On our first day of Coronavirus prevention/social distancing we are waiting to hear from three of our four University students – all of whom had their semesters cancelled or suspended yesterday. There was a domino effect of public school cancellations, then each University, then sporting events and finally the closing of public facilities. I am relieved that my 2 travellers have been back in the country for a few weeks now, as the Canadian Government is hinting that borders may close.

We have been to the grocery store and it was kind of funny – the hoarding, the lineups, a little tension, but there was also humour. My husband joked with people about trading his deli ticket number (he pulled number 58 and they were calling number 6) – but honestly, people were very good natured – a nice lady gave him a lower number, and he in turn gave it to someone else – who had already been given a lower number by someone else. So while there were stories circulating of fights for toilet paper – things were fairly civil.

As for our young adults, we want them home, but we want to keep them home and I am not sure that that will work with these socially active young people. We want to keep the virus out of our house and “nest” for the next little while – but if the kids want to come and go and mingle with their friends while they are with us – that kind of defeats the idea of social distancing doesn’t it?

What can we do to keep ourselves more interesting? I wish I’d known that today was Pi(e) day. That is today is March 14 – the value of Pi being approximately 3.14 – and we celebrate by eating Pie. That’s simple, but I didn’t bake today. I do have a tonne of bananas and will be re-baking Banana Cream Pie tomorrow! That should bring them home. Here’s the Recipe link. My oldest is home with us – but wanted to go out – we coerced him into staying home – and he made us a Tiramisu – Here is the Recipe! It kept him busy and virus free though.

So what can we do while we are hiding out at home?

• There’s always more baking – I have stocked up on baking ingredients, but may gain 50 pounds if we social distance for too long.

• We could watch sports – but wait, there isn’t any! Currently we can only watch sportscasters interview each other about Coronavirus. Just a tip to sportscasters – maybe you could call an athlete or coach and ask them about their training, the team, or anything but Coronavirus.

• We could stay home and watch Netflix – but wait……. it seems that there are already 2 signins on our Netflix plan (it’s 2 of our away from home children) – I would sign them out, but I am glad they are staying in their homes watching TV!

• We have been planning and making dinners and my husband has found all kinds of new Youtube cooking channels.

• We can walk the dog, clean up the yard (the snow has just melted for now), plan the garden, go for a hike.

• We could paint the house, finish that bathroom renovation – but we are worried that all our children will suddenly arrive and we will be short a bathroom – that would not do! The bathroom stays half finished until this emergency passes.

• We could sort our hoarded toilet paper collection and organize our canned goods – Just kidding, we didn’t stockpile – we bought just enough stuff to make some dinners and bake some stuff.

• We could brew some beer, make some wine or make some preserves. We are currently working on some Sauerkraut.

• We could catch up on some paperwork (yawn) – I have started the taxes, and my children SHOULD be finishing their now ONLINE university courses – Yesterday 2 essays came my way for proofreading from my two farthest away children. I was happy to read them, but why do they always come at midnight?

• Then there is always cleaning house, sorting socks and maybe I can finally scrape off the wallpaper in the Living Room or tear up the last of the carpet in our house.

I am trying to make light in this time of stress, but I do believe these cancellations and social distancing are important. I plan to do a lot of reading during this time, and I look forward to hearing how everyone else is keeping busy. Stay safe and healthy!

What are you doing to keep busy?