What To Do In Lockdown

[coracle]

I'm sure a lot of you are, like me, in a situation where your daily life is mostly restricted to your home. After a few days the novelty wears off, so we have to be a bit creative in finding ourselves (and/or our families) things to do.

What do you recommend, of the things you have tried? And what do you NOT recommend?

[fantasia]

Here's what we've done that I can think of...
--Gone for walks. The weather is GORGEOUS.
--Gardening. Another reason to be outside.
--Read books.
--Prepared and celebrated Easter and Holy Week.
--Ironically, we're eating out more to try to support the local businesses, and they have really good setups for curbside delivery services so I don't even have to go in.

That's what we've done so far. I don't know that any of it is particularly unusual, we've just had more time for all of the above. After this upcoming week with Easter and my daughter's birthday being over, we'll have to come up with more creative and unusual projects.

[daughter of the King]

I've been enjoying various artistic groups making performances available online that I wouldn't be able to see otherwise.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals are being uploaded once a week, but each one is only available for 48 hours rather than a whole week. This weekend is the 2012 Jesus Christ Superstar.

National Theatre is also doing one play a week. This week is Jane Eyre, and next week is Treasure Island.

Shakespeare's Globe is doing one play every two weeks. Their 2018 Hamlet is currently available.

Those are all the free ones I can think of off the top of my head. And a lot of authors are reading their books aloud on various social media platforms.

[Justin of Archenland]

I've given myself the chance to stay in and enjoy a culture rampage. Books, films, music, anything that I can get my hands on to enjoy.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals are being uploaded once a week, but each one is only available for 48 hours rather than a whole week.
This weekend is the 2012 Jesus Christ Superstar.

National Theatre is also doing one play a week. This week is Jane Eyre, and next week is Treasure Island.

Shakespeare's Globe is doing one play every two weeks. Their 2018 Hamlet is currently available.

Seeing this, I've just lost the upcoming evenings to plays and musicals. My sincere thanks daughter of the king ! (not so much from my wife, I'm afraid )

Also, a couple of my friends have asked me to be a Dungeon Master for their first ever Dungeons and Dragons game. I have never played this game before, so that should be a fun little side-project!

[johobbit]

Interesting to read everyone's posts!

Ditto about being outside in these days: walking, gardening, yard work. Also when we are inside, reading. ♥ And it's great being able to be on the forum more often too.

But specifically, we are focusing daily on contacting those who may be on the fringe—those who are particularly vulnerable, especially those who live alone. At the best of times they struggle, let alone a crisis such as this. Using phone, text, email, mailing cards, we encourage them to keep on keeping on during this unusual upheaval. They encourage us too! ( Some of them have even been hospitalized due to weighty anxiety. )

Keeping closely in touch with our family is priority for us too.

As well, we are touching base even more with our missionary friends around the world, who are so far from their homes.

All of this fills our days. If we don't ensure this strange time is not filled with purpose, it would be such a discouraging drag (and it can be challenging enough as it is). But we have found that looking outward has helped so much.

[Ryadian]

Also, a couple of my friends have asked me to be a Dungeon Master for their first ever Dungeons and Dragons game. I have never played this game before, so that should be a fun little side-project!

Oooh, good luck with your first adventure! I'm very grateful that D&D is a game that can be played remotely. My usual gaming group can't meet for anything of our other usual games at the moment. We're still figuring out the technical hurdles, but at this point, it's more a matter of fine tuning than anything else.

I have been playing quite a bit of online computer games. The quarantine convinced me to try Minecraft again, a game I kind of enjoyed but never fully got into. My nephew (he's 7) has been playing the game voraciously for a while now, and his parents have a server set up so I can play with him. I really love being able to spend that kind of quality time with him! My brother and I have another game of our own set up, and I've found that I really do enjoy this game, so long as I can play it with other people.

During the first week or so of lockdown, I was pretty good about getting household projects done while on my breaks from work, and when I had finished/wasn't in the mood, doing some writing instead. I really thought that having all this extra time would lead to a lot more writing. That hasn't been working out quite as well in recent weeks, unfortunately. I think I need to find another creative outlet.

I really thought I'd get a lot more reading done, too. I used to do a lot of my reading on break work, though, so that hasn't happened as much as it really should have.

But specifically, we are focusing daily on contacting those who may be on the fringe—those who are particularly vulnerable, especially those who live alone. At the best of times they struggle, let alone a crisis such as this. Using phone, text, email, mailing cards, we encourage them to keep on keeping on during this unusual upheaval. They encourage us too! ( Some of them have even been hospitalized due to weighty anxiety. )

Jo, this is so wonderful to hear! (Well, everything before that last sentence - that is so heartbreaking. I'm grateful that you're able to be there to support them!) I live alone right now, and I thought being an introvert would make it easier, but I underestimated how much I like seeing coworkers, people at the store, etc. I've found that I really look forward to video calls with family members, texts from friends, etc. This time is making me really appreciate having a family here on NarniaWeb.

[coracle]

I have begun a bit of gardening, now that I have been home more than a week. (I was away for a couple of months, and my house sitter left it very tidy)
Today I mowed the lawns, and put out the green waste bin, which contains several plants infested with tiny white flies, euch! Out they go!
This week I've invited the friend in my lockdown group ('bubble')to come and help me plant bulbs for spring. I've got dozens of mixed bulbs for various spring flowers and of varying ages, so we'll see what turns up in spring! (it's Autumn here)
I've set up various things to do, including jigsaws (just finished one), colouring books and novels, and my next thing will be to dig out the wool and pattern for knitting this winter's jersey or cardigan.

[IloveFauns]

Hi all,

I have not been here in some time but felt that I should revisit in the current circumstances. I hope everyone is doing as well as they can be.

What have I been doing in lockdown? What I normally do (attending meetings, writing, stats, teaching classes (online), marking assignments......dealing with reviewer comments on manuscripts) except in the corner of my room (which I have turned into a mini office).

The extra time I have is really the 1) time I spent getting ready and commuting, and 2) time where it would have been socialising with friends/attending events.

I have started a paint by numbers (trust me to choose the most intricate one!). Other than that.....I can now catch up on a few tv-shows which I never got around to watching (i.e. Peaky Blinders, Mrs Maisel).

Others have mentioned video games, I have started playing the Untitled Goose Game. I know I am late to the game but I have wanted to give it ago since the hype about it last year. It is very light-hearted and fun.

[SnowAngel]

Two of siblings and I had an outing today, we went all the way to the mailbox which is down the street. It was lovely weather for a walk and I had a package that I had been looking forward to getting, it was nice to be off the property for a short time.

We already spend most of our time at home, but we're really missing our trips to the library since it's been closed and only my dad is going out. We have been playing a lot of board games, finishing some small sewing projects, and enjoying the spring weather. Yesterday we played Scrabble since it was National Scrabble Day. Today's game is Catan, the younger siblings are trying to teach mom how to play it.

I've made Saturday my weekly day for making marshmallows, but I didn't make any this past Saturday, I will have to get back to it this weekend. It's also the day I wear one of my Black Rifle Coffee Company t-shirts, just another way to mark the day of the week.

SnowAngel

[Justin of Archenland]

It's great to see that so many of you are using your time to focus on the people around/that are close to you! It's quite endearing and motivating to me

Oooh, good luck with your first adventure! I'm very grateful that D&D is a game that can be played remotely. My usual gaming group can't meet for anything of our other usual games at the moment. We're still figuring out the technical hurdles, but at this point, it's more a matter of fine tuning than anything else.

It was quite the adventure. We're halfway through the story now and, although it has been a lot of getting comfortable to the game - especially for me as a DM - it was extremely fun! Ten hours have never gone by so fast

I hope you'll be able to overcome the hurdles. Sounds like quite a loyal group, so I have no worries about you figuring it out!

[johobbit]

Just popping on to to you, IloveFauns. Great to see you here again! All the best in your teaching / meetings amid the challenges during this lockdown time.

It's great to see that so many of you are using your time to focus on the people around/that are close to you!

This gives such purpose to each day, indeed.

A few weeks ago we began having a weekly video chat with our 3 kiddos (+1 daughter-in-law), who live 8 hours, 1 hour, 12 minutes away from us. Each Sunday afternoon around 2 pm, our youngest calls us all on our family chat page. We usually go on for an hour or so. While this is not nearly as good as being together, at least we have the option of this technology, so I am extremely grateful for that. But we really, really missing being in each others' homes. We are also often in touch with them via text or phone or our family chat.

We are so thankful that each of our kids (and my husband) still have their jobs with no lack of work. All are based from home now, and have been for a few weeks now.

There are a few online events we look forward to each week:

*Friends of Nellie's and mine from Michigan (we met through the Joni family retreat camp) and Nellie of Narnia and I get together online for a worship service every Thursday afternoon. A very meaningful time.

*Ravi Zacharias' team has a 5 minute clip at noon (EDT) each weekday. Excellent stuff. Those young apologists pack more into 5 minutes than many people pack into a year.

*the Getty family hymn sing on Tuesday evenings at 7:15 Central. This runs for about 20 minutes and is filled with song. A very casual time, it is also very meaningful and fun. I love knowing that thousands of people are watching and singing around the world, as we are in our little den in our home.

*Andrew Peterson (singer-songwriter-author) reads his Wingfeather Saga every night at 7:30 Central for about a half hour. So good!

It is so unusual and cool that though Christians are no longer able to meet in their buildings, the church is still ministering and reaching out online to the world. We don't 'go to church' ... we are the church! Love that.

[fantasia]

My husband and I set up an Easter Egg scavenger hunt that involved our extended family members over Zoom. Each family member got a clue to read to our kids that they'd have to solve to find their eggs/candy/toys. It's was a lot of fun for the kids, and it was a great way for everybody else to be involved in this social distancing time of our lives.

I've seen these memes go around on FB, but I just want to say here that I'm incredibly grateful for video conferencing technology right now so we can all stay somewhat connected, even though we can't be together.

[fantasia]

I was listening to a homeschool talk the other day, and the guest speaker mentioned the app Libby, by Overdrive. I looked it up this morning and realized it's compatible with my local library. You just check out e-books and audiobooks via the app and the you can read them on your home table or phone. !!! Cool. Definitely going to have to look into this later.

I figured I'd post this here in case other people hadn't heard of it before. Most probably have already, I tend to be behind the curve on this kind of information.

[stargazer]

Stargazing...lots of stargazing.

Yeah, I do that anyway, but lately it's gone into overdrive (when weather permits). I seem to be reverting to night-owl hours, allowing me to step outside and enjoy the sky in the very wee hours (like 1 or 2 am) in addition to pre-dawn hours (around 5 am, which feature 3 planets) or the usual evening hours (where Venus rules the sky).

Something new, that I've been able to share with friends in person and online, have been the Starlink satellite "parades," in which 30 or more satellites follow each other across the sky, close together and all in a line. Very unusual! (Though likely to become more common as SpaceX continues to launch them).

[SnowAngel]

I had the Libby app for a while, but it kept crashing on the phone. I have been thinking out putting the Libby app on the tablet, but I'm not sure I really need two audiobook apps. I use the Hoopla app a lot, in April I listened to the Adventures of Philip Marlowe radio show from the 1940s and part of a couple of audiobooks. While I didn't finish either audiobook, I did listen to all four volumes of Philip Marlowe.

Ligonier has free streaming of all their teaching series videos through the end of June. Last month I enjoyed watching/listening to A Survey of Church History, Part 1 A.D. 100-600. I started Part 2, but haven't gotten very far into it.

The younger siblings have nearly played through all of our board and card games in the past 7 weeks. Last weekend we played Life On The Farm for first time in ages, it was one of my favorites as a kid and I found that it still is a favorite.

We have been wrapping gifts for Mother's Day and the upcoming birthdays and then leaving the wrapped gifts where the giftee can see them on a daily basis. My siblings placed one such gift on the top of my desk over a month ago and it's still nearly two weeks until I get to open it. Should I mention it was my idea to wrap gifts early?

SnowAngel

[The Old Maid]

Making marshmallows? Mmm ... can you make them chocolate?

Your lists are a lot more interesting than mine. Then again, many of mine are oriented toward solitude / personal development, and yours are oriented toward group activities.