The endless quarantine has been taking its toll. What do you do to break out of the rut of the same-old, same-old? So what do you do when you’re “stuck in a moment you can’t get out of”? I totally just turned on the U2 album for extra motivation.
Without further ado, here are my tried-and-true top 5 tips to break out of the rut.
1. Have a Picnic Movie Night
Now before you tell me it’s too cold for all that, you should know I’m not an outdoor kinda girl. Picnic blanket in the living room, a nostalgic movie from my childhood to show the kids, and an easy dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches, carrot sticks, pickles, and chips. A glass of wine for the grownups and we’re all set to enjoy a movie together. Among others, we’ve watched The Wizard of Oz (best movie ever!), the animated Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews, and the first movie in The Chronicles of Narnia. Honestly, I don’t even watch the movie all the way through, between refilling plates and answering incessant questions, but we still have fun.
If you’re not in full picnic mode, I’ve been making popcorn using a silicon microwave popper. It’s less drama than stovetop popcorn and fewer ingredients than store-bought microwave popcorn. I control the amount of salt and butter I add after the popcorn is ready, and it’s easy to control how much popcorn I make. Of course, with two kids who love snacks and the tantalizing scent of fresh popcorn, I usually make a second batch.
2. Make an Easy, Fun Dessert
Or a complicated, fancy one, if you prefer, but I’m trying to offer accessible solutions here.
After discovering vegan marshmallows at Whole Foods, I made s’mores for the first time in my life. See above…I’m not really into the outdoors. Earlier this month we lit the fire pit and toasted marshmallows, then I whipped up a batch of oven s’mores that the kids enjoyed. Yesterday, I just felt like making more, so everyone enjoyed a special afternoon snack.
For her birthday, T specially requested cheesecake bites instead of a cake. While they’re an easy, no-bake dessert, they took me longer than usual to make thanks to endless interruptions. But I finally have them chilling in the fridge (just in time!), and these are extra-special since I added the last of my homemade chocolate-blackberry jam to the filling.
3. Play a Game
Every Saturday after dinner, we let the kids play video games while the adults play a few rounds of Rummikub over drinks. I’d prefer if they played Rummikub with us, but they’d rather play video games… What are you going to do? This particular game is a bit of a puzzle, so it exercises the brain in a fresh way at the end of the week. We’ve been playing most Saturdays for months now.
We have a number of board games the kids do enjoy. The surprise hit has been old-school Monopoly. We usually deal out a couple of properties to everyone at the beginning and set a reasonable 45 – 60 minute limit on gameplay so that we aren’t playing for an eternity. I do think the game might play out differently (with a different winner) if we went all the way to the bitter end, but my 5-year-old won’t sit around to play any game that long. If someone bankrupts out of the game before an hour is up, we call time and count up our assets to decide on a winner.
4. Learn a New Skill
You’ve heard me wax poetic about my love for DuoLingo before. This year I worked a little each day steadily, and I completed the equivalent of 3(!) college semesters of language learning. The gamified learning has really motivated me to stick with it, and I’m feeling more confident in my Spanish skills than ever before. I also picked up French, out of a long-wished-for desire to see the Eiffel Tower, with different results. I may have found my Waterloo. So many words sound alike! So many letters go unpronounced!
My childhood keyboard survived cross-country shipping. On those rare days when the mood strikes and my wrists don’t hurt, I try to practice playing some simple songs for a few minutes. K abandoned his efforts to learn acoustic guitar for now, but the keys of a piano are a lot more intuitive. He’s practicing on the keyboard with a larger commitment to actually learning musical theory than I am. There are some impressive YouTube piano instructors that we’ve tried out.
Drawing has been another skill that has brought me a lot of joy. Lately I’ve focused on mandalas. Between the simple shapes and the symmetry, creating a mandala has become a meditative exercise that forces me to remain in the moment. My mind always feels clearer after I’ve drawn one. They’re easy to make, too. I use a compass to draw concentric circles, then divide them into 6 – 8 even slices using a straight edge. From there, it’s easy to start filling in each small circle, slice-by-slice, before going to the next larger circle. Check out some of my drawings on Instagram!