Dr. Tanya has a question she asks each week. This week, #27, it is: What are you doing to ‘repair’ (re-vamp or update) yourself and your blog during the lockdown? 

I haven’t really done anything to change or revamp my blog. I am probably blogging more now, but some days I don’t blog at all. One thing I’m making time for is reading other people’s posts, from pingbacks on other challenges but also from the Reader. I should do a lot more of this, I know.  People will respond more to me if I am commenting on their posts also. So some days when I am not inspired to post anything, I spend my blog time reading and commenting.

Also, I want to do more writing challenges on my blog, which is why I decided to start participating in this one! I love to write, but sometimes I can’t think of anything to write about, so these prompts are helpful.

We’ve been in quarantine since mid-March, and it is going to continue at least until the end of May, maybe longer! When it first started, I wrote down some things in my journal that I could do with my extra time, which I enumerate below with modifications (although I’m retired anyway, so my schedule hasn’t drastically changed. The main thing is that our senior community no longer has any activities, which I really enjoyed.):

1. Read more. – This is happening, although not a lot more. Since the book groups at the library that I belong to have been suspended, I’ve been doing more reading of books I acquired or had around the house, and just want to read. But now the book groups have gone virtual and I participated in my first Zoom book group this morning! So now I am reading the book for the next meeting. The library is choosing books we can download on Hoopla free of charge if we have a valid library card.

2. Do artwork. – Since my art classes have been suspended, I’ve had to motivate myself to do more artwork on my own.  I’ve done several drawings, and am working on a drawing of one of my grandcats, Freddie, on a dark background using colored pencils. I’ve done a practice drawing and have seen what I need to improve. I want to give the drawing to Freddie’s “parents” – our daughter & son-in-law. My son-in-law is an excellent artist too, and I think he will appreciate it very much, if it comes out well. I also wanted to do some painting, but can’t find my paints!

Here is a drawing of a cat I did recently – it’s not Freddie, though!

This is the style of drawing I want to do of Freddie. I also have been drawing a lot of swans, because we have two pairs of swans here and one of the pairs will be having cygnets soon! I want to photograph them, and draw them as well.

Besides my computer in our extra bedroom (where our TV is also), I have a desk in the kitchen, which has been used since we moved here as a dumping ground and storage for a variety of miscellaneous items. I want to clean up that desk and make it my art desk! My art stuff is all here in the room with TV & computers, but it is becoming impractical, because I have acquired more supplies and have a lot of finished pieces. So I want to transfer all those things to that desk and have convenient places to put everything. That means finding a place for everything else that is currently being stored there!

3. Work on travel photo books. – I finished my first Shutterfly photo book about Israel and received it in the mail last week! Now that I’ve done one, I can see where I can improve and also know better how the photos look on the page, so now I am working on a couple of others of recent trips.

My Shutterfly photo book of our trip to Israel

4. Sort through and put away the things in boxes that we haven’t gotten around to going through in the eight months we’ve lived here.  – This is a project in progress. I’ve sorted the box of bathroom stuff and sorted everything into bins by category, with labels, for easy access.

Last weekend we had some warm days so we spent time in the garage going through boxes we hadn’t unpacked yet. Some stuff I threw away. Some stuff we put aside for my church’s huge rummage sale. The stuff we wanted to keep is now consolidated into one box plus one Trader Joe’s shopping bag – which is sitting in the living room! So now I have to put that stuff away.

5. Put up wall art. – I really need my husband’s help with this. I’m not good with hammering nails into the wall in the right places and putting the things up straight. I’ve been dropping a lot of hints, and he knows it and so far isn’t taking the bait!

6. Exercise as much as possible. I am being gentle with myself, because some days the weather is crappy so we don’t want to walk outside. If the weather is even halfway decent, we walk around the campus twice, which is two miles, and then go out again later if the weather is good. When we have to stay in, we have been recording the exercise classes given on our closed-circuit TV station by the fitness instructor here, and then replay them and follow along. That’s what we’ve done the last two days, but tomorrow I will go out walking again. I’m trying to be more consistent, as much as feasible during quarantine, in my exercise routines. I have to admit, though, I can’t wait until we can go back to the fitness center and the swimming pool!