What to Do

In case you’re getting cabin fever while social distancing, here are some ideas to fill the time you would have spent outside of your house!

1. Read! If you don’t have access to library ebooks, there are many places with free ebooks. Amazon has free ebooks available at times for prime members, and https://dev.gutenberg.org has thousands of books with expired copyrights.
2. Get in shape. Find a workout on YouTube or download an app with exercises.
3. Organize your closets. If you’re like me, closets get filled with all the things you don’t know what to do with at the last minute before company arrives. I always intend to clean them out, but it’s one of the last things I get to.
4. Start a Garden. Skip a trip to the grocery store or Farmers’ Market this summer, and plant your own vegetables. While you’re at it, plant some flowers to brighten up your house!
5. Learn to Crochet or Knit. There are lots of tutorials online and lots of free patterns!
6. Learn Calligraphy. Have you ever printed something off of your computer because you couldn’t get it to look the way you wanted when you wrote it by hand? Guilty. Order a kit online, use your printer less often, and make some beautiful gift tags for Christmas.
7. Organize your kitchen. This is something else that I always want to get to, but tends to be neglected.
8. Learn to cook. If you don’t ordinarily cook, you might be in panic mode—doubled with the limited grocery options at times, and you might feel hopeless. Allrecipes.com has a search feature that allows you to search for recipes with or without certain ingredients, and some recipes have videos to go along with them. If you already cook, find a recipe you’ve never made but have always wanted to try.
9. Play a board game. Some of our favorite games are Quiddler, Sequence, and Blokus. Do you have an recommendations?
10. Go for a walk. Get out an enjoy the fresh air (and sunshine while you have it!)!
11. Prepare for a garage sale. After cleaning out your closets, you will likely find you have lots of things you no longer want or need. Get them ready to sell once we’re no longer social distancing.
12. Learn a language. Get ready to make up for the conversations you missed out on and increase the number of people you can talk to by learning another language, or at least starting to learn it. DuoLingo is a great, free app with lots of different language options.
13. Catch up on laundry. Have a pajama day (or two), and get all of your clothes washed.
14. Refinish a piece of furniture. Love the look or chalk paint, but hate the price? Make some with 1 part water, 1 part Plaster of Paris, and 3 parts paint.
15. Journal. These are unprecedented times, journal them so that you can look back at lessons learned, strange things that happen, and things you want to do when you’re no longer social distancing.
16. Plan a driveway cookout. Sometimes just seeing another person, even if it’s at a distance, helps provide a little bit of normalcy. Use the nextdoor.com to communicate with neighbors and make a plan for everyone to have a cookout or picnic on their driveways.
17. Check on your friends and neighbors to see if they’re okay and if they need anything. Text/call or leave them a note with your number if you don’t have their numbers.
18. Fly a kite. Maybe watch Mary Poppins before you do it.
19. Express gratitude. As Veggie Tales says, “A thankful heart, is a happy heart.” It’s easy to get stuck on all of the negative things, but look for and keep track of the things you have to be thankful for.
20. PRAY. God is able and faithful. While there may not be much we can do, God is completely able, and nothing is too difficult for Him.