Ten things to pass the time in self-isolation

It's truly a crazy world these days. I try not to dwell on it as there is NOTHING that I can do to change the situation.

There is plenty that I can do to cope with the situation but I can't change what's happening. There's nothing to be gained by worrying. That just expends energy that I can put to use somewhere else. Don't get me wrong - I'm concerned and it's in the back of my mind, but why worry about the future? We're all in this together.

The biggest thing that I ponder is how will we "awake" from this social distancing. Currently, we have a date of April 5 or thereabouts. Does that mean that we wake up the next day and go back to normal? I don't think so! It's going to take a long time to get things back to normal. So since there is so much up in the air, I prefer to check the situation once or twice a day to stay informed, but then I do my own thing.

I just heard Mayor John Tory answer the question of how he was coping in his self-isolation. He said he was engaged! That's the key - find something to do. I have a list at the end of this post with 10 things you can do while you're at home.

Gosh - I've barely looked at all the social media which is just fine by me and certainly never the news. My appointment to get my new health card was yesterday. I had canceled the appointment the day before and then yesterday it was announced that all renewals are being waived until the situation settles down. 

I'm listening to my audiobook, which I can do as I prep the stuff that I'll be blogging about. Let's just say that those new headphones have made a HUGE difference in my enjoyment of listening to the audiobooks. I put on my headphones and disappear into another world. Despite some of the reviews about The Goldfinch, I'm actually enjoying the book despite its length. I'm at 31% so it's going to last for a few days more.

I must confess that a lot of my time is being consumed by this computer project. I'm barely getting anything else done and by the end of the day, I'm so tired that I literally did NOT pull anything out of the decluttering box in the office. That's OK - I expect two more days on this project and then I can get something done in Studio B.

But it's all good because it's a learning process. But do you remember at the beginning of the month that I wanted to process the stuff on those worktables in Studio B? So they would be clear when I needed them for this weekend? HA!!!  Who am I kidding? Look at the mess.

The worktables in STudio B

If anything the mess is even larger than it was at the beginning of the month. Part of the reason is that I'm currently working on a project with a very tight deadline. I cannot defer it so everything else is getting deferred. All events at my house are canceled so I don't have to worry about clearing off the tables.

Once this project is done, then I'll be able to hit the stuff on the worktables and make big progress.

I've also been quilting every day and that takes time. Most of what I'm working on is community project quilts. For the most part, the batting for all of them needs to be joined and that also takes time. Not a lot of time, but it all adds up.

Here's the quilt that got quilted yesterday.

Community projects quilt - DONE

I was going to listen to the audiobook last night and so I decided to get myself back to Studio B while I listened. I got a couple of quilts trimmed - they are going to need binding. So I got the binding on one side of one quilt. That's a start!

The binding is sewn to the back of this quilt

The backing of this one is a fleece. It will be donated to Quilts of Valour along with the rest that I want to get completed by the end of the month so they can be delivered. I suspect that will be a porch drop off/pick up.

I have enough batting bits to do one more quilt for Quilts of Valour so I pulled one more out of the boxes of community projects quilt tops. Oh boy - I should take a picture to show you tomorrow. Why do I keep promising those pictures? Now I remember that I promised something for today and I can't remember what it was. Anyway, my "to be quilted" area is extremely neat and organized! And it's going to stay that way.

I even pulled another of my own quilts to get quilted this month. Amazing what we can do when we have NOWHERE to go. The next quilt is loaded and ready for later today. It's a small one so it won't take too long.

I just hope that everyone is making good use of your time. Yes - we all want to get out and do things, but we can't. So what's the point of complaining and whining? It's not going to happen so get used to it!

If you're super bored - here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Find an area of your house and tidy it up. Pick a dresser drawer, pick the junk drawer in the kitchen, but pick SOMETHING to declutter. 
2. Work on a UFO. We have always wanted dedicated UNINTERRUPTED time to work and now we have it. Get to work. 
3. Start a new project. Hey - we have all this "extra" time so why not treat yourself. 
4. Call someone. Everyone else is stuck at home so call someone and have a great chat. 
5. Read a book. or an audiobook so you can do something else at the same time. If you're into magazines, then read a magazine. 
6. Go for a walk. The weather has been very nice (wear a scarf and a hat if you find it too cool). 
7. Stay healthy. This is one area that I find extremely disturbing in all this mess. What advice are we getting? Wash your hands and don't touch your face. I get that. But what else can I do so that when I'm exposed to the virus that I can fight it off??? The ONLY organization that has offered this advice is from Life Time (my gym). They have provided several e-mails on how to stay healthy besides washing your hands. Eat well, SLEEP so you are rested, stay active - go for a 20-minute walk, drink lots - all good things to build our immune system. These are all things that we should be practicing every day. But if we don't prepare our bodies to be at their best when we do come in contact with the virus, then we will get it. If we do the best we can to make our bodies strong, we may be the lucky ones to repel the virus. Why are our health organizations not preparing us for the fact that most of us will get exposed to this virus, just like we get exposed to other viruses? We need to be prepared to fight it!
8. Get out one of your quilting books (technique) and learn that technique that you have always wanted to. Perhaps it's quilting. Then get out some fabric, batting, and thread and give it a whirl. Did you read my blog posts from yesterday? Pick one and practice some of what I wrote about. We won't get better if we don't try. 
9. Clean up the files or the e-mail on your computer. I'm sure that you, like me, have a ton of useless stuff on the computer that we keep saying we need to get rid of.
10. Don't panic! Our infrastructure is FINE. There is no need to stock up on items. There is no need to go crazy - we (the ENTIRE WORLD) are in this mess together. We are the lucky ones - we have a good infrastructure, we have a good health care system and we have unlimited internet. Let's be responsible. 

I'm looking forward to next week when I actually will have FREE time to do whatever I want and I'm going to pick a few of those items above and get to work!!! For the next two days, I have commitments.

Anyway, I hope you are all coping well. I'm off to get more work done today. Then I should be able to play next week. I can't wait!!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!