#QuarantineLife Calgon Take me Away...Saturday Night at the Movies...Make Sunday Special...Post #5

So Corny! But, there does come a time when you wish you could fly on wings of eagles to get away. Taking care of the house, kids and now school takes its toll. 

You have to have a place that you are taking care of just you, without guilt...because you NEED this time to survive, regenerate. I actually did let Calgon take me away during my years doing all the Homeschooling Stay at Home mom time...I still love a Bubble Bath...now I add Essential Oils and Bath and Body works instead of Calgon but I always have a bottle of water, glass of wine and a good book, one for enjoyment not like "idiots guide to filing your own taxes" type book. I have a whole protocol...haha. But I first wash my hair and face and lay there with a Hair conditioning treatment on my head...maybe a mask on my face while I read. After lounging till I am pruny, I reluctantly get out and my feet are ready for a pedicure, well, mostly in the summer when sandals show the ugly things...try to do what I have seen done when I go to a place to do my nails...exfoliate with a pumice stone, file my nails lotion and nail polish.  But,Take your time to make every bit of you feel human again. Pretty.  Have your own spa time...maybe you can only do this after the kids are in bed and you think of all the things you SHOULD be doing. Well, they will still be there tomorrow and the next day. I think a lot of us are hanging in Pajamas...just switching out one pair for another. I am trying to get dressed in the morning...or at least early afternoon! 

Return of the Sunday Dinner

Food:  Well there are more than 10 people at the table but if you have all been stuck inside together since the beginning I think you are alright. Make Sunday the dinner you pull out the Frugal Stops! Make Weekends an Event during this time. So, you can do the old Fashioned Roast Beef, Chicken and Stuffing, Lasagna...Bake a pie or cake for dessert. Make this the meal of the week that everyone looks forward to. Most Sunday Dinners in past would have leftovers to reinvent for weekday meals. Leftover Roast Beef could be chopped and made into Beef Pot pie, Barbecue Beef Sandwiches or Open Roast beef sandwiches with gravy. Chicken turned into also pot pie, chicken Tetrazzini, Chicken Salad...the whole left over chicken after most of the meal being removed was stuck in a pot with water, carrots, celery and onions and a few bouillon cubes and made into soup or Chicken ala king on toast. Cakes and pies usually lasted a day or two more. But hanging out and eating a great meal together is a wonderful tradition to revisit. Everyone chip in and clear the table and start having a game night. Uno, Monopoly, Life or just play a card game. Teach the kids Solitaire type games...there are a ton of them besides the familiar ones. My favorite as a kid was clock. It will keep them busy when you can't be the entertainment. 

kids/Family: Saturday Night at the Movies!

The movie industry has made a decision to release movies to streaming. There are also so many that I didn't get to see in the movies that are now on DVD streaming. So this week we are getting together and watching a movie. Some, like a pregnant daughter who can't be out with us she will be watching from her home, another daughter who has been isolated for the last week will make the drive over. Plus the 2 we have living with us here. So...it is either "Emma", "1917", or Disney Plus "Onward". One thing we always have tons of is Popcorn...not the microwave kind, We went natural quite a few years back when we realized we liked the taste better, it was WAAAY cheaper and we can salt it to our enjoyment level without any chemicals to think about. We will probably be making Peanut Butter Fudge (our absolute favorite) and I also bought more bananas than I knew we could eat on purpose. One...to freeze for smoothies that your kids would call milk shakes and not know the difference...but I am thinking of cutting some of them in 1/2 and freeze. Melt some chocolate and dip the frozen bananas in and then sprinkle with shots, sprinkles, jimmies whatever you call them. put back in freezer until ready to eat. You can individually wrap in plastic the ones that weren't eaten for another day. When my kids were little, I would buy candy and divide it into little bags for each kid before the movie started. You can put the popcorn in brown paper lunch bags so each kid has their own...no fighting...no all hands in the bowl to their mouths and back in the bowl again. 

So, Turn off all the lights in the house...Crank up the sound...and let the movie begin!