It's Okay not to be Cooking, Crafting or Kondo'ing

If your Instagram and Facebook feed is anything like mine at the moment, it will be full of beautiful images of reorganised spaces, drool-worthy meals, baking and bread making. It will be full of knitting, sewing, painting, art, craft and all manner of creative projects. It will be full of images of people wearing nice clothes, playing with hairstyles and experimenting with makeup. I am not that lockdown person.

My Mum's work. I am not that lockdown person.

More of my Mum's work. I am not that lockdown person.

On my daily walks, I see evidence of people's productivity, there are freshly washed houses, newly painted fences, evenly pruned hedges, trimmed edges, manicured lawns, weed-free gardens, cute children's craft projects hanging in windows and on fences, and so on. I am not that lockdown person.

I could be that lockdown person. I am capable of being that lockdown person. But, I am not that lockdown person.

To be fair, the Princess & I did bake a cake.

I am the lockdown person who had grand plans. I was going to knock out the giant to-do list I have had forever. I was going to have an immaculately clean and organised house, inside and out. My gardens would have been done. My wardrobe, drawers and cupboards would have been Maire Kondo'ed. We would have been eating interesting meals and the jars and tins would have been full of home baking. I would have been crafting, making art and sewing up a storm. I would have all manner of behind the scenes school stuff and shop stuff done to carry me well into the next year. I was going to be making full use of my lockdown time so that when lockdown ended, my life would be orderly, up to date and organised to an inch of its life, well my life.

This is the only thing I have 'Kondo'ed'

So what happened? I'm stuffed if I know! I know I feel unsettled with this life on hold business. Most days I  just feel flat, blah, nothing. Every day I think to myself, "this is the day I am going to knock five things off my list."

It. Does. Not. Happen.

These two love lockdown. They have become very 'extra' with demanding attention.

I don't think I am that idle though. I am watching far less TV than I did before lockdown. Okay, maybe last week I didn't do much apart from reading (a book a day), Instagramming and playing Sims, but it was the school holidays after all! Time just goes.

I have read all but two of these in a week and a half.

The things I manage to do consistently each day are, drinking a lot of coffee, wearing clean underwear, brushing my teeth, keeping up my skincare routine, organising one meal for my family to eat and going for at least one walk. The rest of the day, every day, every week is just a blur. And, that is okay.

At least I am doing some selfcare.

It's okay to admire the pretty pictures online as long as they don't make you feel inadequate because you are not doing all that stuff. It's okay that some days are a struggle and you feel like you didn't do anything. That is lockdown life. That is life. We need to remember that what we see online is a snippet of a moment in someone's life. The rest of their day/week, whatever, could be spent working, wrangling children, watching Netflix or none of that. We just don't know. And that's okay. It's their lockdown life.

What I am trying to say here is this. You do your lockdown life. I'll do my lockdown life. If you are sticking to the lockdown rules and being kind to other people you are doing a good job of your lockdown life. I am doing a good job of my lockdown life. That's the best we can do at the moment. And, that's okay.

And, there's still time...

Thanks for reading.

Take care, stay safe, stay well.
Rachaelxo