Can we share ideas to make the best of the next couple of months?

[Whataloadofshit]

I was going to post on the Covid board, but it's overrun with school threads every day.

January and February can be gloomy months as it is. Cold, grey, damp. Often skint, dieting, not much going on.

With all of the Covid restrictions they're likely to be even tougher this year. We are in tier 4 so it is going to be utter shite, none of the dcs hobbies will be running again.

Has anyone got any plans/ideas/projects to get through it?

I'm hoping to have a bit of a health kick, lots of exercise and healthy food. Watch lots of films, start a new book, play more with the dc hopefully lots of games and puzzles and may set eldest a reading challenge.

When can we start sewing seeds to plant in spring?

Great thread.

We are taking it in turns to pick recipes to try out. There are 4 of us so that takes care of 4 out of 7 evening meals

I've also just invested in some fleece lined walking trousers for myself - terribly unflattering but I'm hoping they will make mid-winter trips to the park a bit more bearable. I hate being cold!

You can sew sweet peas now! Very cheap, and very hardy - unlikely to need much/ any protection.

It's also not too late to shove a few bulbs in the ground if it's not frozen over. They'll come up later than the rest but they'll be fine. I've still got some tulips I need to plant at the allotment.

Food wise, I'm going to do the Louise Parker 6 week Lean for Life plan. I lost 6kg in 6 weeks doing it but it takes a lot of determination. I sort of forgot about it in the run up to xmas and felt crap as a result of all the shit I was eating.
It's high protein, reasonably high fat and low/whole grain carb, and very healthy. No food groups get left out, and apart from the sugar withdrawal headaches for the 1st few days, I felt amazing doing it. I fitted in clothes I wore 8 years ago!

I'm planning on decluttering the house bit by bit, and making curtains for a few rooms. Had the material for years and never got round to it!!

Some good ideas here. The only thing I’d add is to keep in touch with friends and family.
Meet someone for a walk, FaceTime/zoom call people, send a card or letter or small gift to someone.

Plant spring bulbs etc., early, and have them on the kitchen window sill. Seeing the new shoots in February...uplifting.
Try to live in the present, and take each day as it comes.
Every day is a little bit longer now, and the nights a bit shorter.
And I feed the birds...a family of robins in the corner of my garden. Silly, I know, but seeing them at the bird feeder gives me hope.

I spent last January and February in a bit of a rut so watching this thread with interest in the hope of picking up some ideas! I second FutureLearn though, there's something for everyone.

I've struggled to do anything particularly life enerishing due to working through it all and caring for elderly parents, but the few things I have attempted:

Free online open University courses (have barely got started myself but worth a mention)

Duolingo - learning Latin!

Went through the BBC Food website by type of cuisine and did 'Around the World in 10 days' cooking something from a different country that we'd never tried before each day...managed to pull that off which was fun.

I did also manage to fit in a lot of writing which has fallen by the wayside in the last few months so that's my main aim for this lockdown as I'm currently on a sabbatical.

My mum has given us an amaryllis to plant. They grow very tall very quickly so she suggested dcs might like to track its progress with a ruler!

I've subscribed to the Great British bake off club, you get ingredients delivered to make a different bake each month. DD and I are looking forward to doing that together. I'm going to look for some new books and read more, and tidy the loft.

Painting the baby's room a more cheerful colour (currently generic landlord beige)

Considering adopting guinea pigs (not a reaction to the lockdown but I've always had piggles til recently and I miss them in my life)

I've ordered a scrapbook from amazon for a few pics and memories from 2020, I lost my dad in the pandemic and felt like I wanted to record the year if my little one wants to see when he's bigger

I'm going to make a photo book of 2020. Scrolling through pictures last week reminded me that we actually had some fantastic family times and it will be nice to look back on them.

I’m using up all my lotions and face masks etc from the cupboard.

Made a big list of books to read including lots off here.
Also a list of things I’ve always wanted to cook but have never tried. Did soft pretzels last week and cheese soufflé tomorrow

I think having a good book on the go and a good uplifting series to watch is really helpful. I am loving "this is us" at the mo.

@rainbowqueeen cheese soufflé (twice baked in a cream and cheese sauce is my favourite thing in the world! Please tell us how you get on!

@SnugglySnerd

Is there a nice skills you could learn with the dcs? Dd is keen to learn to sew, my sewing is pretty basic so I thought we could try making some clothes for her Barbies together.

If you have a garden you could buy a feeder and start feeding the birds and identifying them, my dcs enjoyed that during first lockdown, we had a chart and ticked off what we saw. The RSPB Big Garden birdwatch is in a few weeks.

I have decided already to make a big deal of any festival that comes along. I know there will be Burns night, Valentines Day, Chinese New Year and Shrove Tuesday in the next couple of months and I'm sure there are others. I thought I'd get the dcs to make decorations and we could have appropriate food for the occasion for a bit of a treat/change.

All these ideas are perfect for me! Thank you

My contributions
Print off photos and display them
Make scrapbooks/Photobooks of things we have done and talk about ideas for what we could do
Clean out and decorate jars for my children and make ‘wishing jars’ where they can write ideas they have for what we’ll do when weather improves and also when all this is over
Writing letters to people who’d appreciate them e.g. older relatives
Be present, play, engage and listen to my children more
Buy more board games and play them
Read more books
Find more local walks
Have themed evening dates e.g. Spanish night, cheese and wine night
Sort and tidy all cupboards instead of shoving more in!

Going to try growing some food in pots/containers.
And deleting most of my social media!

Great thread!

We'll be decorating and getting the house ready for the new baby (due very soon!). I've got a stack of books and games/puzzles for us to play, and I'm focusing on getting some creative projects finished (self employed so it's for work but also fun). Plenty of nice walks, even if the weather's a bit crap!

I want to keep up with the running Ive been doing even if the weather is crap and try to encourage teen DD to do some indoor fitness (she can choose an insta person doing it and i'll commit to doing it with her)

I'm going to leave my outside strand of lights outside (I know that is not really helpful or productive but hoping it makes me feel less gloomy)

Also bought DS a phone and I'm already concerned about his reliance on screen s so going to set up some house rules about screens to encourage the rest of us to use them less. (I feel a hypocrite asking him to spend less time on screens while I'm scrolling MN!)

And contrary to my previous point I want to get my DH business online!

All you need

Lovely thread, following for inspiration!

Love the sweet pea idea.

Lots of lovely ideas here.

I really like the idea of the photo book of 2020. In fact I've started choosing some photos.

It's really helped me today looking back through 2020 photos, and what we have managed to achieve. Certainly nothing life changing, but still managed to have some good times.

It's been an incredibly tough year.

@Ingleduh

We've introduced a family games tournament. Weekly games nights of a Saturday with a monthly scoreboard! Winner gets to pick tea and a film and treats at the end of the month. We did it for a week of lockdown and the kids loved it!

Loving this @Ingleduh

For us (our DC are 12+) it’s difficult to get them engaged in anything now, I think the 28 day yoga Challenge and teaching more cooking skills...other than that I’m at a loss 😳 I did find the first lock down really brought us all closer as a family unit so I’d like Make that to cement During this one too

@applesandpears33 ooh what are you doing for Epiphany? My DC are getting their stockings then but I'm not dressing up as that would be weird in England!

I think our next few months will consist of homeschooling, wfh, and going for nice walks at the weekend.