New And Fun Stay-At-Home Activities

New & Fun Stay-At-Home Activities

To help rise above the gloom of this pandemic, I added these two plans to my daily life guidelines (FYI, all eight guidelines are outlined in my first post):

1. Do something new every week.
2. Do something fun every day.

A friend asked what new, fun things I’m doing or plan to do. Here are lists of in-process and potential new, fun activities. You’re welcome to let me know which are your favorites by leaving a comment below.

New Activities Already Accomplished:

• Made borscht (a magenta-colored beet soup).
• Spent a whole Wednesday birding at Lake Houston Wilderness Park.
• Learned to sew and sewed holes in a pair of shorts, a pair of pants, and a reusable cloth grocery bag.
• Grabbed our umbrellas and went for a rain walk.
• Hosted a virtual teatime, happy hour, and dinner party.
• Pray for people by name every morning for a week.
  • I recently learned Mr. Rogers, the patron saint of kids’ TV programming, did this every day. I’m trying this, actually, this week. So far, so good!

New Activities To Try:

• Create a cartoon/comic strip—one page of frames, at least.
  • Secret dream, I’ve always wanted to do this.
• Create a rap song . . . or a rap video!
  • Another secret dream. Hey, why are you laughing at me? I might be a middle-aged white lady,  but I do have a degree in Poetry, and rap is spoken poetry. I’m not sure I could rap about the usual themes, but maybe I could rap about things I love, such as my favorite scripture, my husband’s great cooking skills, or birds?
• Learn to make music on a music-making app.
  • This could either support my rap artist dream or it could be separate.
• Learn to play an instrument.
• Take an online singing or songwriting class.
• Learn to make videos on Apple Imovie. 
  • My husband Glenn could be my subject. He could teach people about plants and birds. I could post our videos on YouTube.
• Try out new art mediums, such as collage, watercolor, or painting.
• Take an online art class.
• Cut my husband’s hair.
  • I may need to watch YouTube videos. Will I need special scissors? Not sure. One danger here is that Glenn might want to cut my hair if he lets me cut his. How can I keep him away from the scissors?
• Plant native plants in the backyard with my husband Glenn.
  • Glenn knows more about native plants than almost anyone in our region. It would be so wonderful to learn from him.

• Sing in the rain.
• Take Youtube dance lessons.
• Listen to podcasts.
  • So many people do this, but I don’t yet. I hear people rave about such-and-such podcast, but, um . . . Listening to a podcast is like listening to the radio, right? I’ve done that my whole life, no big deal. But you don’t hear people raving about radio. You hear them rave about podcasts. Why? I’d like to see what the big deal is.
• Take an online tour of a park or an art museum.
• Celebrate a holiday I’ve never celebrated. For example:
  • Draw a Bird Day -April 8–That’s today!
  • Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day -April 12
  • International Peach Cobbler Day – April 13
  • Look Up At The Sky Day – April 14
  • Mushroom Day – April 16
  • Bat Appreciation Day – April 17

New Activities Helpful During Coronavirus:

• Put an inspiring message in our front window such as, “We love our neighbors! We’ve all got this. Keep the faith!”
• Find and write a pen pal at a nursing home.
• Create hand-illustrated postcards and mail them to friends and family members.
• Help organize a birthday car parade to say happy birthday to kids who have birthdays while staying at home.
• Write a comforting poem about this pandemic and post it on Facebook.

Fun Activities To Try (I’ve done these before, and I know they are fun!)

• Make a woodblock print. 
• Draw a bird.
• Fly a kite.
• Read children’s literature.
• Bake chocolate chip cookies for Glenn, who loves them.
• Bake a cinnamon-chocolate cake and eat some for breakfast.
• Take Spanish lessons.
• String white Christmas lights in our backyard or living room—or even our bedroom (if I can persuade Glenn!).
• Write a pantoum.
• Take an online creative writing class.

I doubt whether I will accomplish all these activities, but I hope to try most of them. Are there any ideas here you love? Are there any you think I should try first? Or, any you’d like to try, as well?