A buddy of mine asked me the other day, “What are you doing in your household to keep things together?” He knows I have three sons, two of which have come home during this pandemic and was curious how everyone is staying busy and what we are doing to keep the sanity. The short answer is that we are keeping busy. How so? Our activities break down to three things…
1. We Work
We are all staying busy with our jobs. My wife and I continue to do our best to make money for the family and our sons (two of which are in college) continue their school work. Though the current state of things has slowed down my business, I continue to work the same number of hours each day, working on the things that I know need to be done. My wife is also busy with her job, a college class, and making meals every night. There’s no going out and grabbing food real quick any more. As you can tell, my wife and I keep ourselves just as busy as before.
Our sons continue their work with classes. Our two oldest sons are taking their classes online and our youngest son is given work by his school and my wife each day. From doing some online assignments to drawing pictures and reading, he is staying busy. Just like my wife and I are continuing our work, our boys are continuing their work.
This is important because we each still have a strong reason to get up each morning and a purpose. We have things to do and we do those things. Our days stay busy!!!
2. We Exercise
Everyone in the house is exercising. I continue to work out at least 3x a week and eat a good diet. The 5and2Guy way is strong with me, so I keep at it, trusting the process. It’s going well. My wife still goes for a run and my sons are all even working out together. My sons have started going down to the basement and lifting weights at least 3x a week. They seem very excited to spend the time together and get a good workout in.
Being healthy is incredibly important and the exercise helps us get the energy out. Sure, we could take this time and binge watch Netflix or Hulu, but instead we understand how important exercise is…so we keep at it!!!
3. We Spend Time Together
Each night we have dinner together. Some times we eat at the kitchen table, other times we eat while watching a show. We’ve been watching The Masked Singer, Survivor, and the food show Chopped. We jump between shows each night and enjoy eating and discussing them. We’ve also been having a family game night each Friday night where we play a board game for a couple hours. Games like Clue or Funglish have kept us enjoying time together.
At times, we have paired off and watched movies together as well. Between Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, there is never a shortage of something to watch. My movie watching time is generally limited to weekends as I am doing the 5and2 Guy thing during the week.
This time together is important, but we also have time to ourselves. Our boys can go off in the house and do their own thing, and come together when they want as well. Same is true for me and my wife. We are doing pretty good finding a balance here.
The Takeaway
Through these three categories of activities, we are surviving the isolation in our house. And it hasn’t been bad. If you notice, these three things cover what is important. There is time for work (something by ourselves), time for exercise (something for our health), and time with each other (for our relationships). If you find time, each day for each of these activities, the isolation will not be so bad. If you are not doing these things, you may find the isolation to be overwhelming and a bit unbearable. It could even put a strain on your relationship. But if you can plan activities, in each category, then you can easily keep things together and make your relationships stronger!!!