How to Stay Sane during Quarantine / Shelter in Place.

As a Stay at Home Mom who also Works From Home with a 5 year old, it is never easy. I tell myself every morning what needs to get done and I go to bed every night with at least one thing that still needs to be done. It’s okay. Flexibility is the key, and prioritizing is essential! Invoicing needs to be done, Laundry can wait! I will be the first to admit that I throw the iPad at my Harper girl more than I would like, just to get some work done. Now, I have my older two kids at home homeschooling online as well and that adds to the Mom workload. I am sharing with you some key factors that I feel help me stay sane in the midst of our current “Shelter in Place,” Situation.

Keeping A Schedule is very important!

• Get enough sleep (8 hours), and keep the time you wake up the same as if you needed to go into an office. Resist the urge to Netflix at midnight! It’s tempting, but save the bingeing for the weekend. Treat your weekdays normally. This will help when regular life resumes. If your sheltered at home, you can use the time you usually commute, school drop off times, etc., for working out!
• Create a schedule and stick to it! Set times for work, working out, meal prep, meal times, socializing (Facetime/Phone), School work, Device time, and Household chores.
• Set boundaries for kids and their school work, expectations for what you want done and by when. My kids are getting assignments by the week, due on Friday. It helps them to know that while that is fine for their teachers, I have expectations for when things are finished to help keep them on task.
• I also withhold all device usage (Nintendo, XBox, iPads) except for those necessary for school work completion (Computers) until all work is done for the day.
• Try to get things like workouts, work & school done before lunch. Important stuff first. Then you can concentrate on household chores and hanging out/having fun after lunch.

Get Dressed!

• Get Up and Get Ready for your day!
• I find it easiest to workout first thing in the morning. Weights, Cardio, HIIT, etc. If I spend an hour in the morning knocking it out of the way, I don’t procrastinate about doing it later. Then I shower, and get dressed!
• Get out of your PJ’s!! Put on something that you do not sleep in. Obviously you do no need put on something you’d wear into an office, but you should put on something that makes you feel fabulous. For me, it’s a great pair of jeans or shorts, create an outfit that is fun, comfortable but fun, since you can’t wear that into an office!
• Put some makeup on and have fun! Try out something daring, something that is too much for the office. Maybe a vibrant eye shadow look or a bright lipstick! Experiment like you can’t normally! Make a dent in that makeup stash. Use a foundation that you bought but didn’t really like, a concealer that is wasting space but didn’t quite cut it. Get rid of stuff, use it up.
• OR don’t put any makeup on and enjoy not wearing anything on your face for a change.

About that TV……

• Have your morning cup of coffee, catch up on the news!
• Then TURN THE TV OFF!
• Keep it off until lunch.
• Get all your work done with it OFF. You are AT HOME. There are 6 million distractions, don’t let TV be another one!
• It is tempting to sit and wallow in Cootie-Virus news. Do it early, then start your work, do not procrastinate. You can go back to the news later that day. It’s not going anywhere, you can hear it all again at 6 pm and at 10 pm. Or you can go online to your news channel of choice’s web page, it won’t change much. If you find GOOD news, send it my way!!!

Dedicate a Work / School Space

• If you have a home office, then congratulations, you have dedicated work space!! You are winning the work from home race already. Now you just need to make work space for the kids.
• My house is old. 1970’s old. There was no “work from home,” space back then. In fact, by the size of our closets, I am convinced people only had 5 outfits to wear. SO needless to say, there is not much excess space in our home. We do have breakfast room and Dining room space.
• To help “set-up,” an area for work/school space, I use a plastic bin to help contain items like pens, pencils, calculators, extra paper, crayons, post it notes, staplers, etc. This makes moving into a lunch time or dinner time mode easy. You just put everything back into the bin, set it off to the side and sanitize your space before meals.

All About Food…..

• Since we are limiting our trips to the grocery store and storing more food in the house than every before. We need to make sure that we are planning meals and utilizing what we have on hand. Meals can be as simple or complicated as need be, get as experimental or stay as simple as you need to.
• Cooking in general is NOT something that I enjoy. I DISLIKE it very much. In fact, if it were just me I’d be good with a head of lettuce, some nuts and a protein shake! I also love to juice. But I have a family. They need to eat. So I must cook as a means of their survival. This necessitates the need to meal plan just to keep myself accountable. I sit down every Sunday and plan out the meals that I will make daily. For someone who does not like to cook, having something planned leaves the guess work out of the situation when my husband and kids ask the inevitable, dreadful question: “What’s for dinner?”
• Every morning when you are preparing that cup of coffee or tea, pull out a drink container or “cup,” for each family member. My kids have HydroFlasks, and cups or glasses that they recognize as “theirs.” Put them out on the counter so they can see them. THIS will be their drink container for the day!! DO NOT allow them to grab a new glass for every sip of water they need throughout the day. This will save you from having 50 glasses to wash every day. The amount of dish washing the first three days of this “Quarantine,” drove me nuts!! Quickly solved that!!!
• Kids need to snack. They just do. Every two hours! I am serious. This is completely normal. So, put out their snacks daily. A piece of fruit, a granola bar, goldfish, fruit snacks, carrot sticks, put it all out for them. Remind yourself. You DO NOT need to eat like this!! Resist the urge to GRAZE all day long. Your kids need to, you DON’T!

Take Breaks!! Get outside!

• Get outside when you can! Take a walk around your block. Go out into the backyard. Do some yard work. Throw a ball with the kids.
• It is important that we breathe fresh air, sunlight is important for our psyche!
• Take a break when you need it. Some days it will be sooner than later.
• The kids will need to stop and stretch! Think of it like recess or PE!!

Feeling Isolated!!!???

• All this stuff is scary! It’s the first time we have ever been “Quarantined.” Entire cities, counties. Social Distancing leaves us isolated. So, call your people!! Seriously! Pick up your cell phone and call your Dad. Call your mom. Call every single one of your Aunts and Uncles. Call your Grandparents, I wish I could call mine. Call cousins, friends, neighbors. See how they are doing, ask if they are okay, see if you can facetime. Have people read books to your kids via FT! Ask elderly neighbors if there is anything they need. Ask family if there is anything that they need. Be present.

I do wish that everyone is well through this unprecedented Quarantine / Stay Home. We will get through this peeps!!

XX – Ericka