Radical Acceptance, God & Covid-19

I have been thinking a lot lately about writing about these times. After-all, this time period will be a time talked about for many years to come. How do I want to remember this or be remembered? I have to be honest, 2 weeks ago I was a bit of a mess and it has taken a bit of a journey to arrive where I am today.

As all of you know very well, I have control issues and I am certainly not afraid to admit that. These control issues are completely attached to my anxiety. Finding out I was no longer going to be able to spend time with my Tribe, be limited to where I can go, what I can do, have all of the kids activities & upcoming events cancelled, school cancelled, etc, etc, etc. and for how long?

One of my coping mechanisms that I have had forever has been the ability to foresee possible worse case scenarios. I don’t fixate on them, but I do work through them in my mind. I knew that social distancing was coming, after-all 40% of my co-workers live in the Eastern part of the World and I was / am very much aware of what they are experiencing. But again, for how long will things be this way? Will we lose the whole summer? What about our month long trip to Calgary this summer? What about the dance competitions? End of School? And the list goes on. The unknown can be a scary place for me. Did I mention that I have control issues?!

Back in August I wrote a post on my daughter Brianna’s birthday that spoke about Radical Acceptance and God. After struggling a lot the first week of social distancing I knew I had to get it together. We are facing months and months of this. Did I want to spend the whole time stressed, anxious, worrying about what is next? Of course not, who really wants to spend time that way. So I went back to my coping techniques and Radical Acceptance & God were at the top of that list.

“Radical acceptance” means completely and totally accepting something from the depths of your soul, with your heart and your mind. You stop fighting reality. You don’t need to like it. You don’t have to agree with it, but you do need to accept it and then move forward. I move forward with prayer and my faith that God is with us, helping me through.

Moving forward means plans! As a family we have been making plans and acting on them. It gives us goals, things to look forward to and allows us to focus on the memories we are creating. We are a busy family. When do we ever have time to just try new things, learn new things and spend massive amounts of time together? For this, I am grateful!

I wanted to make a list of things we have been doing as a family to keep busy, try new things and make some memories. Hoping this may help other families!

• Games: We play games every day! We purchased a few of the Jackbox games and love playing them as a family. We have lots of games, but have been mixing it up lately.
• Baking: Caile has been really into baking. She has made macarons, cinnamon rolls, muffins, churros, pie crusts, etc. She makes lists of ingredients for me and since she has lots of time, no recipe takes too long! 🙂
• Learn a New Language: Caile has been learning Spanish and is doing really well. She takes a number of lessons each day and is already forming sentences. They always say that children who know multiple languages can pick up new ones quickly. I am excited as I took Spanish in University and am also planning to join her in this, so we can chat together.
• Dancing: Ella has been taking a number of free online classes with amazing choreographers. She has really enjoyed these and I have equally enjoyed watching her challenge herself! The girls studio has also sent stretching / strengthening challenges that she has been doing as well to stay strong.
• Zoom: Sandy and I have been using Zoom for years. After-all this is how we connect with co-workers virtually, but now the kids have all been zooming with friends. The girls have found ways to play games using Zoom and it has been a great way to keep connecting. We have also been connecting with family through FaceTime. It was great to enjoy some time with our family in Calgary when often timezone / activities get in the way.
• Physical Challenges: Sandy has started a fitness blog and has been changing up his physical activity. Noah has joined in and is doing the pushup challenge with Sandy as well as trying Sandy’s new home equipment that he built for his home workouts.
• Reading and Basketball: Noah continues to read each day and play a little ball inside or outside the house. He will often connect through FaceTime with basketball friends and have challenges together. Love listening to this!
• Crafting: The girls have been working on their Diamond Dot’s and recently we ordered from Sparklensign as they have home kits for $10. We bought a bunch to do over a few days. The kids loved this and it was fun to try something very different.
• Yoga: I have been told by my Chiropractor for the last year that I should be doing Yoga. He is convinced it would help me with my sciatic, neck and back issues. I have always found a million excuses, but now with his office being forced to close, I needed to take his advice. I now do Yoga every day and I love it! Down Dog App is free, because of Covid-19. The kids all have taken turns doing Yoga with me daily. It has helped me so much mentally and physically. Alex has been doing Yoga for years and incorporates it into her daily workout routine.
• House Renos: I have wanted to paint our trims, our Outside door and a few rooms for a while, but when do I ever have the time. Well now I have what I need and the time, so that will be my project over the next few weeks and I am recruiting the kids to help with some of it. 🙂
• Try something new or old: Ella hasn’t ridden a bike in a few years, but she is back on now. Noah has been scootering, but plans to get back on the bike himself with the goal of Sandy, Ella and Noah being able to take a big bike ride together.
  The kids wanted to make a family video star. So they came up with an idea and we spent an evening creating it. We also had a living room sleepover party. This has been on their request list for a while. We also played a game of Vehicle Sardines with church family. It was a lot of fun and plan to play each week for as long as we can.
• Online Church: I am loving checking out churches who are offering online services. Our family church, NMBC, offers this as well. It is fun to travel to different churches and learn from Ministers all over. Our church is also offering kids and youth groups through Zoom. Tomorrow Noah will be connecting with the kids his age through online kids group!
• Online Fun: There is so much online right now between museums, aquariums and cool things to explore. We had fun one morning with Google 3D animals. The internet is endless.
• Walks & Gardening: Every day we get out for walks as a family. We have tried different trails and subdivisions, but the daily fresh air has been great for us. I ordered new gardening tools and have started cleaning up our front gardens. I never have time for gardening, so I am excited to make them beautiful this Spring.
• School at Home: Sandy and I both work from home, so we have had no changes in our schedules. We work early in the day to have more of the kids awake hours with them. This week coming the kids will begin their school work at home. Ella has already had Zoom sessions with her class. I think online learning is good. It strengthens self motivation, independence and gives the kids some experience with learning that they will carry forward in life.

Since I have no control over how long this will go on or the restrictions that will be put on us, I find sanity and comfort in focusing on what I can control. I can still choose how I spend each day and the memories we make. We have busy lives and I am appreciating the time we have as a family. The slow pace is comforting. One day everything will be back to normal and I will miss all of this extra time I have with the kids. I hope you can all find a way to accept what is happening, live in your moments and enjoy time with your families.