5 Things We are Doing to Occupy Our Time During the Pandemic Lock-Down

Hi Best2Podcast family. We are continuing our lock down due to the global pandemic. Everyone is starting to get a little more comfortable with our global new normal. If you listen to our podcast, hopefully you got your toilet paper before the big rush. Sam mentioned it on our last podcast, since she experienced living without during a Cat5 hurricane post survival. Sorry, that everyone started hoarding it. Lesson learned. We have stocked our pantries and freezers with food to weather out these times. We thought we would share what we did the first week of the lock down and possibly be able to share more as time goes on.

Sam went to Home Depot before the lock down and bought a few long planters, planting soil and seeds ( mixed lettuce, arugula, broccoli, beet, chard, spinach, radish and kale). All the things I would miss fresh from the stores. I kept my self busy the first week tending to the small garden I already have and getting the new seeds planted. Living in the city doesn’t mean you can’t plant some wonderful easy to grow plants that will give you a smile and a treat as they grow. Usually planting doesn’t start until May here in California but due to circumstances I thought it best to chance a frost and get some of the seeds planted. In the hopes they will be ready about the time the refrigerator begins to run low of green stuff. Although I did stock the freezer with mostly green vege, those salads are kinda addicting.

I am happy to say, at the end of the first week, the first seeds of arugula sprouted! They did well and kept us in fresh salads for a while. I was really surprised they popped up so soon. The others were slower to sprout. I set arugula, broccoli, spinach and radish during the first week.

Tiny first signs of life. The arugula sprouting at the end of the first week.

The first week was a little challenging. After you figure out how to survive financially and realize you can’t get out and about town, the challenge set in. Food becomes a big part of the day. What are we making for breakfast? is it lunch yet? and how creative can I get with dinner? Gary and Cindy have been rocking out some amazing meals. I have to show you the eggplant Parmesan Gary threw down the other night.

Man, this looks tasty! Eggplant parmesan a la Gary

I have jumped onto the internet searching for sites that can give me recipe ideas based on the ingredients I have on hand. Here are a few (no affilliate links, not paid) https://www.supercook.com/#/recipes

https://fridgetotable.com/

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipes/17567/ingredients/

Turns out there are quite a few. Hopefully, these will keep you inspired. As meals serve to bring a sense of normalcy.

Try learning something new, to occupy your time. Coursera has wonderful courses on just about anything. Here is a helpful hint: On Coursera when you click on the course you want to take scroll all the way until you find the very small “audit this course” button. Click it and viola! You are in for free! You can choose to pay at the end to get your certificate, if you make it through the course and complete it. Some of the courses now hide the quizzes and problem sets until you pay. But you may choose to just learn the material and not go for the certification. Hope this helps!

Outside is quiet, as if the world has all learned to collectively slow down and appreciate friends and family. Amazing how much havoc a small unseen virus can bring globally. Thankfully, it has brought the world a little bit closer as we all realize we are one people and it took a marauding single organism to so graphically show us that tribal stupidity is just that. Tribal Stupidity. We are One.

So, here are our top 5 things we have done:

Cooking, Eating, Growing, Sharing (with you!) and learning to appreciate. Tell us your top 5 in the comments or on Twitter.