Hey everyone! Wow, what a dramatic change of events since my last post, eh?

Never mind my last post, the last week has been insane and full of so much change and news. Every day has brought some new news and a lot more anxiety.

My family and I have been on quarantine since last Thursday when Ontario shut down all the schools. In that week, there was a lot of panic going around here in Canada as more and more cases of COVID 19 came to light. People had started panic buying, but to be honest, I didn’t get it. I thought they were overreacting.

It didn’t hit me till they shut down the schools in the entire province. I think that’s when I realised how serious this virus was and how much it had spread. School doesn’t just get cancelled like that. I was filled with anxiety for most of the weekend, as we visited our families one last time, and then hunkered down to stay at home.

Soon after that, the province declared a state of emergency, everything shut down, the whole country was told to quarantine, my husband, and many other people around the country, got sent home from work, and the US-Canada got shut down. This all happened last week.

To say that I’ve been feeling anxious is an understatement. With so much upheaval in our lives, I know many people have been having bouts of anxiety. My problem is that I have a very active imagination and I have read way too many dystopian novels. A lot of these novels document the end of the world or the start of a chaotic society, and pandemics wiping out huge chunks of humanity. So my mind keeps going there and reliving some of the scenes from those books, whether I want it to or not.

But before quarantine (and anxiety) started, I finished writing my current novel. It’s been exactly one week since I finished writing it and the feeling of being elated has only died down a tiny bit. I have been working on this book, on and off, for 3 years now. I got the idea shortly after my daughter was born in 2017 and I tried to write it in between some major life changes.

Last year was a bit of a stressful one, as I’ve previously mentioned, so my goal for this year was to finish the dang thing. And I did. It only took me 3 months once I hunkered down and made a schedule for myself. The last week was an intense one as I wrote both during the day, during my daughter’s nap, and at night, working late just so I could reach the end.

Writing the last paragraph happened last Saturday, exactly one week ago, as my husband was in the bathroom and my daughter had woken up from her nap. We were supposed to leave for my sister in law’s house as soon as she woke up, and I could hear her calling me from the bedroom, but I couldn’t break my stride. So I kept pounding the keys, relief flooding me as I heard my husband going to get her, and I wrote that last sentence. It was the best feeling ever.

I started writing novels when I was 10 years old and this is my 4th one that I have completed, but the feeling of reaching the end never gets old. It’s like climbing a very tall mountain, the peak of which you have been imagining and dreaming about for years, and finally reaching it. It’s exhilarating.

I definitely am not done my work with this novel though. It needs some serious editing. As usual, I tend to over-write and ended up with a grand total of 133,000 words by the time I was done. I need to be somewhere near 70,000 to 80,000. -_-

But I’ve sent it to my beta reader, the same one who helped me with Aisha, and am hoping she can help me cut this beast down. I spent the last week polishing it up a bit before sending it to her last night and am on a bit of a break before I get it back from her, probably in a few weeks.

So my first week of quarantine wasn’t too bad, since I was mostly working on editing my book, which kept me busy.

To be honest, staying home doesn’t bother me. I’m a homebody and always have been. I have always been busy at home and often have various projects that I’m working on or can work on. This time will be no different.

I already have a loose schedule and routine that I have created for myself ever since Emaan was born, so we usually have lots to do in the day, regardless. I’m not going to lie, not being able to go out is still hard. We are both missing going to the library, gymnastics, and going to the rec centre. And of course just the ability to be out and about. So it’s definitely tricky, especially with her, but I bought some new workbooks to keep her occupied. I also want to do more arts and crafts for, and other things that I often don’t end up having time for.

Everyone is discovering their inner chef it seems, going by all the delicious pictures of food being cooked up every day on Instagram and Facebook! And I’m doing the opposite. I’ve been on a quest to lose 20 pounds and had been enrolled in a boxing class that I drove to Oakville for every week. With everything shutting down, the class moved online, and the girls’ only gym that the class belongs to, started offering lots of online classes. When the mini gym in our building (which only consisted of 3 machines) closed down this past week, I was so bummed out about how to stay active. So when the gym started offering online classes, I was over the moon. I’ve done a workout every day this week and am still baffled at myself. Who am I???

So other than working out, I’m hoping to make a dent in the million unread books (according to my husband ha ha) on my bookshelf, some of which have been there for years. The libraries have shut down, which really sucks, but I have more than enough reading material for awhile.

I really want to bake more, but given the fact that I have ZERO self control when it’s in the house, I’m trying so hard to resist the urge. My husband is at home and can’t take the stuff to work, and we’re not visiting anyone either. So if I bake it, I will most likely eat ALL OF IT.

Other than reading, working out, trying to keep my daughter entertained and not baking, I’ll just be watching some Netflix and Disney+, cooking (as usual), doing some new arts and crafts, and maybe blogging some more. Who knows how long we’re stuck in this situation? It’s best we make the most of it.

What are you doing to keep busy in quarantine? Let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Ikhlas