While You Are Safe and Sound at Home

Disclaimer: Please read this before you proceed with my post. This blog is my space to express my feelings and experiences. I’m sure you can piece together what I’m about to discuss based on the title, so if you are not ready to learn about other people’s opinion (meaning mine, you know, since you are on my blog), then I kindly ask you to close this post.

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Through these unprecedented times, it is very important to recognize that everyone handles things differently. It’s important to recognize that because that is how we can preserve mental health. Recognition of our own feelings and the feelings of others is how we are going to create our new normal.

The unknown is extremely unsettling and can bring a lot of anxiety. Adaptation is how we are going to get through these trying times. We are doing this together.

Before you go throwing unkind words (but, yes, you do have your freedom of speech) at our Governor (by the way, I live in California) or our Mayor, please recognize that they too are abiding by the orders set forth (perhaps some may not be, but we can only hope). I mean, do you really think they want to social distance from their family and friends? Do you think they want to wear a mask every time they step out of their own homes? Do you think their own family members and friends want to do the same? Again, we are all in this together trying to navigate through some seriously unprecedented times. We have to believe that our Governor and our Mayor are making decisions that are for the betterment of the population and not just for a few individuals. There will always be individuals who are more fortunate than others, that’s just how the Universe works.

We all agree, disagree, and agree to disagree on the many rules and regulations set forth since March, but can we agree on one thing? Through the uncertainty, we’ve all gained strength. Strength in numbers is the key to beating this! Strength can be defined in many different ways. It can be mentally. It can be physically. You name it. We are all strong in our own ways. You just have to recognize it. (Sorry, will end the preaching there).

Find a buddy to get you through this. Find your person or people. Of course, your significant other and those in your household are your people—but find someone outside of that circle. Trust me, it seriously helps.

So what have you been up to during the past 2 months? Maybe a bit longer for some individuals.

When I knew I was going to have the opportunity of working from home and later furlough on and off, I tried my best to create a routine. It’s not a solid routine, but don’t be so harsh on yourself.

When I had work, I’d work. When I didn’t, I’d fill the time with other things. Things from a mental list I created from Day 1 of Safer at Home. I wanted to:

1. Catch up on my Book of the Month books from 2019-2020 (will post more about this soon).
2. Make my own Sourdough bread (post TBD) ✅
3. Crochet a blanket → Sew masks (post TBD) ✅
4. Play Sims 4 to relive my high school memories. Also because this Safer at Home order has made us really want our own home (versus an apartment). Since we can’t/don’t have that option right now, I might as well live my heart out virtually in a home we will never be able to afford in our next 5 lifetimes. You can’t cheat life, but you sure can cheat in Sims! ✅
   • This goal was short lived. I played our household out as adults and we owned dogs! Then I became a senior citizen in what felt like the next day. We both grew old and I wasn’t even promoted in my job yet! Even our dogs grew old. Oh, they also kept running away too. So I stopped playing.
   • Then one afternoon I decided to see if there was a cheat code to make my Sim young again. Sure enough, there was! So I did that for our household and then I turned off the aging feature in the settings. Now we are forever young.
   • But just this week, I died of a heatstroke because I took our dog out for a jog and it was apparently too hot outside. I came back in and was walking to the bathroom and just dropped dead on the floor. I mean…c’mon!! The grim reaper came and my boyfriend pleaded for my life and I was brought back from the dead. I told my boyfriend this and we both agreed that that would be a likely death for me in reality so 🤷🏽‍♀️.

Some other things I’ve accomplished that were not on the list:

1. I made ice cream (berry chip, coconut pineapple, mint chocolate chip) and my own nut milk (walnut milk and almond milk)—all using my Instant Pot Ace Nova blender.
2. I tried new recipes: GF Lemon Sugar Cookies, GF Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chrissy Teigen’s Spicy Miso Carbonara, GF Chicken Pot Pie Soup, Paleo/GF Scallion Pancakes, Sausage Quiche, Buffalo Ranch Potato Salad, and the list goes on.
3. I baked a two tier cake and decorated it (highlight picture).
4. Reorganized some cabinets and drawers. Purged while I was at it.

The point is, celebrate even the slightest accomplishments. If you don’t normally eat or cook breakfast like me and you started to during this time. WooHoo! Bring out the champagne! If there’s one advice I can give you is that you should probably get dressed every day. Change out of the clothes you slept in—even if that means into a new set of pajamas. It seriously helps and prevents the “moping” light from turning on.

By the way, if you haven’t gathered it by now, me telling you, the general public, the internet, about all of this is my way of adapting to this mentally. Sometimes saying something aloud is the cure/medicine to most problems. This is me talking to you. This is me thanking you for making it to the end of the post (all 1,060 words of it). This is me applauding you for reading my first post on this blog that is not cardmaking related.

Celebrate the little things.

XOXO
Karmen

 

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