
Usually this brings me close to the time that Michael comes home and we visit for a little while before he gets his shower and I start dinner.
So far, I feel like this is working really well, and I am getting ideas on other things to do if the time extends- I have a Bible Study that I ordered recently called, “100 days of Faith over Fear, a devotional journal.” I thought it would be good to plug in for an hour of the day and do the short devotional provided and then spend some time digging deeper into the accompanying scriptures and even work on memorization. I also thought it would be a good time to quilt the tops that have been passed to me that my Great Grandmother pieced.
So- that’s what my days look like. What are you doing in your time of isolation? Are there things that you always wished that you had time to do that is achievable from home? Could you enhance your relationships with family? Your knowledge of a topic, place, person? If you are home with kids, could you make a virtual trip to a different place each week or day?
So- what are you doing with your days? Leave me a comment below and share your ideas with me and any other readers looking for suggestions.
Have a great day.