The latest restrictions have left many of us with our children out of school, cancelling our trips for spring break, working from home and basically unable to participate in many of our normal activities. Social distancing and avoiding crowds have become an important priority, in addition to handwashing, sanitizing every surface and covering our coughs and sneezes.
Even though all of us are concerned and inconvenienced, there are still some things we can do to make the most of this “downtime”. There are experiences we can create with our family and friends, projects we have been putting off and things we can do outdoors to help to make this time worthwhile and create as much of a silver lining as we can on the “Coronavirus cloud”.
Here are ten ideas to help make this time more valuable and enjoyable:
- Organize your photos – The ones in boxes, on your phone, on your computer…and create physical and digital photo albums and scrap books. This project is not only probably long overdue, but a great way to connect with some of your favorite memories. Create digital or physical albums for friends and family as gifts.
- Get creative in the kitchen – Take an online cooking class and learn to make some new recipes, pull out all of those beautiful cookbooks you never have a chance to use, take a trip around the world exploring recipes from foreign lands. This is a fun and educational way to get your kids involved in the process.
- Plant your garden with native plants – Not only is it healthy and fun, but also great for the environment, and a way to save money and energy.
- Read and listen to Audio Books – Get caught up on the latest novels or pull out a classic. Sit with your kids and listen to an audio book together while doing an arts and crafts project or making dinner.
- Learn a language – Even though traveling is on hold, you can still create an international, interesting and really cool experience with your family by learning a language together.
- Make a vision board – Pull out all your old magazines and cut out photos of places, things, ideas, words and experiences that inspire you. Let each of your kids make one too and hang them up in their rooms to motivate them to be their best each day.
- Create stations for an in-home or outside workout for you and your kids – Put numbered signs around the house and yard that lead to jumping jacks, push-ups, sit ups, climbing up and down stairs, or even a homemade obstacle course.
- Clear out and reorganize your closets for warmer weather and a fresh start for spring – Go through all of the clothes you never wear and make a charity pile, or if you have little ones – find things they might like for dress up or costumes
- Get your house in tip-top shape! Get all your “honey-do’s” done and get a head start on your preventative home maintenance. Dibico Home Management will come and do a free assessment* for you and help you get your house ready for a great spring and summer!
- Put on a play or make a family video – Send it to grandparents or other older or faraway relatives that it’s best to stay away from to keep them healthy.
We know this isn’t the ideal scenario – but since it is what we’re dealing with we may as well make the best of it as much as we can. We hope these tips give you and your family some great ideas for things to do. If you want to make getting your house in great shape part of your plan, please call Dibico to schedule your complementary assessment. Our team will arrive fully sanitized and ready for action! If you want some help planning your native plant garden, we can send over our native plant expert Penn Marchael. We can’t control the situation, but we can look for the gifts in it, like more time at home with the people we love.
This post is sponsored by Dibico Home Management.
