GTKY: How have you been keeping busy during COVID?

law_and_little1 · January 2021

Hey guys, thought I'd start a Getting To Know You topic! I'm sure the restrictions are quite different based on where we all live, but what are / were your favorite things to do when everything else was shut down?

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I'm in Chicago and restrictions are still pretty high here. Here's what I keep busy with at home, when I'm not taking care of my 16 month old:

1) I've gotten back into reading a few books a month and just started The Nightingale. Eager for other book recommendations!
2) I'm also re watching Grey's Anatomy from start to finish. Currently in season 9.
3) And I'm a big journaler too! Love writing and filling notebooks.

What about you?

williams-jen · January 2021

I live in the country, 20 minutes away from even the nearest grocery store. We’re on a lake, so we do a lot more boating than we used to and we no longer go out to eat. Other than that, everything is the same!

krash_ · January 2021

We have been playing outside a lot more, even in our MN winter. I just keep repeating the mantra “there’s no such thing as bad weather” as I wrangle the toddler into 4 layers of bulky clothing and try to get his dang thumb into the thumb hole of his mitten. Once we get outside we usually have fun and aren’t too cold so it’s worth it.

We have also been doing a lot of baking and cooking. For myself, I have been working out at home, reading and organizing and purging my house.

justyouraveragemama · January 2021

For us we haven’t made any changes really. We live in a small town so to do anything “fun” or special maybe besides bowling we have to drive at least 20-30 minutes.

we’ll have game night with our friends a couple nights a month, we’ll hang out with my brother or sister, now that the ice is thick we go ice fishing. But yeah other than that life as usual at home!

optimisticoctopus · January 2021

DH and I have been watching A LOT of tv and movies haha, but that seems like such a boring answer. We also try to make “fun” dinners (aka fancy and/or time consuming) on the weekends and bake. Back in the spring we played a lot of rummy and bananagrams, which I was just telling him I want to get back to.

agea · January 2021

Between WFH and two busy toddlers we don’t have a ton of leisure time so that much is the same. We moved to the burbs for more space, being pent up in a city apartment became too much. Now that it’s cold we’re really happy to have more indoor space. We try to take walks, go to the park, and are also watching more tv than we used to. Our weekends are filled with general home upkeep, hanging with the kiddos, super basic.

cheers28 · January 2021

@agea - I hear you about the city apartment. I still live in the city but we moved a little farther out (literally like 5 blocks but it made a difference) this summer so we could bump up the size of our apartment, especially with DH working from home since March.

Before winter hit, we were definitely spending way more time outside, usually taking a long walk every day after work. We haven't really done anything outside since the beginning of Dec though. Definitely binge watching shows. Reading a bit more. And I have been reorganizing our apartment bit by bit and clearing out things we don't need anymore or just haven't used in a long time.

emeraldcity1214 · January 2021

We do a lot of outdoor stuff with friends. We have a nature study, sledding, exploring different areas. I still go to my MOPS group every month. We also attend church every week. The only thing that’s changed is that we don’t go to the indoor museums and I order groceries more often than shopping inside. That’s more to do with all the chemicals being sprayed everywhere.

Aerialmrs · January 2021

I live in a southeastern US state that is in really bad shape with COVID transmission and full hospitals, but we don't technically have a lot of restrictions even though WE REALLY REALLY SHOULD

I don't have a lot of free time between working full time from home (mixture of WFH and in-person) and covid-homeschooling my kindergartener. When I do have free time, I like to play the Sims 4 and watch Bridgerton. We're also long-term renovating our house, and we're finally to the point that some areas in the house are starting to get finished, so I end up spending time on "finishing details" when I have the energy for it.

vampirina · January 2021

I'm also in MN so it's cold here. We've been trying to get out more, but my 2yo hates the cold so its usually a wash. I've been baking/cooking and exercising more. We've been doing a ton of crafts with the kids. Sadly We've also been watching waaaay too much TV too. 🙈

Centralmnmom · January 2021

Honestly our life hasn't changed much. My 4 year old still goes to daycare and I worked from home before this craziness started and DH can't work from home as he delivers propane. We bought a trampoline for the backyard and just hung out with family trying to keep our circle small.

mouseymotherpucker · January 2021

We were baking a lot in the beginning, but not as much over the past few months. I was using it as math/science class for our “suddenly learning at home” 2nd grader. Now that school has more structure since it’s less “sudden” we don’t really have the time on weekday mornings like we did before.
There’s been a lot of running too, which is normal for dh and me, but our small person started doing a 10week 5K challenge with us as well, which was awesome. After a while he created a goal for himself to run at least one 5K each week for 52 weeks in a row, so I took that challenge up with him. We’re currently 39 weeks into the challenge and I am super proud of this kiddo!
Now that it’s finally cold out we’ve mostly been hanging out around fire pits with hockey families from the current kiddo’s team while all of the children skate around their outdoor rinks. We had one of those days yesterday and I had to quickly come up with an excuse as to why I wasn’t in the mood for the fireball shots being passed around. I have a feeling these gatherings might be disappearing for me for a bit since I may run out of excuses before we’re ready to tell people lol

nasalot188 · January 2021

I'm in Canada, Hamilton area. We are in our second lockdown right now so things are tough. I'm wfh and one son is remote learning kindergarten until the schools reopen and the other is in daycare thankfully. It's rough though to get any work done during the day. I find myself catching up when the kids go to sleep so just no downtime.

We spend as much time outdoors as we can, lots of hikes and tobogganing when we have snow. I just finished Bridgerton it was great! And my guilty pleasure right now is love island

sleepydaze · January 2021

I'm in the West Coast of Canada so summer was amazing for being outside, but once November hit there's been lot of grey, cold, wet and miserable days. But I still make the littles go outside every morning, haha. We discovered no one seems to use a bike park in the cold months and it's great for the littles to run around, so we've done that a lot, as well as meeting with park friends (distancing) to dig up gravel fields. When DH is home we try to go to the beach, a forest, or find a neat place to walk.
I used to take the kids to storytime before covid, so now we do an at-home preschool program which has been keeping us busy.
Just recently I've been getting a tiny bit of time to myself and have resorted to being the avid reader I once was. I've also been hosting zoom games nights with my cousins. DH and I usually watch some comedy shows before bed, ex Schitt's Creek, Brooklyn 99.

muggsd · January 2021

We moved in 2019 from the GTA (Ontario) to northwestern Ontario - ended up being perfect timing before covid hit! So our numbers have stayed relatively low through the summer and we were able to see family/friends outside quite a bit. We got a puppy in September so since then we’ve been doing a lot of walking & hiking (she’s a golden lab - needs lots of exercise!). That’s basically my plan for the rest of the winter, taking the kiddos when it’s not too cold out.

emeraldcity1214 · January 2021

@muggsd My puppy has a ton of energy too but he will literally get lost in the snow. 😂 Plus he is white so once he sinks in it no one can see him. I’m hoping to get him outside with our friends more in March when the temps start staying in the 30 and hopefully 40’s since we are having such a mild winter.

lmcw · January 2021

We're just outside of Toronto so we have pretty high restrictions, but it's unfortunately not having as much of an effect on our numbers as it did in the spring. And it sounds like more restrictions are being announced tomorrow...

Sadly this means that basically any in-person mom and toddler programs are cancelled so we're finding a lot more to do at home. My son likes to help with laundry and thankfully he will just play wherever I am if I'm cooking or trying to get something done. We go on a lot of walks and we would play at the park and in the backyard if he would deign to walk on the snow...so that's my project for this winter I guess. I want to find some online/Zoom programs though, he was still on 2 naps through last winter and spring so the timing never worked out and I haven't looked into options again.

I do a lot of cooking and baking, I did a couple of puzzles in the first wave and am thinking I should order a new one since round two isn't going to let up anytime soon. We also watched WAY too much netflix (it feels like Tiger King was years ago, just started Bridgerton) and I either read or work on something around the house during my son's naptime; I'm on a purging and organizing streak right now, but pregnancy fatigue is making me just want to nap while he's sleeping! Our church has also been doing a lot of at home recordings that get put together for our online services, so that's been a pretty consistent way to fill some time.

@law_and_little1 I rewatched all of Grey's too! I figured I had the time lol
What do you like to read? I started keeping a list of the books I read each year so I may be able to offer suggestions. How are you liking The Nightingale so far?

whatabout2ndbreakfast · January 2021

We live in PA and have been pretty restrictive with going places. I try to get outside everyday with the kids. We aim for the 1000 hours outside but definitely aren’t anywhere near that yet. We started doing curbside pickup with the library so reading a ton!

@law_and_little1 love Kristin Hannah, I’ve read a lot of her books. I just finished The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes and liked that. I’ve been reading Chris Boulijian books too (those are kinda graphic sometimes though in describing when bad things happen - if you have HBO he wrote the book The Flight Attendant) for something different. A friend recommended the Alice Network by Kate Quinn so that’s up next.

Otherwise I like cooking and baking, we’ve been doing a lot of that. Watching TV, finished Bridgerton in a week and now catching up on the first season of A Discovery of Witches (also a good series to read!)

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