Quarantine Blues

Well, what better time to revive a blog than during a worldwide pandemic when the majority of us are (hopefully) sequestering ourselves at home? :) All jokes aside, the world is a bit scary right now. I'm one of the lucky ones whose job is allowing me to work from home, but I've still been struggling to find the balance between being informed and being consumed, between slowing down and becoming a blob. Here are a few of the things I've been doing to distract myself and keep my sanity when the world feels like it's falling apart and there's nothing I can do but stay home.

1. Taking walks + sitting outside.  I'm an introvert by nature, but 15-ish days in, this is stretching even me. Thankfully the weather has been heavenly the past few days because being outside in the sunshine has been a saving grace. Taking walks (six feet away from other people with the same idea!) and even just sitting outside in my hammock has done wonders for my mood.

2. Reading. I thought I was a reader before quarantine, but this is a whole different level. I've had to steer clear of dystopian novels and even a lot of non-fiction--right now I need escapism. A few of my favorites lately have been My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware, and The Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler (warning, the last one is a tear-jerker). I'm also buddy-reading Graham Moore's The Holdout right now, and I can't put it down!

3. Trying new recipes. Some of these have been on my Pinterest board for ages; some are old favorites that I've had to tweak because of grocery shortages--and some are a combination! It's given me a way to exercise some creativity without having to buy a bunch of materials and I've been surprised by how much I enjoy cooking when I have the time.

4. Spring cleaning. Do you have any idea how gross baseboards get? And light fixtures? I do, because I've been compulsively cleaning every nook and cranny of our home. It's definitely not the most fun of my distractions, but picking one project a day lets me feel productive with even small wins.

5. All those projects I didn't have time for.  And whoa buddy, are there a lot of them. From organizing and cataloging my library of books, retooling my gallery wall to make room for some new additions, tinkering with making clay earrings, finally making photo books from trips I took two years ago....I have no shortage of "someday" projects laying around. Having all those unfinished works-in-progress used to drive me crazy, but now they're actually saving my sanity by giving me something productive to do when I'm stuck inside. Blessed are the procrastinators...