lessons of quarantine

Maybe this isn’t an original post, but neither are my reports on Christmas and Easter and back-to-school. Maybe originality isn’t very important.

We’re almost five months into quarantine life and I’m amazed at all we’ve learned. In no particular order:

1. “That’s just how it’s done” really ISN’T. From church to weddings, to grocery shopping to travel to baby showers, police work and schools— people are creating new ways to function, ingenious solutions, and some changes I hope stay with us for generations to come. We’re looking outside the box and finding creative solutions in our family too.
2. Costco, you can just take all our money. We eat a lot. And cook a lot and create a LOT of dishes. With eight people making meals all day long we have never once caught up on dishes. Still, I think we’ve all learned new cooking skills, incorporated new vegetables into our routine. I don’t even want to know how many containers of ice cream the boys have emptied.
3. Every penny we’ve ever spent on work out equipment has now paid us back. We’ve always had a pretty well-stocked home gym– weights, pull-up bars, a treadmill, a rower, a Peloton (don’t even get me started on Peloton. I love it so much I sound like a telemarketer) and these days we’re especially grateful we have so many exercise options at home.
4. Same with books. Even more with books. I’m so grateful for our well-stocked shelves.
5. The more time we spend watching/reading/debating the news, the more frustrated we feel. Not exactly revelatory, but oh so true. We’ve always been newspaper people rather than TV news or internet news readers. It’s a time when we need to stay informed, but we’re working to limit how much we consume.
6. My own capacity for laziness amazes me. I’ve never been one to really sleep in, nap or watch TV but lately, I yearn for downtime the way a toddler crave popsicles. I think that’s my brain’s way of dealing with the stress.
7. Also, why did we ever buy/wear uncomfortable clothes? I’m not sure why it took a pandemic to rethink our wardrobe.
8. I like having everyone around. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise since really LOVE my people, but I thought I’d covet more alone time. I thought I’d get more frustrated with the general messiness of a full house, I thought we’d be more critical of each other. I’m not saying we haven’t had piles of disagreements and hurt feelings. But we’re solving them quickly. It’s been good. Really, really, really good. We’ve grown together and we’re kind and we’re good at giving each other space.
9. Quarantine’s given us a second shot at parenting. We’ve worked through SO many issues and our communication levels have improved weekly. I give a lot of credit to our communication course and a lot of credit to our amazing kids. I’ve loved watching their relationships evolve into real friendships.

Oh my. I thought this could be a quick post and I’m realizing I could go on and on and on. So let’s hit publish, tell me about what you’ve learned and I’ll follow up with a part II.

Sending you love

and naps. xoxo