I think we can all agree that the past couple of months have been far less than ideal. Being stuck at home in general isn’t a picnic and then having to find ways to entertain your kids ALL day? Whew. I am exhausted just thinking about it! Everyone definitely needs an outlet when we start to feel overwhelmed.
My girls and I started to get serious cabin fever and being indoors was not helping our moods at all! I have been working from home for the past 8 weeks and, of course, school hasn’t really been in session. There are a lot of emotions regarding what is going on, but the one thing I noticed is the kids just seemed down. I didn’t know exactly what needed to happen, but I knew I needed to make it fun for the girls.
I was online grocery shopping one day and came across boxes of sidewalk chalk. I thought to myself, “This could be a fun activity for the girls and it would get them outside.” WIN WIN!! I added it to my cart not knowing the happiness and joy it was going to bring to our lives!
Y’all, the ONLY days we have not spend outside coloring, are the days it has decided to rain! I had no idea how peaceful and “off the grid” we would feel just by spending a few hours outside each day. The sun and that box of sidewalk chalk saved my sanity.
Any form of art is a beautiful outlet for any source of stress, but who would have thought a $5 pack of bright sidewalk chalk could change our moods so quickly.
We live in a wonderful neighborhood and the coolest thing about our “art” is that our neighbors would come knock on our door and just say how much they appreciated the coloring. We have been told so many times that our house is a neighborhood favorite because the neighbors enjoy reading our chalk quotes or admiring the pictures the girls come up with.
We did school lessons outside, created cool “I MISS YOU” pictures to send to grandparents, we even drew a story down the sidewalk. We created those cool “photo ops” chalk pictures and people actually stopped and took photos of their kids in the chalk creations.
It may sound silly, but I’m serious. There was just something so soothing about being outdoors, in the sun, and doing an activity that didn’t require us to really think. It took me back to better times when I was a kid.
The world is so fast-paced and we often miss opportunities to just take it easy, I’ll say that in the middle of the chaos, I think we were given a precious gift of time. I have truly felt like I’ve been able to seize the moment with my girls. Watching them all day every day has been time well spent!
I can tell all you mommas this, through this quarantine, I discovered my kids need to be outside more; moving forward. I’ve started to become more strict with screen time and swapping that out for our outdoor time. Do not let the media and fear keep you stuck indoors. Even if you just venture out to your driveway or the sidewalk, you can have a ton of fun.
