Health

Life is a little different right now. How different depends on how busy and social your life was before the quarantine and how much you are staying home during the quarantine.

For us, our family life is very different now. Instead of baseball games, track meets, school plays and getting ready for graduation, we are staying home and doing school online.

My husband is a healthcare worker, so instead of taking off for Spring Break, all of his leave got cancelled.

As for me, I prefer to be home so I don’t mind too much.

But we don’t want to just survive this quarantine, we want to thrive.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the coronavirus scare and what I had learned so far. You can read that post here —> 7 Things I Learned from the Coronavirus Scare.

Even then, I didn’t know how much the world would change in just a couple of weeks. How businesses and schools would shut down so that people could stay home and minimize the spread.

But we don’t just want to hide in our homes and be scared all of the time.

We want to realize our blessings during this time and make the most of it.

After all, this is a unique time in history. One of those times people will look back on and say “I remember when. . .” or “Grandpa, tell us about when the whole world was under quarantine. . .”

Hopefully this will only happen once every hundred years and we just happen to be here, experiencing it now.

Today, I want to share with you the things our family is doing to thrive during this hard time. That way we can look back and say we did our best to make it thru the best we could.

9 Tips to Thrive On Your Homestead During Quarantine

1. Staying home

Here in Colorado, we are under a Stay At Home Order from the governor. That means unless you are a essential worker, you don’t go to work. You can go to the grocery store, take your dog for a walk and that’s about it.

I am actually glad that he made the order, because it has made it easier for my teenagers to take the quarantine seriously. They were not happy about being away from their friends for weeks at a time. That has been rough.

But I am enjoying the time at home, since we moved a couple of weeks ago. I’ve had time to get things arranged and out of boxes to make this place feel more like home.

If you are in the US, please stay home as much as possible. I know it’s a pain and can sometimes feel like our freedom has been taken away. I know it can be a hardship on family finances and social relationships.

But let’s nip this thing in the bud before it gets worse so that we can enjoy our summer (hopefully) and get on with our lives sooner.

2. Spending more time together as a family

One good thing about this quarantine is that our lives have slowed down.

Having 3 kids in high school, I hardly ever saw them, especially during the week. My two older kids drive and have activities before and after school and jobs on the weekends.

And while I’m really sad they are missing out on these activities (especially my senior), it’s nice to spend more time with them.

They are still working (as of now), but they are home most of the time. We can watch movies, eat meals together and have scripture study at night. It has been a blessing (even if they don’t see it as one right now).

3. Eating fresh food

When the coronavirus scare started here, people went crazy and bought everything at the store.

Shelves were empty of toilet paper, eggs, bread, baking supplies and so much more. It was very strange.

But now that we are on a stay at home order, people aren’t at the store that much.

I went for my weekly shopping trip on Monday morning and the shelves were almost back to normal. It felt good.

So we are eating as much fresh food as we can. And as long as we are able (we aren’t sick and the grocery stores are open) we will continue to shop as usual and eat from the grocery store.

4. Not eating our food storage

Like I said above, we are shopping and eating regularly, so far. This is a blessing.

We have not started eating out of our food storage. In fact, it has been in boxes (we moved 2 weeks ago) for over a month and we haven’t unpacked it yet.

I am saving this food storage for when fresh food is not available, either because we get sick or the grocery stores close. While our food storage does contain some real food, it also contains processed food our bodies aren’t used to eating on a regular basis.

So we are holding off on eating it until we need it. Hopefully, that day will never come.

5. Going on walks each evening

I have been doing CrossFit for over a year and a half now and I really enjoy it. It’s a hard workout that I always appreciate (when it’s over!).

But with the gyms closed down and our move to town, my husband and I decided to start taking nightly walks with the dog.

30 minute walks around our neighborhood and nearby park have been great times to unwind and reconnect with each other.

As a health care worker, my husband’s job has him under high stress right now. We both enjoy this time together and as the weather starts to get warmer, it is going to be even more enjoyable.

So if you can, take some time to go on walks or runs for exercise during this quarantine. Your body and mind will appreciate it. And so will your dog!

6. Limiting media influence

It seems like everywhere you turn today, people are giving recommendations and suggestions about how to act or what to do during the coronavirus quarantine.

There are scary stories on the news about deaths rising in the US and not enough medical professionals or equipment to go around.

Whether it is Facebook, Instagram, the evening news or the newspaper, the media is everywhere. And it can get a little overwhelming if you leave it on constantly.

In our house, we are limiting our media to one 30 program of news in the evening. This world news gives us a good idea of what’s going on without being on constantly, all day.

Besides that, we are watching more uplifting (or distracting) programs on tv and finding other ways to spend our time.

If you are feeling anxious or fearful about what’s going on in the world, my first suggestion would be to reduce your media intake. It can be toxic for sure.

7. Taking vitamins

I take vitamins all year long, so for me this isn’t really a change.

But since the coronavirus scare hit, I’ve been encouraging the rest of the family to take a multivitamin as well. Hopefully that will help boost their immune system to fight whatever comes.

I wrote a blog post about taking multivitamins a couple of years ago —> Healthy Living Series #11: Take A Multivitamin Everyday.

8. Joining a CSA

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is a way for consumers to buy produce, meats, milk, etc directly from farmers.

Since we don’t know if or how farmers markets will work this year, I want to make sure our family can get food directly from our local farmers.

The CSA we have joined delivers vegetables straight to our door for 22 weeks out of the year. It averages about $30 a week, including delivery.

Joining a CSA helps me support our local farmers, get fresh produce delivered to my door and allows me to supplement my own garden harvest, which won’t be as large as gardens in the past. It’s a win, win for everyone!

9. Planning the garden

As I stated above, planning our garden is going to be a little different than it has been in the past.

We started gardening on a large city lot, about 13 years ago. We had several garden beds and learned and grew as we went.

Then we moved out to our 4 acre homestead 8 years ago and expanded our garden by quite a bit. We had raised beds and traditional garden rows. Some years were better than others, but we produced alot of food for our family.

This year, we have moved back into town and have a very small backyard. We are planning to use our water trough gardening method again, learning from last year’s mistakes.

It will be small, but that doesn’t matter. I love digging in the dirt and watching things grow. It is therapeutic, no matter what size.

Overall, we are trying to make the best out of this frustrating time in our lives. Hopefully this will pass by the end of the school year and we can enjoy our summer.

So while one week feels like a month right now, I hope you can use these tips to make the best of your time in quarantine.

I pray for your health and safety in this trying time. Good luck to you and your family. We will get thru this!

How are you trying to make the most of this quarantine? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!