Coronavirus

The world has pretty much gone into lockdown from this awful virus coronavirus. There is so much press on the topic so i’m not looking to add to the ever changing news/rules and regulations. What I thought was useful was sharing my positive experience of this crazy time. For the last 10 days I have been in quarantine with my family (2 kids under 3 and my husband) . The reason we are in quarantine is not because one of us has contracted the contagious virus but we have recently returned back from the usa and therefore need to self isolate for 14 days.

During our isolation the rest of the state/country and world seems to have moved to pretty much isolation also (rightly so i believe). The message is loud and clear to stay home and I plan to continue this post isolation too for my family and the health of the greater community (except for the occasional walk with the kids while social distancing from all other people).

From what could have been a frustrating period of time being stuck at home for 14 days with 2 young kids has actually been made fairly manageable with these simple routines and activities:

• daily meditation- i start every day with a 25 minute meditation class which i do online via zoom with 10-20 others from my favourite yoga studio (happy melon in melbourne) its a beautiful way to calmly bring in the day. I do this in my bedroom with a candle lit to create a calming atmosphere.
• daily yoga- i found sarah beth yoga on youtube has some great easy yoga classes varying from 10-30 minutes targeting different body parts and i pick a new one each day.
• daily vitamin d- just going out to the backyard or on a balcony if your in an apartment has been a saviour for some fresh air. we have a hammock in our garden which has provided hours of fun for the kids and i.
• cooking with and without my kids- we have baked a couple of cakes and its given me a chance to try new recipes and experiment which has been fun.
• wassap video play dates with family and friends with kids- they often involve show and tell and some crying but keep us all sane and connected.
• wine- every-night when the kids go down my husband and i enjoy a glass or two of wine which is the perfect end to the day and one i look forward to a lot of the day!

Just some extra ideas of things to do with little kiddies to keep them sane and you too!:

• cosmic kids have some awesome kids yoga classes for little ones o you tube- my daughters favourites are the bear hunt, frozen one and the hungry caterpillar
• arts and crafts- painting. drawing, stickers, stamps- best done outside to avoid a mess!
• gardening- my daughter loves watering plants, we have one lemon that is growing very slowly she loves to water daily.
• roll playing- whether i’m a patient at a hospital or at a hair salon let their imagination run wild.
• melbourne zoo is streaming online live footage from the zoo today we watched the zebras and penguins. They were very cute!
• the wiggles did a show on there facebook page where they talked about the virus and the importance of social distancing in a song which is a nice way to help encourage this conversation with young ones who might otherwise not understand our new normal.

Hope these tips have been useful.

Stay safe

Love MM xxx