Both of my jobs require in-person interaction, so I’ve been benched for.... several weeks now. And I had just returned to work after a month of recovery from surgery, so it was a very strange situation overall. It made filing for unemployment more difficult for sure.
I’ve really enjoyed staying home. For a while, my sleep schedule got flipped before settling into a more reasonable time frame (2 am - 11 am ish). Now it’s beginning to cycle around again (It’s currently 5 a.m., I’ve been attempting sleep since 3). It doesn’t take much to switch my sleep around though.
So I’ve found that I am sleeping a lot more (approx 9 hours a night), going out to exercise (hike) about 2-3 times a week), eating only when I’m hungry enough to ask for food or drag myself out of bed (I prefer reading to eating, so....), and mostly avoiding stressful triggers! So I’ve really enjoyed being able to stay home and not interact with ppl.
It’s reminded me that I’ve always been an introvert masquerading as an extrovert. Even the hiking and such isn’t to see other ppl, it’s entirely because my leg needs frequent exercise or it starts aching unbearably. Grocery shopping is a once a week affair, and I’d really prefer not to go, except that I enjoy finding sales.
We’ve discovered hubby really doesn’t like going to the store without a plan for our meals (I tried to do a more common ‘just buy what’s on sale!’ Meal plan early on. He didn’t enjoy it at all). I really don’t mind either way, as I can always invent a new meal with what we’ve got. We’ve also discovered I’m partial to soups, and Childling went vegetarian a week before the quarantine started.
So now we have meat 1-2 times per week, and stick with vegetarian meals otherwise. We weren’t making meat at all until I started craving eggs really, really, voraciously. Considering eating eggs makes me super sick, it was obvious that I wasn’t getting enough protein, so we had to alter our meal choices again.
I’ve started doing exercises whenever I’m alone long enough, so I’m constantly sore, but I’m also not gaining any weight (I may have actually gone down). Childling has definitely lost weight and begun toning their body. I heartily approve! They dance almost every day, which keeps the endorphins up. I’ve been trying to send them outside for an hour every day for vitamin D, but that happens about as often as it doesn’t at this point.
Childling is also now passing all their classes, and making up work from previous semesters with hubby’s guidance, so they might actually pass 10th grade (I definitely thought that was impossible)!! They’ve really worked hard. They are also becoming much more teenager-like. They’re snarky, they complain about everything to their friends, and they whine about being bored pretty often. Otherwise they’re a good kid, and pretty decent company overall.
I’m enjoying the proof that Childling isn’t incapable of learning, they’re just not able to cope with the pressure they put on themself at school, as we’ve told the school repeatedly. Even their therapist is like “Oh, you’re way chiller than I’ve ever seen you, what in the...” I’m just pointing and going “SEE?!”
So yeah, overall for our small family, this situation is pretty good for our mental health and well-being. Hubby goes stir crazy, and Childling is turning into a playboy online, but you can’t have everything, I suppose.
My mom isn’t handling the situation nearly as well, but I think I’ll post about that some other time. Ciao!
