So lets talk Quarantine! What cha doin? I am eating. I am stress baking. I am reading and podcast listening, and practicing, and missing our routine oh so much. You know when the power goes out and suddenly you can't function? Doesn't matter if its the middle of the day, everything just stops? That is how this quarantine has felt to me. I can't work out, we can't work, or make a schedule or function...we just have to sit and watch movies and eat Little Debbie cosmic brownies. In my head I think of all the things I could be doing and working on. How productive I could be. However when you have a four year old who is use to all day pre-school and dance and friends and the climbing gym, and a seven month year old who must be touching you at all times you really can't. Things like reading a book in the hammock, working on the next great American Novel, reorganizing your entire kitchen, panicking over every cough and sore throat, or working on your summer body just don't have space in the day when the tiny humans claim all your time and energy. By the way summer 2020..it's not happening. You will take and love whatever body I give you and you better not give me any grief when I have to find a bathing suit! I am not going to give up stress eating. Not gonna happen.
My little sister is spending her quarantine at my parents house. She makes good choices. She is served tea by my mother, diet beverages by my father, and spends her day working on her photography, writing letters, journaling, taking walks alone, and watching movies that do not have animated singing characters in them. The rest of the sisters who are all trying to come up with activities to do with the kids and making 8000 meals and snacks a day call each other after we talk to Delaney for moral support. Boy do I need those calls! Thank you for FACETIME and MARCO POLO!
What activities are you doing with your littles? Our cute little neighbor made gemma a card and put it in our mailbox...ever since then Gemma wakes up in the morning and wants to make cards for her friends, her babysitter (I miss you A...I miss you so much), her cousins, my friends, the mailman.....we are now out of paper and art supplies. Send help. This activity eats up a lot of time and is definitely one of our favorites. Her Angel pre-school teacher made daily packets for her to do. There are handwriting sheets, math pages, counting pages letter worksheets and an art project. Like I said...ANGEL! Pre-school teachers go straight to heaven...she genuinely love Gemma and loves teaching the tiny humans. She finds joy in it. I love people who find their passion and calling and just excel at it. Gemma has been so lucky to have two angel teachers. She asks to see her teacher everyday and requests we send her videos everyday.
GG is my very busy girlie. She is very into pirates right now and makes treasure maps. Yesterday she asked if Pirates live in this world. Thinking of my dear Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips I said yes. She then told me "ok great mom we need to take these treasure maps to the pirates so they can find their treasure!" She asks me a million questions about pirates everyday and I'm gonna be real honest...my pirate knowledge starts with Johnny Depp and ends with a Simulated Somali Pirate Attack during a MUN conference in New York. On a scale of 1-10 how scared would she be of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean? I am happy to commit to any phase she is interested in that isn't princess related. So Ahoy from the Campbell Clan! The rum is definitely gone.
A few weeks ago Utah had a series of earthquakes. The first big one was around 7:30 in the morning. I thought Joe was shaking me awake...which wouldn't be too unusual as he has been having nightmares about our ghost magdala every night. Nope! Not my scared sound asleep husband but a freaking earthquake. Our whole house shook. The rest of the day we felt aftershocks. I panic packed the car with food water clothes blankets a violin and a dog or two half of the toys we own, and filled up all the bathtubs with water (is that a thing?). It was super fun sheepishly unpacking it all three days later when I had calmed the crap down! I think the world needs to pick one thing: COVID or natural disasters. I just want to yell into the heavens: OK WE GET IT! STOP POLLUTING THE EARTH LOVE ONE ANOTHER SAY YOUR PRAYERS DO THE RIGHT THING! I HEAR YOU! MAKE IT STOP! As if the Utah people weren't panic shopping already. Now it is impossible to find eggs, formula, toilet paper, or brownie mix.
We are heading into week three of Lock down and I think I am making great strides in my attitude. I wake up every morning and say my prayers. I haven't done this consistently since college. I choose one song to listen to every morning, make and eat breakfast (another thing I never do) and then Gemma and I write down a list of activities we want to do that day. It is helpful to make a routine. we feel the peace and calm a little bit more. Don't get me wrong, I still have my moments of panic and fear, I still have a box of thin mints to binge eat in my closet, and I still have nights when I just get into bed and cry...but it is getting better.
I look at my sweet seven month old baby boy who smiles at me and kisses me with a gusto no one has ever kissed me with before and think wow the world is so lucky to have you, The world needs you and your loving kind happy spirit. That little boy makes me so happy and brings our whole house joy. When I see my busy smart Gemma working on her daily cards I am overcome with her goodness and her need to do. She will not sit on the couch and wallow with me and eat...she needs to do. I LOVE this about her. It is exhausting as all get out and I am considering building a climbing wall in my house complete with a harness...but Gemma will never sit still and let life pass her by. She will always be someone doing something about whatever problem she is faced with. The world needs her to. I see my sister n law going to work as a nurse everyday in California while my brother is deployed. She is brave and funny and tells it like it is. My best friends M and L are also nurses and lab techs risking their health for humanity. They get up and go and do. I am sure you all saw the USNS Comfort Medical Ship sail into New York this week. My forever friend L worked as a nurse on that ship...I know the good those nurses and doctors and soldiers do. I have seen my mom and her friends sew and create for others, my sisters buy groceries and run errands for other people, and musicians and artists entertain and delight for free. My colleagues at school were busy during spring break putting together school work, treats, books, zoom meetings, and virtual field trips for their kids. Teachers amaze me. Gemma's ballet teacher has turned her entire studio virtual so that her dancers can have one part of their routine remain the same. I am in awe of the good and the beautiful. The world is full of helpers. If people are reusing a mask to save lives, and sewing and creating and giving...then I can make my home peaceful and stop wallowing and find the silver lining in this.
It is easy to feel bogged down in the news and the bad...the goal is to switch focus and find the hope and the beautiful. Some days are easier than others. That is ok! Those thin mints will be there waiting for the days you just need to break down...but then get up and go make your 600th snack of the day and dance it out with your kids. That is what I intend to do. Maybe I will even try a sit up or two, stop sleeping in, learn a new song on the cello, read another book to gg, snuggle Hanx, help Joe with a project, and go to sleep feeling the peace and knowing I did all I could do.
xoxo
co
Because I work better when I write things down here is my list of activities in case you need an idea!
Write happy messages and doodles with chalk outside
Go for a drive and blast familiar music
Try a new recipe
paint everyone's nails
Clean one closet at a time
sit down and play barbies with your daughter
start a journal
play hopscotch
binge the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text
Learn a new song on the piano
organize a neighborhood teddy bear hunt or easter egg hunt
get out your old tap shoes and learn a tap dance on youtube
start a big house project.
study a talk or scriptures
find a trail you haven't hiked before and go
learn to draw something
work on your handwriting
take pictures of your kids
yoga
try some positive affirmations
call your mom
write on your freaking blog that you love but never write on anymore
find some horses to feed
rescue a dog
Eat something you never let yourself eat
make a schedule
color
pet your dog
take a long bath
