Oh my goodness. So this is a post I never thought I would be writing. I think that a few weeks ago many of us probably never pondered what we would do if we were stuck at home full-time with our families for a few weeks, or maybe even a few months. But now here we are! So first, let’s have adorable Luna and her tiny leather jacket cheer you up a bit (keep in mind we took these pictures prior to social distancing of course)! The jacket and my earrings are the best parts of the outfits – both from retailers offering major discounts right now!

I will be honest, it is hard to tame this little one at home, all day, every day! But for your pleasure I linked our matching outfits below.

Girls leather jacket / girls leggings / girls sneakers / women’s dress / black leather laptop case / jean jacket / feather earrings

First, I am going to start off by saying (and we can totally agree to disagree) that I am taking this social isolation seriously. I am not here to preach to people, I think we are all adults and can make informed decisions. But in my case, I was a little lax the first couple of days after we knew school would be cancelled. We had dinner with friends, we met a family in the park and the kids played lacrosse and soccer together, and I was open to going to a sleepover birthday. But then, I started to read some articles on the symptoms and those seriously ill with corona virus. I read about Italy and how quickly it spread. I read about hospitals over there had to choose who to save and could no longer treat individuals who were anything less than critically ill. I read about a 45 year-old man in a coma in the United States, and two 29 year-old otherwise healthy women who got seriously ill with the virus in China (one died). Their symptoms, although not typical, were very frightening.

At that point, I decided that this social isolation and the “slowing the curve” was something I wanted. So we have been taking it very seriously and we have not left the house aside from going to the grocery store. My husband’s job is still extremely busy, but luckily he can do it from home so he has not left for that. I am still taking the kids for walks and bike rides, not coming within six feet of other people. I am also trying to go for my daily run, but I have switched to a much more rural route to avoid running into anyone. I want this to end sooner than later, and I feel like this is the best I can do to help this situation.

So what have I been doing to keep us from losing our minds? First – check out my post and printable on activities to do with kids. There are 35 activities on here to try! Let me also add, none of these activities have stopped us from losing our minds – and that is okay. That is going to happen, more than once, maybe daily, and I think us parents should be lenient with ourselves.

For us, with one spouse actually trying to do work and three children running around the house constantly, it has been a struggle. I have had to be understanding when he says he truly needs it to be quiet for a conference call, and he has become more understanding of what “quiet” means. No, we will not shout. Yes, you will likely still hear footsteps and talking. This is the new normal. Let me just say the new normal also means a lot more television, a lot more electronic time and me regularly shouting “just go outside!!!!!”.

I can say, the first three days went well. I am not saying this to brag, I am just trying to share what helped these days go well and let’s be honest, three days is not really an accomplishment. We rarely get to eat dinner as a family with all the sports and other activities, and now we eat two meals together almost every day! This is fun, we get talk and share more than we normally do, and it has been a positive experience. The other thing I like is the ability to bake and cook new dinners – I NEVER cook, so I have tried out some new recipes.

With this extra time and no activities at night, I have the time and have used it as something to look forward to. So far we have made gluten free banana bread, brownies, chocolate pudding and cookies. Also, I have been getting my run in daily, because my husband is here too and can be with the kids. That usually doesn’t happen, and is AWESOME! It is also a necessary part of my self-care routine.

I also pre-ordered a giant puzzle for the kids (apparently there is a puzzle shortage now so if you want one order sooner than later) as well as some crossword and other activity books and books for them to read, which has helped. Overall, I am trying to enjoy these little things – the reading, the worksheets, the baking that we don’t actually have time to do regularly when real life is happening.

Now, that being said, I am pretty certain that yesterday I lost my mind. Something about Day 5 of us all being here led to some meltdowns. I think a big part of that was I didn’t stick to the schedule, especially when it came to electronics. Someone had initiated a messaging app among my daughter and her friends and it was new, and exciting for them and I let her just use it all morning – and the phone NEVER stopped ringing. There was stress about why people weren’t answering, when she could have it next, brother was upset because he didn’t have friends, and we missed our morning outside time because of it. It was insanity.

So let’s get to that – a schedule. I am not an extremely organized person. Scratch that. I am not even a regularly organized person. So I was convinced at first that I didn’t want to adhere to a schedule because I actually thought it would be more stressful for me. Then day 1 happened, and it sounded a lot like this – “Snack? Snack time? When is snack? I want a snack? Can I have another snack? Can I use the phone? Can I use the switch? Snack? Electronic? Snack? Snack? Snack?” And just like that – a schedule seemed like the best idea EVER. If, for no other reason, than I could point to designated snack and electronics time.

So what does our schedule look like? It is not rigid by any means. And I simply googled “free printable daily schedule” where I can fill my own stuff in. Here is one I have been using. For me, and only me, here is what is working right now as part of our schedule for us (and could also possibly change at any time).

1. Morning Routines: I have found if we start the day with some predictable “chores” before anything else, it works well. Piano practice, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning up from yesterday, vacuuming, wiping of the table. Confession, my kids get paid (like .50 cents) for some of this stuff and I am continuing to offer that.

2. Early outside time: Our days go much MUCH better if they get outside right away. I think it is similar to how many adults have more productive days when they start with exercise? So after morning chores I open the backdoor and say “go play.” Yes, it has been muddy. They still go out. What do they do out there? They seem to have built some weird tee-pee house and they are playing some game but I honestly don’t care as long as no one is hurt and they don’t interact with anyone. We are lucky because our backyard is very secluded, but I think a morning bike ride, walk or something else would have a similar effect.

3. School time: After outside time I try to do school time. By school time I mean no one is teaching science or geometry. We are doing the worksheets and other things they got from school, and reading books. Also, by time, I mean we have not been able to do more than one hour of “work.” I have tried to sneak in other “educational” activities at other times in the schedule. For example, we have electronic time but it must be an educational app or game, we do activity books, crosswords, etc. This is the best I can do here and I truly think it is fine. I believe they are going to start online learning soon and I am trying to save up my energy for that.

4. Scheduled Electronics and Snacks: This was the main reason for this schedule, and for the most part has worked. It is a reward – if you don’t listen you can’t get your electronics at 11! It also seems to help them be less crazy than when there is this open-ended use of technology.

5. Fun Activities: I have been trying to add some other activities in. When I say fun its not crazy. Fun as in face timing grandma or friends from school. coloring a printable, looking up our favorite animal online and reading about it. That is not that crazy, but it is extra stuff, and its fun. Please take a look at this easy printable I created with fun and easy activities for kids during social distancing!

So there it is folks. This is basic and easy and everyone else has probably already said a lot of this stuff. Bake, read, play games, do puzzles, clean out a closet. Absolutely get outside. This is different, and its hard, but it will pass and that dinner out, that playdate, that Saturday morning soccer game will seem so much more amazing that it ever did before.