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So, we put the call out for people’s favourite thing about being indoors
Whether it’s getting a chance to catch up on books, podcasts, movies or boxed sets, tidying up a long-gestating mess, dusting down old board
Email your happy home thoughts to [email protected] (include a pic too, if you can),
Handily enough, Josh and I are total introverts – so, we’ve pretty much been preparing for this all our lives! We’ve also realized that we already have everything we need, which all makes us eternally grateful.
We are aged 10 and 8, and like every other kid at home, starting to get bored! But here are a few things we have done so far that we
My Dad did a really fun quiz for us last week that took us over 2 hours to do. We had to answer 40 questions and here are some examples – How many followers does Charli d’Amelio have on TikTok? What is the mileage on mummy’s car? How many windows are in Granny’s house (we had to call her to ask her this)? What is the width of our house? What is the value of Grafton
This afternoon, we are doing a scavenger hunt in our Granny and Grandad’s big garden. They have written a list of things for us to find
Our big treat last week was the Retro Drive-In Movie in Leopardstown; it was so exciting watching Mrs Doubtfire from the car. We had our duvets, pillows and snacks all packed and got
I am glad of the opportunity, worry aside, of recharging my
We’ve just been chilling, really. Lots of walks. Cooking and eating together, which we would rarely do. The missus and the kids are doing this Joe Wicks PE class in
The best thing though is just watching kids being kids and coming up with their own fun. Kind
What do I love most about the great indoors? All the colour and drawings my 5 year old twin girls have brought into the house. It’s
If this pandemic has given me anything it’s a renewed sense of the power of a slower pace and a recognition of the beauty on my doorstep, but, indoors have taken a giant leap forward too. A self-confessed bookworm, it will probably horrify some people to know that
Despite all those wonderful books, another revelation of all this time indoors is the opportunity to reconnect with people. I, for one, am very guilty of the “Yes, definitely next week… and if not the week after… or the week after that…” distinction of catch ups. Invariably, due to us all
Currently, I feel like I’m in some sort of limbo or germination period… though
All worries aside, I am loving the sunshine, catching sunsets, resting, self-pampering, self-reflection, yoga, reiki and other holistic therapies I’m currently studying, plus, listening to records, dancing, playing
It’s fair to say I am making good use of this isolation. It is what it is, but
This physical distancing and general staying home has been a
I have to say though being a glass half full type, for the most part,
Using the time at home to catch up on paperwork, tackling the huge pile of
Time now to catch up on gardening, enjoying the springtime; all the bulbs and flowering trees are now coming into bloom. It is just wonderful to watch them in the sunshine. And
I suppose our default is to be consumed by worry and gloom at a time like this. If we can sift through all of that though, there are some shimmering nuggets of positivity amongst the paydirt of problems that may just make our lives a little
In the pre-apocalyptic world I usually travelled from Co. Kildare to teach in Greystones every morning. M4. M50. M11. That’s a lot of Ms. Too many Ms. Too much stress. Too little sleep. So, instead of making sure that my dashcam is working and positioned correctly, in case some idiot cuts me off, and in lieu of the ankle grinding repetitiveness of accelerate – break – accelerate, I now have upwards of an hour every morning to do… well… whatever I want before I start teaching (remotely). I still drink coffee to wake me up but I need a little less. I
Also, I’m a funny sort of chap who’s never fully able to relax until I
When I was 9 or 10, my father showed me some of his skills at carving, whittling,
I’ve a Facebook group with 70 or so of my Leinster rugby
But during this time, we’ve been having great fun doing top 5s of
It’s been a loooong week!! With the 4 kids home, and both myself and Will off work for now, it can be kind of crazy, but you gotta look on the bright
We’ve been forced to slow down and spend more time at home, all together. It’s made me realise that I was totally overdoing it; busy all the time, and missing out on the simple things with my family. Just playing with the kids, watching the
We’re not big on routine in our house, but we’re kind of loosely
Keep On The Sunny Side
we can is the only way to beat the spread of Covid-19, here at de Guide, we decided to shine a light on how Greystonians are staying on the sunny side 
during all this enforced me time…
games, or just connecting with your loved ones. Every cloud has a silver lining, after all…
and we’ll pull them all together for a little community inspiration…
For my ongoing mindfulness-based intervention studies, they’ve moved to daily Zoom meditation gatherings. Meditation is such 
Kabat Zinn refers to it. [Editor’s note: We think Jon Kabat Zinn might be Jon Bon Jovi’s spirit animal. Or his real name.]
really enjoyed.
Street in Monopoly?
and collect. It will be great to see them even if they are inside and we are outside. We really miss the hugs from them.
front row position. We kicked Mummy & Daddy to the back seats, and we were in the front, in prime viewing position! We even met our cousins there, who we really miss. We just waved and said hello from the cars. A great idea for all the family as safe too, with social distancing.
previously very low batteries. I am trying my hand again at knitting and art now; I never seemed to find the extra time I needed before now. And finally, I can read for hours on end and not feel guilty about having to do other stuff! Oh, and then there is the time 
to cook and bake without keeping one eye on the clock, as I usually have to be somewhere else in the next half hour. So, living very much on the sunny side right now…
the mornings on YouTube. One good thing that has come from having four kids is that they actually are never bored.
of like the way we used to do.
hard to stay mad at them when they go against our No Drawing On The Walls rule as their work is so cute and colourful! Soon our house will look like a rainbow unicorn retreat.
Netflix just doesn’t do it for me. I am, I have to confess, a very failed TV addict.
leading busy lives it just doesn’t always happen. We all might know what is going on in our loved one’s and friends’ lives, thanks to social media, but it is often a condensed version of facts. I’m a devoted fan of WhatsApp, but in many ways, it has killed real conversation. So, to counter this, in the past week, I’ve had many long, rambling chats with those near and far, and they have induced belly-aching laughs all round, each conversation ending with tears rolling down our faces. Gone is the old excuse of “I have to run…”, and that’s got to be one of the 
best things to come out of this awful crisis. Mirth can be found in the darkest of times, and for me, social reconnecting is at the heart of it.
I may have been experiencing something similar to this before the pandemic as I’m a full-time student.
musical instruments, writing songs, recording in my little home studio, practicing photography, cooking for enjoyment not just to be fed, reading, spending time with my dad and the dogs, watching the news, keeping in touch with my people… Oh, and the house is gleaming! I could go on.
I’m also looking forward to going back out to gig and share the good times with people again!
challenge for all of us. No doubt. There is a constant underlying anxiety about work for the future, the effect of all this on the children, the pain of imagining the distress of those directly affected by the dreaded virus.
I’ve enjoyed getting my kids back. My older ones naturally want to spend more time with their friends and don’t tend to do stuff together as much. We’re getting out to exercise as a family, the children bouncing off each other wonderfully (mostly!) and enjoying each other, and hopefully, us. I’m hoping this will have a lasting effect on their relationship with each other and us. The missus, Sue, has been doing a Trojan 
job motivating the kids to do their school work while I’ve made sure we’re eating well.
newspapers, organising and sorting photos that are clogging up my mobile phone.
Ireland has plenty of good, fresh food, so, we won’t starve.
richer. All that we have to do is spend the time swirling. I can think of two benefits that the world of self-isolation has brought me. There is gold in them there isolated, respiratory infected, physically distanced hills.
also still grind my ankle but it’s a more tolerable and enjoyable grind, spent walking with my wife along a river, pushing our 6 month old in the buggy, with my faithful, yellow lab, Daisy, trotting beside us. That’s the sort of idealistic foundation that all days should be built on I think. Thank you, fair CoVid-19, for that gift.
have everything done that I feel I need to have done. Over the years of teaching, a lot of things that I wanted to get completed or felt that my students would benefit from (more comprehensive notes and such) have just not been possible to complete because, life. Not necessarily obligatory work. 
Moreso, the extra bits and pieces that would make me feel like I was very prepared as opposed to just prepared.The extra time that I’m gaining from not having to travel and not having the distractions of the outside world are forcing me to concentrate and complete these little, unnecessary flourishes. None of it is groundbreaking material but it’s a lot of little, insignificant tasks that will make life, post-apocalypse, that little bit easier and less stressful for me. Once again, “Sound, CoVid. Nice one!“.
etc. He was a complete outdoor man and some of it rubbed off onto me, I guess.
And don’t forget; how your kids see you cope now is how they will deal with crisis in their future!
supporter friends. Most of us are only on FB because of the craic we have on the page. Usually, it’s to chat bout all things rugby and how much we hate Munster!
things like movies, bands, concerts, box sets, etc. The amount we’ve learned about things lots of us had in common that we never knew before is amazing, and the slagging some people have been getting and giving is brilliant. It has definitely brought us closer as friends and made us look forward more than ever to seeing each other again in the RDS, and in Paddy Cullen’s in Ballsbridge, when this all blows over.
side or you’ll crack up!!
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