Hello everyone, I want to start off by saying that I hope you are your loved ones are safe during this difficult time. I felt called to put something positive out there, so I wanted to share 10 thing that are keeping me sane during this unprecedented time. My whole family is currently working from home, so some of these things are small, and some are bigger to keep as much normalcy as possible. Okay, let’s jump in!
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1.Broadway HD
This was one of those things I saw on Facebook right around the time everything started to close. Watch broadway musicals with your family for free! It comes with a 7 day free trial, and has a lot of options! From the 25th anniversary of Les Miserables, to a Disney broadway special, to ballet. We didn’t cancel in time so we are paying for at least one month, but it’s only $8.99 USD. When you take into consideration what you’d pay for just one musical, it’s more than worth it. I don’t know how long we will keep it for, but we are enjoying it! Check Broadway HD our here.
2. The Office (US)
What started out as Ethan and I catching the odd episode on tv then watching it when we went away for his birthday has now turned into a full on binge watch for me. I’ve seen the first few seasons a few times but have only gone all the way through the series once. It’s just a mental break for me, and it always makes me laugh. I even own the first 5 seasons in a box set! I’m currently into season 8. I would suggest find a show that will take your mind off of everything, and watch it! There’s no shame in watching it a lot.
3. The Sims 4
Oh yes, I have gotten right back in to playing the Sims! Again, I saw somewhere that The Sims 4 was on a crazy deal, and it’s still on! It’s $4.99 and can give you hours and hour of something to do. It takes me back! I think it was one of the first Christmases Ethan and I were together, and we gifted each other The Sims 3. So we’ve enjoyed going back to it! Turns out we didn’t need to buy it because the software is accessible, but we now have a laptop without a disk drive so we bought it! But for $5 you can’t go wrong, you can find it here.
4. Plan to Eat and Grocery Pick-Up
These are the two ways we are keeping ourselves organized when it comes to meal planning. I first heard about Plan to Eat from Blair Lamb, and bought a subscription during Black Friday. I can do a whole post showing how we use it, but Plan to Eat is amazing. You can import recipes from the internet, or manually type in recipes from your favourite cookbooks. Then you just drag and drop recipes into the meal and day you want them, and it automatically starts your shopping list! You can get really fancy with it and have specific items for specific grocery stores, but I haven’t tried that. So every week we plan out until our next grocery delivery. I use one window with plan to eat (or have it on my phone or iPad), and add things to our grocery cart and cross them off. Plan to Eat also has a “Cook” tab where you can break down a recipe by step and cook it straight from there! So no hopping back and forth from Pinterest anymore. Click here to get your 30 day free trial.
Because my sister is at risk for COVID-19, we are doing everything we can to avoid going out. So grocery pick-up has been our best friend. It’s taken a bit of getting used to especially as slots fill up because everyone else is doing the same thing. But I’m so happy it’s a thing right now. If I can avoid going into a grocery store right now, I 100% will.
5. Disney Color Brain
I saw this game in a TimTracker vlog, and thought it looked so fun! It’s for up to 4 players, and everyone is given the same number of cards, each with a colour on it. Then there are question cards that are played, relating to the colour of a Disney character from a specific movie. You play the colour card you think it right, and get a point if you are correct. First person to 10 points wins! It’s a quick game, but surprisingly hard! It might make you want to watch Disney movies to study up :). But it’s something my whole family has enjoyed playing. There’s also a regular version if the Disney one isn’t up your alley! Check it out here.
6. Reading
I talked a bit about this in my most recent newsletter (sign up here if you want in!), but I couldn’t read for the first few weeks of all of this. I couldn’t focus enough, and it was hard for me because I’m normally always reading something! But I’ve now read almost 3 books, and it’s really helped to keep my mind busy! If you ever want to know what I’m reading, follow me on Goodreads or on Instagram (I have a highlight talking all about my 2020 books). I recently read Julie Andrews’ second book about her life in Hollywood, and I really enjoyed it!
It made me think of something anyone could do while we are all stuck inside! Read the book about an actor/actress you admire, then watch a bunch of their movies!
7. Exercise
I’ve been experiencing lower back pain in the last few weeks, so I have totally let that be an excuse to not workout. The program I had been doing (LIIFT 4 from Beachbody) was around 40 minutes 4 days a week. That felt overwhelming at the time. So I decided to try the 21 Day Fix again, which is 7 days a week but only 30 minutes. It felt like a baby step to get back into it, but I’m almost done it and I’m ready to go back to LIIFT 4.
Sidenote: I did the 21 Day Fix many, many times before my wedding, and last year they came out with a Real Time version that means it 21 different videos instead of 7 videos you play 3 times over. The real time version also gets harder each week. In my opinion, stick with the original, The advancements just seem stupid (like you are doing more work to be more of a total body workout, but like focus on one area)! Especially with the back pain I’ve been experiencing, it’s a lot of extra twisting for no reason.
8. Baking
Nothing relaxes me like finding new recipes and baking! I’ve tried not to bake too many things because then I’ll just eat everything, but so far I’ve been making pizza dough every week. I’ve also made some banana bread and bagels! Have you been baking up a storm?
9. Setting small goals
I felt very overwhelmed at the beginning of all of this, and so one thing that made me feel a little better was putting less on my list. Being able to accomplish all 3 tasks instead of 5 made me feel that much better, Some days I’m still a little ambitious, but I feel like I can actually get things done so I’m adding a little more to my list now. Baby steps!
10. having something to look forward to
The last thing is probably one of the biggest. This has changed a lot of plans. We were supposed to be in Walt Disney World at the beginning of May. We were supposed to see Hamilton on my birthday. House hunting isn’t even really a thing right now. And that all SUCKS! But one thing it hasn’t stopped me from doing is dreaming. Thinking of where we’ll go and what we will do when this is all over. And maybe there’s something happening in the next few weeks, something to focus on and prepare for. Let’s just say I think May is going to be a better month! So don’t stop dreaming! And find something to look forward to!
If you liked to see some of the things that have been keeping me sane right now, check out the video below!
What are you doing to stay sane right now? Let me know in the comments!
Thank you so much for joining me today!
