Shelter-In-Place Activities & Giveaway

ByCara Putman
46 Comments

We are nearing the end of stringent sheltering in place in Indiana…it’s been a slow move…very intentional and methodical. While I still have no idea what the new normal will be, I thought I’d share a few of the ways we’ve been spending the time since the middle of March. Because we’ve spent three summers in Europe as a family for various lengths of study abroad, the idea of it just being our family wasn’t completely new. But this was the first time we couldn’t go see or do things and then come back home as we wanted. In some ways though I think our summers abroad were a testing and preparation for being largely us for four months.

We love games as a family and filled many evenings with various games. Above we’re playing Monopoly Deal, a card game that is much faster (and thus better) than the board game version. It can be played with a couple people or with six or more. Another game we’ve really enjoyed since Christmas (and had to get the expansion packs as they released at our local Barnes & Noble) was Disney’s Villainous. It’s a strategy game that everyone in our family from the nine-year-old up can play and enjoy. Just a note, said nine-year-old also plays Settlers of Cataan with us, so he is a strategy game playing dude.

My husband also had the brilliant idea to build this sandbox with our nine-year-old and then got out his army men and sets he’d been saving for the boys. A friend sent a bunch of tiny flamingos that were added to the mix, some with painted on camoflauge. Hours spent outside setting up all sorts of battles.

My husband and sixteen-year-old are also replacing the old raised garden beds we inherited with the house. The old railroad tie type wood had rotted, and since we weren’t going to be in Rome for a couple weeks, this was the summer to replace them. As you can see, the tomatoes and cucumbers are very happy. They’ve grown even more since I took this photo. I love that we have beds we can use again…especially since there’s nothing rusty to require a tetanus shot.

I’m also delighted that my various flower bed are producing flowers. This was one of my first bouquets from the weekend. My goal is to have fresh flowers from my garden from June through at least October. We are off to a great start, and most of the big flowers like daisys and black eyed Susans haven’t flowered yet.

Anyone else tackle puzzles over quarantine? This is the latest of the ten or so I’ve tackled. I love that this one has cats and books, but I’ve done everything from a NYC watercolor street to a French village to a fair. One of my other favorites involved all different kinds of coffee…that one inspired a series of instagram live videos on how to make different types of Starbucks inspired drinks at home. You can find those here for your viewing pleasure.

Then there’s reader mail. This was today’s packets of books and envelopes of thank you goodies to readers who have requested my books at a library or left review. If you’ve done either, please make sure you fill out this form, so I can send goodies your way! Thank you!

And if life wasn’t crazy enough, we decided to get a puppy four weeks ago after losing our faithful family dog of 13 years in April. We resisted for a few weeks, and then decided that if we were going to get a puppy eventually, while we were all home wasn’t a bad time. We were in denial about how much work puppies are, but she’s going to be worth it. She’s smart and growing like crazy.

She’s a shelter puppy, so we really have no idea what she is other than an educated guess that she’s a boxer/lab mix. The good news is she’ll be on the smaller side — at least that’s the vets best guess.

I’ve also been reading all the books in addition to teaching, lots of long walks, etc. Eric laughs because I’m often reading my Kindle or listening to an Audiobook while walking. If you have Kindle Unlimited, this summer I have my Ohio WWII series on that platform — start here with A Promise Forged. Happy reading! In the spirit of traveling in a good book, I’m giving away an autographed ARC of The Socialite, J’nell Ciesielski’s latest book that released in April. It takes place largely in Paris during WWII. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to share it with one of you. Just use the form below. What have you been doing during shelter in place?

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An award-winning author of 50 books, Cara is an Assistant Dean and Clinical Associate Professor in business law and ethics to graduate and undergraduate students at Purdue University. She lives with her husband, children, a perfect cat, and a sweet yet rambunctious shelter puppy in Indiana.

46 Comments

  1. Great ideas! Not sure if I have picked up any new hobbies. But I am getting to know my neighbors better. Walking together. Bringing cookies. Checking in.

  3. I have done a lot of new things too! I’ve re-learnt the piano, finished projects with my sewing machine, learnt a Chinese input method (It was complicated), read (caught up on classics, loved Jane Eyre), wrote, re-arranged my plants, watched movies etc.. And I have been playing board games with my family too. I love Settlers of Catan you mentioned before. A few other favourites in my family are The Castles of Burgundy, Puerto Rico, Citadels, Seven Wonders, DiXit. Not to mention the classics like chess, Go and Rummikub. I love those strategy board games. It just feels different winning by really thinking than winning just by chance.

  4. Thanks for sharing the fun things your family is doing!
    We’re big game players too & have loved having the extra time to play games. We share your love for Villainous, especially my husband, & have added all the expansions 🙂
    Some regular favorites are Catan, Ticket to Ride & expansions, Phase 10, & Clue.
    Some new favorites are Uno Flip (way better than the original), Sushi Go, & Harry Potter Clue!

  5. Your puppy is SO cute! I would’ve guessed Boxer & some Lab–both are loyal, good natured breeds! And, you are correct about now being a good time to train a puppy w/ everyone home! I love alone & my rescue dog has been a great companion! I do enjoy jigsaw puzzles, and enjoy doing puzzles on http://www.jigsawplanet.com (I especially enjoy the quilt puzzles, and John Sloane’s puzzles!) Thanks for sharing your family news!

    1. I’ve been making a lot of bread. I baked bread with my grandmother as a child, so it was just a matter of picking the skill back up.

  6. My new Shelter-in-Place hobbies are:
    * Giving myself messy french pedicures
    * Cooking a million zillion mediocre recipes
    * Discovering creative ways to cover my gray
    * Keeping strangers out of my invisible 6 foot bubble
    * Searching for the secret to keeping my sunglasses from fogging up while wearing a mask that doesn’t include holding my breath.
    😉

    1. Laughed out loud reading your list, Cheryl. The ‘million zillion mediocre recipes’ was hysterically true. If only everything tasted as good as the recipe card looked, right?

  7. I enjoyed reading about your family’s activities during the recent shelter-in-place period. Texas is opening up too, and my schedule is starting to have a nice balance of time at home and time at my part-time job. Some of my volunteer work continued through the shelter-in-place, but some still hasn’t resumed. I loved reading, working jigsaw puzzles, straightening, continuing my Weight Watchers, ladies’ Bible study, and Sunday school meetings on Zoom, doing exercise routines in my living room, and walking after dinner with my husband. I watched some news, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy, but I’d rather read than watch much on tv.

  8. No new activities just ramped up on the usual—playing games with the grands, who are with us pretty much 24/7, (Racko and Rummikub, especially) and sewing (quilt tops, table runners, & aprons). And, of course, reading—esp audiobooks while I’m sewing.

  9. Can’t say that I’ve started a “new” hobby, but rather working more and harder to improve one I already have.

    Hubby and I both love photography, but for the most part up until last year, I was more of a point and shoot person. I’m now using one of hubby’s cameras and learning the camera settings as well as learning lighting and making adjustments for time of day, shadows and subject matter. It’s challenging but fun. I set goals and once I achieve that I move to the next new goal.

    We are fortunate enough to live a 7 acres at the edge of town in the Ozark Mountains. We are visited daily by a wide array of critter visitors and a whole host of types of birds – some that are here only as they migrate through. Plus when we downsized and moved here three years ago, we made sure that we built a large front porch onto our new home. This all means that staying at home isn’t all that bad for us. We are retired so we are use to staying home (although we have missed our occasional trips to see some of this country’s amazing national parks) and thanks to teachings from a Mom that went through the depression, we had a fairly well stocked pantry. The porch and photography has given us a fun mission to occupy our time. I never tire of watching the beauty of our place and the critters that grace us with visits as well as photography subjects.

    Shared and hoping to be the extremely fortunate one selected to get an ARC of “The Socialite”. Thank you for the chance! <3

    1. That sounds amazing, Kay! I love that you’re going deeper and diving into the technical aspects of photography. I tend to be very point and click.

  10. Fun post, Cara! I love family games, and my son’s girlfriend just introduced us to Villainous last month. I played Ursula the first time (and kept singing “Poor Unfortunate Souls” in my head during the game) and then moved on to the Queen of Hearts from Alice and Wonderland. As we are all super Disney fans and lovers of strategy games, this was a winner! I loved how each character’s goal was so different, so each time you play you get a different experience.

    Love your flowers! And the puppy is adorable. 🙂 I think you are well-situated for a fabulous, unsheltered summer!

    1. We’ve decided that Queen of the Hearts is one of the hardest to win with. And we may have had a spotify channel or two of Disney music playing in the background when we play 🙂

  12. No new hobbies for me as I’ve been going into work every day so nothing has really changed for me other than cancelled vacation trips :-(.
    Your puppy is A.Dor.Able!! Perfect time to get one since everyone’s home to help the training process.

  13. I’ve been reading a lot more and working on wood-burning projects. Also, this quarantine has enabled me to make good progress on our church’s Christmas play for this December.

    1. I’ve received some really sweet notes. That had my buying some encouragement cards so I can pay it forward. Who doesn’t love real mail?

  15. I have done tons of spring cleaning and have awakened a joy of doing puzzles I have also read too.

    1. If you’d told me at the beginning of all this I’d do so many puzzles, I would have laughed. However, there’s been something oddly relaxing about it.

  16. Fun post! We’ve all been getting creative. I’ve been helping with homeschool for 5 grands (now school is over, so whew, we can all breathe and be thankful Nana is not trying to make them learn math), editing (my part-time work from home job), writing, gardening, weeding (more weeding than planting), and reading. We live in an RV so puzzles are out. But I found jigsaworld, and I can do smaller puzzles on my Ipad. Not as satisfying, but at least it’s a puzzle.

  19. Sounds like you’ve enjoyed some lovely family time. I’ve been working a lot outside in our yard, catching up on sewing projects, reading, walking, practicing piano. We are just starting Phase 2 here, so looking forward to going back to church and maybe visiting family.

  22. I love the board games and puzzles ideas. My daughter and I love board games but sometimes it;s not any fun with just two of us. Not much of a challenge.

    I love your little pup!

  24. No new hobbies but I’m starting to enjoy old ones I had stopped doing like counted cross stitch. Thank you for sharing your pictures and for the chance to win!

  25. I haven’t begun any new hobbies but have had more time for reading, gardening, baking, card making, and even a bit of sewing. It was a real adjustment at first to stay at home instead of going to work and to be by myself so much. Thankfully I can get out more now, though most activities like prayer group and book club are outdoors with space between us. We are thankful to be able to meet in person rather than by Zoom. Thanks for your book giveaway.

  28. I’ve spent time editing and learning new character building techniques. I’ve read (or listened) to over 30 books since March! A new record. Working on harvesting hay for our cows now. I love strategy games, too. Catan, Ticket to Ride, Seven Wonders are all favorites. Love the puppy and family pics.

  29. I haven’t really taken up a new hobby but kept working on two that I love; reading and quilting. I am getting near the end of finishing a quilt for my daughter Rhonda.

  30. I haven’t really been sheltering-in-place, because my job is considered essential, but I did start learning Spanish after everything shut down.

  31. No new hobbies. Just getting a bunch of junk cleaned up that’s been piling up around here.

  32. No new hobbies for me. I have recently moved in with my daughter and son-in-law and my sweet 8 month old granddaughter keeps me busy!

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