Our family has been homebound since the beginning of March. Two months of staying at home. Two months of social distancing. Two months of this new way of doing life.
In previous posts, I shared some of the disappointments, laments, and thoughts I’ve had during these weeks. Today, I thought I’d do something different and just share what I’ve been up to during quarantine. Granted, nothing too exciting has happened, but I find it interesting to hear what other people are up to, perhaps you do too?
Much Remains the Same
The past two months have found me doing a lot of what I would normally do: keeping up with household chores, cooking, supervising my children and their schoolwork, writing, and other ministry related tasks. Some of these normal tasks have grown though. For example, my husband typically travels each week for work so the kids and I don’t make a big deal about meals. Since we have all been at home, I’ve been cooking A LOT! And running the dishwasher! I actually enjoy cooking so I’ve tried new recipes, made some I haven’t made in a long time (blueberry zucchini bread is a family favorite), and even developed a habit of writing out a menu—two weeks worth at a time.
Our church has kept all the same activities and ministries going, just virtually, so I’ve participated in Bible study and small group. My kids remain involved with youth group through virtual prayer and Bible study and weekly youth group gatherings online.
Enjoying the Simple Things
, a book on crisis care ministry in the church. Spring is a favorite time of year and I’ve enjoyed watching spring unfold in all her splendor. New Projects and Opportunities
One of my mom-isms that I have my children repeat to me out loud is “When God gives you extra time, use it wisely.” With my extra time these past two months, I completed two books projects. One is a book and study on the fear of the Lord. You can read a post inspired by it here. The other is a children’s book. You’ll hear more about that in coming months. I’m excited to see how the Lord will use both of these projects.
At my church, a few of us who are counselors started virtual support groups to help fellow church members think through and process all their emotions and uncertainties during this time. I’ve led one on lament and have found it mutually encouraging. I’ve loved digging back in to the Psalms and walking through the laments with my sisters in Christ.
I’m a wannabe creative and one day hope to learn to draw and paint. A group of ladies at my church meets each week to work on projects together. The past few weeks, I’ve joined in on their virtual calls to see what they’ve been creating. The only creative thing I’ve done during quarantine is a few black-out poems, which I shared with the group. I find these poems both challenging and relaxing at the same time and hope to do more of them.
Family Matters
I’ve enjoyed watching my kids navigate this strange and upside down in history. They’ve taken up working out together—strength training and running. We found an opportunity for them to train for a virtual marathon as well. They enjoy connecting with their friends via video conferencing and my youngest has set up a green screen to make fun backgrounds during his calls. They complain of boredom from time to time, but overall are doing better than I expected. It helps that they have plenty of school work to keep them busy.
Our family loves to laugh together and we’ve had plenty of time to do that these past two months. We’ve also played the board game, Pandemic, which I thought was a fitting game to play. It’s a bit complicated to learn, but I like that you play as a group. Each player works together to help stop the spread of viral outbreaks. One evening, we played some games virtually with another family via video conferencing. It was hilarious!
. We love history and have read many biographies of missionaries over the years. Tim’s journey around the world takes him to many of the places we’ve read about. It’s fascinating and a great activity to enjoy as a family. We’ve also been reading The Hiding Place
together as a family. You can read some of my thoughts about it here. So, that about sums up what I’ve been up to. How about you?
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