This past year, also known as the corona coaster, was a wild ride to say the least. Worldwide confusion, fear, panic, and isolation sent us into a tizzy of finding ways to find normalcy in a vast canyon of unrest. I found myself journaling more just to get things out of my head and doing things I had not done in a long time like busting out the sewing machine and digging through old pictures to relive some memories. I went through the questioning phase, the consume all the news phase and then decided I couldn’t sustain that and maintain a good state of mental health.
What I noticed though is that the kids just kept bouncing back time and time again. When it all started and everything came to a screeching halt, they didn’t like it, but they adapted. They did their schoolwork remotely and worked through the technology issues that came up. Winter sports ended abruptly, and spring sports didn’t get to start. Instead of choosing to just sit around, they found basketball hoops in the neighborhood to shoot baskets, threw baseballs to each other in the front yard, found things to jump onto to improve jumping skills, found trampolines to jump on to work on flips and challenged each other with workout routines they made up.
Then summer came and they couldn’t do things like summer camps and hang out in groups at each other’s houses, so they figured out ways to still have fun and spent the entire summer outside riding bikes and running around in the woods building bridges and lean-tos and all sorts of things.
When school finally started again in a totally different format (in person a couple days a week and remote learning the rest of the days), they didn’t like that either, but they adapted once again. They figured out how to plan their week, they worked through even more technology issues and adapted yet again when quarantines started happening because of school exposure. They wore their face masks and carried their desk shields, washed their hands and sanitized all day long. Did they grumble about it, sure, but they adapted to the new rules.
Sports started up again, but they had to wear facemasks, be prepared with their own water instead of water fountains, keep distanced during practices, compete virtually, etc. They agreed because they just wanted to get out there and play and compete.
When it was announced that we were going back to school 5 days a week, they were ready and when ice storms and flooding prevented that from happening, they just rolled with the punches. They have been the most resilient of all during all the restrictions and changes in rules over the last year. I believe we have a lot to learn from how well they have adapted and bounced back after every set back.
As babies, the only way they learn to go from crawling to walking is to fall down a bunch of times until they get it right. Maybe it’s because they are closer to that time in their life than I am because they just kept going and kept trying different things. They learned what didn’t work and tried different things until they got the hang of all the changes that we kept throwing their way.
As an adult, I found myself acting more like a toddler and throwing a fit when there was a new restriction or change in rules. I would argue that it didn’t make sense or didn’t seem right in some way. I would work myself up about it and mull it over in my head for hours at a time, which always impacted my mood in a negative way. When I recognized what I was doing, I would try to take a few minutes put some happy oils in the diffuser and write it out in my journal to get it out of my head and that helped put things in a better perspective.
As we are coming to the end of this roller coaster ride, we will all get off of the ride but the only difference is, the kids rode through it with a lot less stress and trepidation than I did.
Kids are sponges and soak up the entire life experience in a way that molds and shapes their way of thinking that they will carry into adulthood. I believe they have learned a great deal about how to work within an ever-changing world dynamic at a more accelerated pace than I ever did that’s for sure.
Kids are resilient. Adults are too, we just have to work a little bit harder at it. It might seem silly to some but journaling really helped me ride this corona coaster and keep things in perspective. I delve deeper into this process in my course Corralling Life into One Notebook. If you are looking for a way to corral your stress and put it in perspective, I would encourage you to jump on the waitlist for my course and snag a discount code HERE.
Be resilient my friend… and keep your hands, arms and legs inside the ride until it comes to a complete stop. 😏
One year ago, I was planning out the last few days of summer vacation and how to get the most out of it before the kids headed back to school. Planning last minute trips to Ace Adventure lake, an overnight camping trip to FMC Sportsman’s Club so we could swim ALLLLL day, and deciding who needed new underwear, jeans, shoes, backpacks, lunch boxes, mechanical pencils because the ones they have accumulated over the years are some how not good anymore… you know all the things to start a new adventure.
This year things are a little different. Still packing in all the summer fun we can manage while staying socially distant of course… isn’t it strange how we use this term “socially distant” like it’s always been in our vocabulary? But what school supplies do we need, are we going to be schooling from home, going to the classroom or something in between, we don’t know yet. And that is unsettling. There’s all these new rules, suggestions and recommendations, I can’t hardly wrap my head around them and I know for certain our kids and teachers will be more stressed about school that ever before.
One thing that appears to be certain is wearing a mask. I don’t like wearing one, I’m not sure who does really. But there’s a few ways I’ve come up with to make wearing one a little more bearable.
- Make it fun – give it some personality! Ask a friend to liven one up for you with their Cricut machine or find some fun material to make your own (they aren’t hard I promise) or find a cute one on line – there are tons of places selling them now. And make sure you have several for each person in the household because you’re going to be washing them…. Every day ok?
- Set an example – when kids see adults doing something without complaining about it, they will generally fall in line – maybe not right away, but they will… think of a fun game to play while wearing your mask like guess the face I’m making, have a special one to wear to certain places and be sure to do something that makes you smile or laugh while wearing it.
- Make a spray to freshen up your masks and make them more enjoyable to wear – In a small empty spray bottle fill with witch hazel and add 1-2 drops of Citrus Fresh Essential Oil. Shake and spray your mask before you put it on. The smell of citrus will brighten your mood and make wearing the mask a little more bearable!
We can complain about the circumstances we are in, or we can choose to make the best of it. The only way is THROUGH! There are a lot of things we cannot control, but one thing is certain, you are 100% in control of your thoughts.
Choose joy, fun, and love over frustration, anxiety, and fear.
A mask cannot hide your joy and love.
If you like these ideas, I invite you to join my upcoming “5 Days of Gratitude” challenge in my free private Facebook group called Hearts of Gratitude. We are going to delve into all kinds of topics in that group and you will get massive value out of it, but everything starts with gratitude. Get access to the group by clicking HERE
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Welcome to the Secret Sauce Blog where I help modern moms simplify life with tools that make life easier. We have a lot of responsibilities and it can get overwhelming. Keeping the family healthy, organized, actually eat together and tread lightly in the process takes some serious #momskills!
