Minimal Living during Coronavirus

This has been an unprecedented time in our history. I have read this line in many articles and blog posts in the last months. It is true but in some ways, tiring and clique to hear [read] over and over again. Change is constant. Sometimes it is slow or subtle and we don't notice. Sometimes change is of our own making. Sometimes it is swift and difficult. Sometimes we hate it. Sometimes we love it. Sometimes we just grin and bear it.

I know I have struggled with the changes. My kids' schools were shut down. I had to home school them. I was working virtually from home already. Combining the two, along with regular daily life and household chores, was challenging. And that is an understatement.

Now summer is here. And we are still home. My husband is working from home (thank you God, he still has his job!) full time and indefinitely. The kids are out of school and desire the fun things we do every summer. But nothing is normal about this summer.

We can't swim at our usual pool. We can't visit our usual museum. We don't want to be around crowds of people this summer. We use masks to go to the store. We worry about attending church. We mostly stay at home.

In essence, coronavirus has forced a type of minimal living upon all of us. Some of us are handling it with ease. Some of us are really struggling. Some of us are lonely. Stressed. Anxious. Depressed. Everyone wants this to end. Yet there is no end in sight. I certainly don't have any answers. Just more questions.

Here in this house, we are doing our best. Some days it feels like we can't do it anymore. The staying in. The constant 24/7 with each other. The no alone time. The no outside activities.

I am worn. I am tired. I am weary. I wish for a magic wand to make it all go away. I wish for our sense of normalcy to return. I pray for safety and protection for all.

In the meantime, we do the everyday things. We bake things together. We eat meals together. We play video games and watch movies together. We read books. We paint. We adopt a new kitten. We learn new things. We dream. And we hope and pray of the day that we no longer fear this thing. This virus that has changed us all forever.

What am I grateful for today?

Today I am so thankful for many things in my life. And as I have shared before, gratitude is directly linked to happiness. And who doesn't want to be happy? So I thought I would share some of the things that I am grateful for in my life currently.

I am grateful for a husband who works so I can stay home with the kids.

I am grateful for kids who are growing like weeds and developing strong, kind hearts and minds of their own.

I am grateful for technology that keeps me in touch with family that is far away.

I am grateful for coffee and healthy foods that nourish my body.

I am grateful for a quiet house where I can think and write.

I am grateful for exercise because it keeps my body healthy, my mind sharp, and my energy high.

I am grateful for nature and how I can look at it and notice the beauty of the world in which we live.

I am grateful for a nice home, a warm bed, clean water, and plenty of food. I know there are so many in the world who do not have these things.

I am grateful for holiday weekends where my family can relax and spend more time together.

I am grateful for surprise vacations that the kids STILL don't know about.

I am grateful for friends who will encourage and listen to you endlessly talk about... nothing :)

I am grateful for a car that takes us where we need to go and can haul loads of stuff or loads of friends.

But most of all, I am grateful that God has blessed me with all these things and more. For a life such as mine is not deserving but He loves me anyway. For that, I can never be grateful enough.

The Question You Should Ask Yourself

I'm always striving to be better. Do better. Live better. Be a better mom. Be a better runner. And on and on and on. So what list of top 10 strategies should I be doing? Well, it turns out that it could be simpler than that. What if you could change your life for the better by only asking yourself ONE question? (caveat: You will have to ask this question more than once.)

I've been reading this book recently: Getting Back to Happy. It's written by these wonderful bloggers, Marc and Angel. You can find them at http://www.marcandangel.com/.  I'm only a few pages in and the way that I think about this concept (be better) is changing. They advise a few small morning (before noon) changes to make in your routine, like: washing your breakfast dishes, exercise 15 minutes, and meditation. Then they ask a series of questions about what you currently do in your morning routine. And the first question is "Is this bringing me closer to or further from where I want to be?"

My question is even simpler. Is this good for me? What do I mean by "good"? I mean, is this action, thought, thing going to make me healthier, wiser, better, etc.? Is it pushing me toward my goals or keeping me from them? Is it inherently good for ME?

Now, the answers to this question may be different for everyone. And some of them may be the exact same. It's important to ask the question, listen to the answer, and then decide where to go from there.

Some examples could be:
Eating donuts for breakfast - Is this good for me?
Sleeping late - Is this good for me?
Watching TV - Is this good for me?
Scrolling Facebook - Is this good for me?
Spending time with friends - Is this good for me?

You can ask this question about virtually anything in your life. The point is to ask the question. Listen for the honest answer. And then decide what to do. Ask the right questions. Then act. The change comes in both the asking and then the doing. Both are important. Both are life changing.

Hit the Reset Button

I love mornings. Not early mornings. But slow, sit at the table with my coffee, watching the birds morning. Mornings signal a new day. New means you can start fresh. You can put aside the old of yesterday. You can forgive the mistakes of yesterday. You can start again.

It's like hitting the reset button. Each day you have a new beginning, new opportunities, and a new 24 hours with which you can plan your adventures. 

We have to stop thinking about another day being a continuation of the day before. It doesn't have to be. Each day we wake up, we are given a new day. You can do anything with this day. What will you do?

Yesterday I ate too much junk food.

Today I will eat carrots.

Yesterday I was grumpy with my kids.

Today I will play games with them.

Yesterday I watched a lot of TV.

Today I will go outside and take a walk.

Yesterday I worried about a project.

Today I will do my best and leave work at work.

Yesterday I wasted time all day.

Today I will use my time intentionally.

Yesterday I dreamt about my passions.

Today I will do something I'm passionate about.

What will you do with your reset button? Which part of your life needs to be reset, restarted, refreshed? You can do it. Go ahead. Hit that reset button!

Don't Blink

Here in the South, we go "back to school" before Labor Day. Presently, we only have about 3 1/2 weeks left before my kids have to return to school. This reality had me thinking about how little time we have remaining and how fast time flies. My kids are growing up quickly and I don't want to miss it or waste time with them. In other words, don't blink. Or I could miss it. Their childhood. Their growing up. Spending precious time with them.

A realization then dawned on me. Time passes quickly for everyone. Not just parents. Not just children. There's a lesson here. 

Time slows for no man. Time stops for no one. It keeps moving. It keeps going. You can't buy more time. You can't borrow more. Everyone is allotted the same amount each day. 24 hours each day. 7 days each week. And so on.

What is important is what you do with your time. Work, family, hobbies, rest, fun. Each of these require time. How much time depends on the person. But everyone has the same total amount. Each day every person has a decision to make about how they spend the time they have.

This post is not about giving you advice on making family more important than work. Or rest more important than hobbies. My belief is that each person has to make their own decisions about what takes priority with their time.

So think about it. How do you spend your time? What's important to you? Are you wasting your time in any areas? How do you feel about that? What would do with your life if you had more time? (Hint: The only way to get more time is to let go of other things. Because remember everyone has the same 24 hours each day.)

I often hear that no one gets to the end of their life and wishes they had spent more time on things that didn't really matter to them. Time to get serious about what you want to spend your time on.

Gratitude = Happiness

Everybody wants to be happy. Some people believe they are happy. Some people would say they are chasing happy. Some would say they are not happy at all. Happiness can appear elusive. It means different things to different people. What may make one person happy would not work for another person.

There is good news! One strategy works well for everyone who puts their full focus on it. (What you focus on is what you get. So focus on what you want!)  Gratitude.

So simple. But maybe not so easy. Think of those hard days when you can't think of things to be grateful for. And even if you do, they don't seem as important as those things that are going wrong in your life at the moment.

However, if you focus and you stick with it, gratitude does indeed equal more happiness. Being able to see the positive in your life increases happiness. Being able to focus on the good in life increases happiness. Being able to do this despite having a bad day combats depression and anxiety AND increases happiness. (and resilience)

I had a difficult day yesterday. One of my children was sick unexpectedly and my day became filled with running out for medicine, doing laundry, cleaning carpets, and making sure no one else got sick. It was not a day of ease and at the time, I would have said there was no reason to be grateful.

But here I am, the day after, writing a post about Gratitude. I am grateful for medicines, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, friends who help, restaurants who deliver, and the physical capability and energy to do all that was necessary to take care of my child and family. This morning I found gratitude in sleeping in, kids playing, birds chirping, hot coffee, and a quiet moment.

Gratitude is like a short cut to happiness. When you are focused on all that is good in your life, you feel the joy in life. When you focus on the positive, it becomes more difficult to live in the negative. There will always be bad days. But we can't forget the good. That is when we lose that elusive happiness. We get stuck in the bad, the difficult, the negative. But learning to focus on what you are grateful for in your life can pull you out of that. It can show you the joy, the happy, the good in your life. Focus on that. Focus on your joy. Gratitude = happiness.

My Kids are Teaching Me

As a parent, one of your jobs is to teach your children. You want them to learn as much as possible, grow into responsible adults, and have strong values they can stand up for. But a funny thing happens as you raise your kids, they begin to open your eyes to new things and teach you things that you may not have realized you have been missing.

In an attempt to get my kids out into nature more this summer, they are working toward Junior Ranger park badges. To earn a badge, they must complete a number of nature related activities. The kids are "mildly" interested. LOL

Yesterday, I took them to a local park to complete one of the activities. "Make observations of wildlife." Our park has a lake and I thought this would be the perfect place to observe wildlife. The kids immediately pick a spot on a pier to sit and look at the lake.

Their observations included:
Saw a green dragonfly
Heard crickets chirping
Saw birds flying

Then I pulled out crackers. I had intended to feed the ducks at the lake. However, a huge summer camp was in full swing and the ducks were nowhere to be found. I assume they were hiding from the running, screaming children.

I broke a cracker and threw pieces into the water. I thought maybe a bird would swoop down. Nope. Then my son began eating the crackers. And then...

FISH! Fish come up from the bottom of the lake and grab the floating crackers like they are worms! I didn't know fish would eat crackers?! The kids are excited now and both breaking and throwing pieces of crackers. The brim or crappie fish are swarming us now. So cute.

Eventually we move on and leave the park. I told the kids "You taught me something new today. Fish like crackers!"  But more than that, the kids showed me how just observing nature can be new, exciting, and fascinating.

I had forgotten what it was like to be a child and become entranced at watching a bird soaring high in the sky. Or a dragonfly's beautiful metallic color. Or a squirrel searching for nuts. Or a robin pecking the ground to grab a worm.

Nature can be mesmerizing. And this summer, I hope that we spend more time in it.