Another weekend in quarantine. How was yours? Personally I noticed some changes in the way members of our family were feeling and coping. I wonder if you’re finding the same.
Oldest child living in the house, who also happens to be an extrovert, struggled the most the first few weeks of social distancing. I think he vacillated between anger and denial. He’s a senior in high school after all. Youngest child, who happens to be an introvert, started quarantine season in his element. He got to be home every day and just be with his family. He was as content as content could be.
Oldest child started to accept his new reality and threw himself into a couple of projects. First a movie about his senior year and most recently he built a table and recruited his artistic sister to help him paint the top of it with experiences, places, and people that are meaningful to him. Creative therapy we’re calling it.
Last night when I was tucking my youngest, Johnny, in, he shared that he was ready for “it” to be over. He wants to have his friends over and spend time with his cousins. He asked me “how many more days?”
My very relational and extroverted husband got teary this past week talking about how he misses people.
I struggle less with quarantine and physical distancing and more with fear of the unknown. What does it look like when we can go back to leading our normal lives? Will we feel safe going out? How will I feel about letting my kids spend time away from the house again? Will we still wear masks? Will we get sick? So many unknowns.
I know for some people their emotions vary on a day to day or even hour to hour basis. My friend, Laura shared this, “Home isolation has its ups and downs. One day you’re flying high and cleaning the baseboards with a Q-tip, and the next day you’re drinking tequila and watching squirrels out the window. There is no in between.”
Besides recognizing and being sensitive to the people in my house needing different things at different times and trying to offer grace to them, here are several other things that are helping our household manage and cope.
Coping Strategies
I mentioned “creative therapy.” After drawing and painting for an entire day, my son, Nathan, told me, “Today was such a peaceful day.” Personally, I find peace in sitting down and writing. My husband spent the weekend gardening and getting our flower beds ready. Each spring and summer, gardening is where he expresses his creativity, and this weekend it was therapeutic for him. Expressing creativity is comforting.
Connecting with friends. On Friday night we had a Facetime date with great friends of ours who we traveled with last summer. Our friend, Travis, is a self taught mixologist, and we had a lesson on how to make two different craft cocktails. We talked and laughed with Travis and his wife, Christie, reminisced about our trip to Italy and learned a new skill. My friend, Liz, told me her family Facetimed with friends on Friday night and played games and had a blast. Finding new ways to stay connected is comforting.
A new show. Ok, you guys, maybe we’re late to the party here, but if you are not watching Schitt$ Creek, you are missing out! It is laugh out loud funny and the perfect quarantine entertainment. Laughter is comforting.
A clutter free zone. We have game boards set up, a table project, a work from home station for my husband, homeschool areas and just extra stuff around because there are seven people and two dogs in our house all the time. My bedroom is the one room in the house that is decluttered, that I keep clean all the time so that when I want a little refuge, I can go in my room, close the door and feel at peace. Having one clean, decluttered place in my home is comforting.
How are you doing? Are you coping with the quarantine ok? Please share with us. If you have coping strategies that are working for you, we’d love for you to comment and share.
Connect With Us
Our hope is for Like A Sister to be a place for connecting. If you are not a member of our Facebook group, click the link and join the community. We are currently in the middle of “The Next 90 Challenge with Rachel and Dave Hollis. We’d love to have you join us in that, too. All you have to do is register using the link. It’s free, and it’s fun doing it with our Like A Sister community. https://go.thehollisco.com/offers/JAG5EJ39/checkout
You can find out more about that on our Facebook page as well. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2182734028690186/
Although we are physical distancing, that doesn’t mean we have to social distance. In fact we believe human connection is more valuable than ever. We’d love for you to be a part of our sisterhood!
