Cleaning, Purging and Quarantine Life

Since the closing of  the beauty shop, in a local nursing home, that my daughter works in almost a month ago my life has certainly been different. I had my grand doll 4 days a week for 9 hours or more a day and our days consisted of preschool, at home, and playing. Being an only child, she does not like to play alone and I was usually the 'friend' she needed daily. These days she is with mom most of the day, although I thankfully still see her as they live very close to us. The time apart has given me some time to work on cleaning the clutter that had accumulated due to all of our crafts, preschool activities, and just daily life. It has also given me time to purge some of my business supplies and closets and I have done just that. 

I am sure that our trash man feels overwhelmed with the full dumpster that he has had the past couple of weeks. ( Not all of it has been ours- I didn't have that much.) I have managed to probably fill it completely once in 2 weeks and probably added at least a quarter of the second load. I was not aware that we had so many small toys and papers along with so many craft things that we had used most of and there really was no reason to keep what was left. I am thankful to have gotten rid of some of it and I have managed to make some progress in figuring what I truly need to do next as far as projects go. If my daughter is off a little longer, which I believe she will be, I will finally get the photo albums filled and I will write descriptions to the ones that I can. 

I have also donated many books to the local Little Library and still need to work on the grand dolls room. She has a 3 shelf bookcase that is completely full! In her short life time, we have read over 200 books. She enjoys reading and I am so thankful that she does. Now that I am learning more about Montessori schools, I am thinking that we may homeschool kindergarten next year in order to work on things in a more Montessori school way. I truly believe that it is the exact type of schooling that she will do well with. She likes to be busy and she likes to learn while doing. 

I have also worked on some sewing skills while being quarantined and I have rediscovered my love of reading mysteries and other books. It is so different to be able to read an entire chapter without having to play Barbie's or some other toy/game while trying to read one page. Adult books are so much better than reading a farm animal book for the 25th time. I love farm animals, but there are only so many times that my brain needs to know that a cow says Moo. Thankfully, she also enjoys dinosaurs, and her Bible story book. It does at least give us a large variety of books. 

I cook three meals a day most days and so that has not been a huge change like it has to several people. It has been nice to have a little more time to cook though and put a little more effort into planning the meals. We have tried a few new recipes, but most we have not really liked. I have not done much baking as my husband is diabetic and truly does not need the sugar or the carbs. It seems as though I have substituted ice cream for the normal dessert as I usually have a bowl every evening while watching something on television or reading. 

I hope you have all found a way to keep occupied and keep the anxiety at bay. The first week or two was really tough for me, but now I am enjoying the time I have. It is nice to know that my husband and I don't have to constantly be on the go. He can keep in touch with his mom by phone and it has been a nice change of pace to be home. I wish that it was warmer out so that we could enjoy more time outside and work on yard work and gardening, but that will come soon, I hope. 

God bless each of you!