Just for Fun Activity Jar

More time at home means more time for exploration, and here's how I've been exploring ways to make the endless days at home with just me and my husband more fun. We get outdoors for a walk just about every day, and I've been more faithful with gardening as a part of my morning routine, but much of our free time gets absorbed into one screen or another. If we don't have a current show, book, or game that we're into, we are at a loss of where to turn other than to scroll for a new one. 

This problem is not new to quarantine days, and neither are the solutions. As a kid, I had a rainy day activities book that I worked through like a curriculum. Come to think of it, that was the book which first showed me how to make shadow boxes. I did a little pinterest browsing for inspiration, and ended up with a jar decently filled with ideas on rolled up paint chip cards. Each card has two suggestions: one that would require some planning (for a weekend activity), and one that needs little to no planning (for a week night or night in). Over the past year, we've relied heavily on the second option. 

Here are a few of the ones we've drawn lately:

•  Make pop tarts from scratch

I love pop tarts even when they are straight out of the box. Maybe it's because they remind me of my favorite section of a pie where the fruit meets the outer crust, plus the instant gratification factor. But when I do take the time to mix up and roll out a crust, fill it with jam and bake it, that is an extra special treat. It went much faster with a second pair of hands on deck - both coming and going.

•  Read & Illustrate Poetry or Lyrics

 

I suggested we do digital interpretations of a song lyric, but by the end of the day, my husband was done messing with graphics on a screen, so we pulled out my collection of collage images from magazines and old books to use. I wrote out some lyrics that had been in my head recently from The Only Thing by Sufjan Stevens. We divided the space on the coffee table to arrange our collages and set a timer for twenty minutes. I found what I wanted fairly quickly and started chopping it up as I arranged. Nathan was reluctant to use scissors, and chose to turn and layer images till the timer went off. We talked about what we'd each come up with and why afterwards. It was not a laborious task as some had feared, and we both want to try it again sometime. 

• Draw a portrait of each other

We drew these at the same time, which is why we both look very focused. Again, we probably spent about twenty minutes on these. In one way, portrait drawing can be pretty frustrating because of how attuned we are to facial recognition so that the smallest difference of a line or space is much easier to see than to fix, but in another way, that's what makes it so gratifying when you do achieve some resemblance to the person.

Here are a few others from the jar:

• Drive to the mountains to stargaze.
• Wine & board game in the back yard.
• Make/take how well do you know me quizzes.
• Minute to win it races.
• Celebrate a random holiday.
• Visit a destination from Atlas Obscura.
• Garden and grill-out.
• Screen print T-shirts. 
• Listen to records and write letters.
• Make smoothies.

 

Some we've done several times, like smoothies and Atlas Obscura. Others not yet. Would love to hear your suggestions of things to do while stuck at home or whatever current limitations you're navigating.