It has been 36 days since I started social distancing. Admittedly, I did have one social outing 7 days after this began (a friends b-day dinner, in her house with 10 adults and 5 kids), but no one started social distancing until about 2 weeks after I did. Additionally, I was still going into the office 3 times a week until about 24 days ago, so is this really day 24? It doesn’t really matter to me, the point is, I am beginning to think about what can I gain from this experience and what do I hope society gains from this experience? So, much of the focus has been around what we are losing. I can tell you, I am purposely not looking at my retirement accounts. I believe what I can gain and what society can gain deserve separate posts. I am going to start with some things I can gain from this time in terms of goals, understanding, etc.
- I hope I am able to use up some of the random food products that I have collected in my cupboard as we are forced to stay inside way more than usual. This was a goal when I began the pantry challenge piece of this and continues to be a goal now that we have replenished some of our missed items. I have a goal to not buy food until June 1st so hopefully this will force this.
- I hope to lose weight and become more fit. When we began social distancing, I lost 3lbs right away from cooking healthy foods and rationing. When we replenished our food supply, I allowed my husband to chime in on my Instacart order and we ended up with many things that I find it hard to stay away from when they are in the house and I have gained a bit of that back. As we run out of the chips and chocolate, etc, I am sure we will be eating more of the less convenient items. I have also began using my workout class app that I paid for back when I was on maternity leave. It feels good to get a proper workout in again. Lastly, we have been taking walks and as the weather gets even nicer and I improve my pelvic floor strength, I would like to start running again. I have a used BOB stroller for G, so we are all set.
- I hope to paint all of the walls I can possibly paint with the paint we have already purchased from Home Depot for our walls. I started painting on maternity leave and haven’t had the motivation or time to paint again.
- I hope to realize what I really want out of life through meditation and self reflection. We definitely have a lot of extra time to all do that these days. I know I love sustainable products, minimalist lifestyle, organization, financial planning, nature, and self-reliance, but I am not sure how those things fit into something I can spend more time doing or could even do full-time. I have a financial and security pull to stay where I am work-wise. I don’t love what I do, but it isn’t the worst thing and I get a ton of flexibility and make way more than I would doing the same thing anywhere else.
- I am already, but plan to do more of enjoying my time with my son. It is very cool to get another maternity leave with him, even if I am still working while I spend time with him.
- I plan to learn more about my house plants, re-plant them, and try to spend more time loving them. I don’t love taking care of plants, but I know there is something I am missing. I know there is joy in caring for other things, but I just haven’t found that love in my plants, but if I ever plan to grow a big enough garden to supply all of our veggies, I will need to get a better handle on this.
- I plan to find more ways to reduce our carbon footprint and put them into action. I recently made a new purchase from The Collective Des Moines, a zero waste product store. Those purchases, plus some other ideas I have will help out a lot.
- I want to design my dream home. Obviously this isn’t something we plan to do soon and maybe won’t ever do, but it sounds fun. I would like to build something that is beautiful, functional, and eco-friendly some day. This will be a fun project and maybe something I can do as motivation in-between doing things I don’t really want to do at all.
To be continued…
Suburban Sprout 