Self-Care During a Pandemic

After my last post highlighting my mama's new barn kittens, I was inspired to do review of the pets I live with. They all bring such joy and peace to my life, which is so important right now. I live in one of the Florida counties with the highest percentages of positive COVID-19 cases, which has led to more household isolation for my family. We definitely need the extra comfort right now! Rubius Hagrid Wicket the wonderdog (and his boy, my son Elliot) Fluff, the sweetest snuggler of all time Xena, Warrior QUEEN And, our newest addition, Zeus. He is a rescue dog from a pretty bad living situation . He needs lots of gentle reassurance that his new family loves him and won't hurt him.

I LOVE kittehs. LOVE THEM. Being around animals, or even looking at pictures of them, makes me happy and relaxes me. I was visiting my mom when she said she had a surprise. One of the barn cats had kittens! There were two orange kittens, one all gray kitten, and one kitten that was a mix of orange and gray. So cute!! The orange and grey kitten was hiding when I was taking pictures, but that little grey kitteh hammed it up for me! I mean, seriously! I think when he/she is old enough, they will be coming home with me :)

This blog post will be a bit shorter :) I had been in a "never ending pandemic-almost done with my master's degree-I don't like how I feel" slump for a bit. I knew I needed more physical activity in my life. When I previously walked/worked-out on a regular basis, I felt better. About a week and a half ago, I started walking almost every day. Depending on the time of day (it's REAL hot in Florida) I walk between 2 to 3.5 miles each day. I can honestly say I feel better, and I'm sleeping better at night. It's been really nice, and my best friend walks with me most of the time, so we entertain and encourage each other. Thanks for reading!

When last we met, my best friend and I were headed to a campground with our 18 kids (j/k, we only have 4 between us. It just FEELS like 18 kids). Here is what our first day was like: - Check-in with park rangers. - Drive past our campsite, then turn around to go back to it. - Park and start unloading our tent - Set up the tent (I was surprised how quickly we got it set up!) Once that was all done, I headed into the nearest town to pick up dinner since we didn't have anything ready-made for the kids and ourselves. While I was way, all heck broke loose. Apparently, a tree behind our campsite decided it had enough of the world's BS and decided fall. Some other trees caught it initially, but about every 30 minutes the tree limbs would shift and the tree would get closer to our campsite. The tree's current trajectory put our tent directly in its path. A few calls to the park ranger later, he showed up to assess the situation and I returned from town just in time to see

If you are an outdoorsy type of person, you probably thought, "Oh, camping sounds awesome." If you are more like me, however, your reaction might have been more like, "Whoa, wait a minute, camping? I thought this blog was about self-care!" Just bare with me. A large part of finding new, and beneficial, self-care activities is trying new things. I was incredibly apprehensive going into our camping weekend. We (my best friend F, her son M, and my 3 sons) reserved a tent camping spot for 4 days in a Florida state park. We bought a 14-person tent (because we thought we might need the extra space) and practiced setting up and taking down the tent in the backyard. When it was time to set out for the long weekend, we loaded up our two small SUV's full of kids and (probably way too many)camping supplies and headed to the state park.

Since creating this blog, I have been more intentional about taking time for deliberate acts of self-care. Due to my recent move, and the uncertainty of future spending power for my one-income family, I have been brainstorming free and low cost self-care ideas. In the world BTDP (before the damn pandemic), I would get my nails done twice a month, and every 2-3 months I would have my hair cut and highlighted or colored. Since March, neither of those things have happened. I remembered how much better my mental health was when I was practicing those two acts of self-care, so my best friend and I did a little hair and nail DIY. The nails are Kiss glue-on (less than $10) and have been nick-named my “bad bitch nails”. Next, the hair... Not bad, not bad at all! I feel like a million bucks :)

I started small. Some of the things I enjoyed for self-care in the past, like bubble baths, taking Netflix breaks, and preparing healthy meals in advance, I was able to continue doing during the pandemic. Some others, like those which addressed my need for down-time to decompress, could not be continued. Some challenges I experienced, or continue to experience, are: - I am never alone. Like, never ever. It's like having toddlers all over again. There were no more daytime hours to myself during the school week, because there was no school week. The kids were home all day and practicing social distance with everyone outside of the home. - I do not make myself a priority. Kids first, partner second, insert dozens of other things here, then myself last. Often, I only address my basic needs and never get to self-care. I can tell others all day long that self-care isn't selfish, yet this seems to be a huge struggle for me. - Carrying the mental load is exhausting. The load h