We’re on day 12 of quarantine here and starting to get a little bit of cabin fever. It’s especially tough with a toddler who has a bundle of energy all the time. We didn’t go out much, pre-quarantine, but I’m definitely missing our trips to the library, rec centre, gymnastics, and even the grocery store. 😛

Given the way we’re feeling, I thought it was time to sit down and list some of the things that we now have time for, since we’re inside all the time.

…reading

I’ve always made time to read because it’s one of my favourite things to do, but I find now I have even more time to do it! With my husband being home, I now find patches of time where they’re doing something else and I can curl up on the couch with my book. Granted, it doesn’t always last long, but it’s definitely a lot longer than before!

…playing with my daughter

This is probably going to make me sound like a bad mother, but before, I didn’t have much time to play with my daughter one-on-one. With all the chores and errands in the day, I rarely found time to sit down and actually play with her. These days we seem to have endless time for doctor’s checkups, getting my makeup done with her, going grocery shopping in her shopping cart, and then checking out at her cash register. It’s so much fun to see her imagination at work!

…exercise

I know lots of people are finding comfort in food these days, especially since there isn’t much to do when you’re at home, but I’ve been trying to lose weight. Carving out time to exercise was so difficult before; by the time the day was done, I was too tired to do anything. But now, because my husband is home all day, there is ample time to work out.

…watching movies

My brothers, husband and I are watching Lord of the Rings together! Well not together but at the same time. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I’ve never seen them before (they came out at the same time as Harry Potter, and of course I picked HP) and my brothers have begging me to watch them for ages. With all of us at home now, it was the perfect time! We chat while we’re watching so we can pretend we’re all together but it’s a little less annoying than me talking throughout the movie. 😛

…other hobbies

So I haven’t started this yet, but I want to get back into some of the other hobbies that I used to enjoy and used to have time for, prior to Emaan being born. I have been doing lots of arts and crafts with her lately, but I want to get back to doing them for myself. I also miss doing brush calligraphy and plan to pick that up again. This is my second blog post in one week, which is a record for these days! But I’m definitely enjoying having the time for other hobbies like blogging.

…appreciating the little things

Now that now that we are home all day, we all have time to appreciate the little things. Things like going outside for a walk, going out for dinner, seeing family and friends, going to the park, socialising, etc. seemed like little things in our pre-quarantine life. But now, we realise that they weren’t little things. These were big things. We just couldn’t see it. And I have a feeling that when life goes back to normal, we will never take these things for granted again.

What are some of the things you’re enjoying having the time for these days?

Thanks for reading,

Ikhlas