First off it is Thanksgiving today. We always eat on Sunday instead of the holiday Monday because it’s easier when you don’t have to go to work the next day.
I’m writing this while I am waiting for dinner to finish cooking. It’s a pretty simple meal tonight compared to other years.
Holy crap did I wait until the last minute to get this done. Yikes. This post includes A LOT, but that doesn’t mean that we are going it get all of it done.
This is our 12th year…or maybe our 11th. I can’t remember.
It’s been a long time though, and this is how it looks for us.
First off I try to write out a weekly schedule just to give us an idea of what we should be doing each day. I like pen and paper. It makes me feel organized when I am not.
Often shit happens and schedules don’t work out, so whatever we don’t get it done I just roll it over to the next day.
With quarantines, borders closing, public gathering cancellations, and many businesses temporarily shutting their doors, to say the travel industry isn’t really booming would be an understatement.
So many people have had to cancel or put off vacations, and so many of us could use a little escapism so I have put together a list of how you can experience a little bit of travel without even leaving your house.
1. Make a travel diary of places you have gone, or for places, you wish to go. It’s okay to plan ahead and do some dreaming. Now if I could only journal like this guy.
2. Travel through history with Ancestry.com by building and researching your family tree. With Ancestry I discovered that I am 65% from the British Isles and 20% Eastern European. We think it is Ukrainian based on research since my dad was adopted. It’s quite a time consuming hobby, but also really interesting to try to puzzle things out.
3. Do a beautiful puzzle of a country, city or site that you want to visit. This Cinque Terre puzzle is lovely. I would be tempted to Mod Podge it after and then frame it because I hate destroying puzzles after I finish them.
4. DIY Houses by Night, Luminaries. I’d switch out the house images to historical sites from around the world. The original site where it is from seems to be down at the moment but the instructions are easy.
Find an image of a house/building, use the sharp knife to cut out the shape and some of the windows, doors, etc. Curve it into a circle and tape it. Light it up with a battery-operated tea light. Easy Peasy.
5. Learn a new language. There are so many ways to do this now without leaving your home. A million apps, books, and programs. I have been trying to learn French for the last 10 years. I have fallen both on and off the wagon several times but I am officially back on.
I have also added both Dutch, German, and Irish to the mix although very minimally. I have a decent collection of french resources from over the years, with my favourites being Assimil, and Duolingo.
I also have Rosetta Stone which is similar to Duolingo but with a heftier price tag, although they have lowered the costs over the years and now offer payment plans.
A few years ago my New Years resolution was to do Duolingo every single day for the year. It (both online and the app) keeps track of your daily streak and I managed 365 days. Shortly after I finished it. Since then they have revamped the course and added a lot so I have started again.
Both girls have Duolingo accounts too with French and a language of their choice. Roo’s choices are Korean, and Japanese, while Merle added Latin and Irish. I really enjoy it and it is free.
6. Take a virtual museum tour. There are so many that give you the virtual experience now, and while it is not the same as actually going to the museum it does give you the opportunity to see places that you might never see which is so amazing. The link I provided contains 12 museums.
7. Get a subscription to Universal Yums. Every month you receive a box filled with snacks from a different country. It comes with an information booklet, activities, and facts about the city.
You also get a clue as to where the next destination will be which is fun trying to puzzle out. My girls really love this box and it gives us the opportunity to learn and study the country after. This month was Brazil (which we just received on Friday).
8. Watch Venice Live with Classical Music in the background. Beautiful. I’d also suggest while drinking a glass of wine and the lights turned down.
9. Play GeoGuessr. I’m not overly impressed that they started charging to play it, but you can play one game free per day on a regular account. It’s a fun way to explore the world through Google Street Maps.
One time when we playing we were dropped somewhere in Greece and tried to translate signs on various historical ruin sites to see if we could figure out where we were which isn’t easy with the Greek alphabet 😉
10. Watch travel documentaries or series on Netflix, or Prime. I love Rick Steves Europe. I got the whole series as a gift many years ago on DVD and have watched it many, many times since. It is also available on Prime.
Or you can just start actually planning a trip. Pinterest is full of travel guides, start your research, do some reading, watch some videos and get inspired. Make a travel board or add to your travel journal, or check out one of my packing lists for some vacation outfit inspiration. Escapism at it’s best.
Yesterday we were asked by the government to practice social distancing. This went along with them cancelling school for three weeks, closing museums, libraries, and cancelling any event that is larger than 250 people even though they recommend you to cancel those as well.
People went nuts last night grocery shopping which made me happy that I started buying a little extra here and there weeks ago in order to avoid this panic. Every second email in my inbox is from a company letting me know how they are dealing with everything, and honestly, I don’t want to know. I’m going to take this quiet time to get things done and get caught up on my never-ending to-do lists.
The kids being home doesn’t affect me since we homeschool. I am used to them being home so our routines aren’t going to change much, and I guess we are lucky with that because it isn’t such a disturbance to our daily life.
I know a lot of people are scared they may go stir crazy and aren’t sure what they are going to do, let alone what their kids are going to do so I have compiled a list of things that may help to lessen the crazy for both young and old.
1. Invent a recipe to use up the older stock of food that you have in your fridge or pantry. And if you aren’t good at coming up with cooking ideas based on ingredients you can cheat and plug what you have into this website and they will give you some recipes to make.
2. Make an indoor garden for spring. It’s fun for adults as well as kids. We have used these kits before and they are great. And this works amazing. They grow so fast you need to keep coming up with recipes to use up the herbs.
3. Rearrange your bookshelves. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of change to inspire you to pick up an old book you’ve read before and reread it.
4. Since you will probably be avoiding gyms, or they will close temporarily you will need options to keep moving. Come up with a new workout routine using apps, and online videos. I use Fitness Blender, Yoga with Adrienne, and Popsugar workouts. All are free.
5. And since you’ll be inspired to getting your body moving then how about making a new Spotify Playlist to go along with it? This is mine, and it has over 22 hours of music on it. The name is derived from my kids favourite Spongebob episode 🙂
6. Take courses or classes online with Masterclass, Coursera, and/or The Great Courses. And while The Black Death is my favourite lecture on The Great Courses, I will advise you to stay away from it for now. Come back to it in the future because it’s great 🙂 and while we are avoiding things you should also save The Doomsday book for another day. I recommend reading it though because it was fantastic.
7. Are you crafty? Mod Podge a piece of furniture with vintage magazines or even as a statement wall in your house. I love the look. You can find high-resolution vintage pictures online like here.
8. And while you are searching for vintage domain photos you can print some off and make an awesome gallery wall for your house using different fun and interesting ways to hang them.
9. Make at home bowling, car track, toy villages, forts from recyclables. If your kids are anything like mine then they love to dig in the recycling for craft supplies. This is another good use.
10. Get an adult colouring book to bring some zen to your life. While you are at it get some quality pencil crayons because dude, they are a gamechanger. I bought these coloured pencils for my youngest because she wanted a nice set, and her colouring and drawing has improved significantly since then. This book and this book are funny if you don’t mind profanity.
11. Watch zoo cams to bring a little nature into the house, and to make you smile. The San Diego Zoo has a variety of animal cams, so while the zoo may be closed the animals are still there. And of course there is iPanda which is 24/7.
12. If you are scared your kid’s brains may atrophy over the next 3 weeks (or that they may just drive you batty) here is an alphabetical list of websites that are offering free subscriptions to kids while the schools are closed.
13. Take that to-do list that we all have sitting around and start to smash out the things you have been putting off. It will make you feel accomplished and save you some stress for when everything gets back to normal because it will get back to a sense of normalcy again.
14. Go through your clothes and mend anything that needs mending. If you can sew, then alter things that you don’t wear because they don’t fit exactly right. If you are artsy then upcycle some pieces with embroidery, patches, or pieces of lace and fabric that you make have kicking around.
15. Borrow ebooks from the library. Super easy. Grab your eReader, reading glasses, a cup of tea, and a blanket and read a book or 12. Here is how to download a bunch of classic books that recently moved into the public domain.
16. Binge something that you think you would hate. You may be pleasantly surprised.
17. Clean. It will give you a sense of control in a situation. It will make you feel like you are accomplishing something (which you are). Get a head start on spring cleaning to feel invigorated. I found this book highly motivating and the app is great as well.
18. Learn a new makeup technique or hairstyle via youtube. They have the best hair and makeup tutorials. This one is perfect for summer….or Halloween 😉
19. Learn to meditate. It is good for both your physical and mental health. There are a lot of meditation apps, so try out a few to see which one works for you.
20. Give your home a mini-makeover to refresh the space. Change pillowcases, pull out some blankets, move around pictures, swap things in between rooms. Change the whole room around.
I plan on moving the living room around to allow for more light. Now that the days are getting longer and sunnier it would be nice to allow some of that brightness into the place.
I hope this gives you some ideas for a few weeks of staying in. If you have any other good ideas then leave me some in the comments.
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