A few things...
When you’re trying to do all the right things like keeping your people and other people’s people alive -- say during a worldwide pandemic -- then maybe getting creative when you’re pretty much at home most of the time can help all the things living in your home.
Different folks have different resources available so we’ve made a list of a few things that have helped us and others to grasp this new way of living and make the best of it.
Eat breakfast for supper
Eat dinner or supper for breakfast
Make up a scavenger hunt including whatever you have available - outside/inside
Read magazines or books aloud to your cat/dog/guinea pig/snake/lizard/bird/hamster/pet rock
If you have houseplants, give them a gentle wipe-down with a damp cloth to clean dust off and allow them to “breathe” better
Draw a circle
Grab a piece of paper and take that paper on a grand adventure, folding it, drawing on it, etc
Keep a journal record of daily adventures (who knows? Maybe you can write that book you’ve been meaning to write for AGES)
Write a few letters to a few special people, letting them know how much they mean to you, and mail the letters when you feel appropriate
Write a note of encouragement or offer to help and post on a neighbor’s door or porch
Use your less-dominant hand to brush your hair or brush your pet or stir your coffee
Make a blanket tent fort from the side of your bed to the floor, make it nice and cushy in there and read or sleep or write out a list of to-dos to catch up on
Find some crayons or markers and an old coloring book and fill in the entire page, including the background
If you like to bake or cook, find a recipe that you love and change or add one ingredient for a different flavor
Help the kids make a cool fort/castle/car/boat/spaceship/circus tent out of all of those cardboard boxes and by “the kids”, I mean that includes the kid in YOU
Turn chipboard boxes (think cereal/granola bar/oatmeal/snack boxes) inside out, tape together to make little buildings for your matchbox cars -- if you have kids, carefully assisting as necessary to make windows and doors, then draw details (this stuff is all over the interwebs). If you don’t have kids - go ahead -- play with your cars like nobody’s watching.
If chocolate makes you happy, then eat it
Outside activities include enjoying the bird sounds - really LISTEN, watching insects move about, look at how the grass moves in the wind (and plan out ways to tackle those weeds), check out the different bark patterns on trees in your yard, see what flowers are blooming
Open a window and listen to the rain falling, listen to the breeze blow the leaves in the trees
There are a million things you can do. Think of this short list as something like a “journal prompt”. The slow living is a way for us to think about what matters, reassess our preparedness and willingness for living, shopping, and supporting much more locally.
We help ourselves by helping others.
We also use this time to appreciate others, even if they think and/or act differently than we do. We are all on this glorious Rock-Ship together. It’s about time to work through differences and realize that what happens to one group (plants, animals -- including people) affects all of us eventually.