The Top 25 Things We’re Doing During Stay-at-Home (That We May Not Have Done Otherwise)

As “Stay-at-Home” continues, we’re all making good use of our time. We’re also eager for things to do. So we recently asked our team what new or different things they were up to. Here’s what they had to say:

1. Getting more hugs from the kiddos—if I take a break I give and get a couple of quick hugs (Brian)

2. Playing games

  • Zoom Bingo (Cindy)
  • Regular, scheduled family game nights (Allan)

3. Drawing more (Joe)

4. Napping, relaxing and meditating (Denise G)

5. Cleaning…lots and lots of cleaning

  • Wiping down all my groceries (Cindy)
  • Cleaned out our entire basement, and pantry, and everything else (Allan)
  • Rearranged my garage (Tim)
  • Just cleaning, more than ever (Joe)

6. Working on the house

  • Painting (Denise G)
  • Planting stuff and working in my yard (Joe)
  • Plucking weeds in the yard while I listen to crime shows on my phone (Denise G)
  • Buying flowers and home decor things like pretty vases or scented candles (Dee)

7. Taking a 10-week online class from Yale called “The Science of Well-Being” (Todd)

8. Cooking, baking and eating

  • Making homemade baby food instead of jarred (Melissa)
  • Baking (Denise G)
  • Extreme meal planning with the help of an app (Brian)
  • Cooking new, complex and delicious recipes four or five nights per week, plus naan bread, almond butter, smoothies…(George)
  • Grew Sourdough starter, baked it, hated it, threw it out (Lynn)
  • Making banana bread and canelés–it's fun and yum! (Dee)

9. Exercising (important to do after all our cooking, baking and eating)

  • Riding my bike on solo trips on roads to avoids crowded trails (Todd)
  • Going on long walks through every park, forest preserve or charming neighborhood nearby (George)
  • Working out in my new home gym and taking Virtual Zumba classes (Melissa)
  • In two months, I’ve taken more walks than in the past two years (Tim)
  • Walking at 7am, before the crowds come out (Cindy)
  • Online yoga (Lynn)
  • Working out at home (Dee)

10. Deep conditioned my hair, had a cucumber facial and re-lived my Denmark vacation through citrus shampoo (Denise O)

11. Building with my Legos (Joe)

12. Combining the convenience of takeout food with the inconvenience of taking everything out of the packaging and putting it onto plates (which we then have to wash) (Allan)

13. Sitting almost daily at a little pond in a forest preserve photographing frogs (Todd)

14. Being creative—then again, what would you expect from people to work at a marketing firm?

  • Arts and craft nights, and scrapbooking (Denise G)
  • Personal photo projects (Joe)
  • I’ve pulled out the adult coloring books and colored pencils and, paired with a glass of wine, it’s a nice creative outlet (Denise O)
  • Created a method for a professional Pub Quiz friend to collect answers via online forms (Todd)
  • Getting creative with outdoor activities to entertain the kids, since we are limited to our neighborhood. (Brian)

15. Building puzzles

  • Working on a jigsaw puzzle but the only ones I had were Christmas ones, so I’m looking closely at snow landscapes and fir trees (Denise O)
  • Build a very cool 3D puzzle (Allan)

16. Channeling Howard Hughes with my everyday attire (Cindy)

17. Doing some serious drinking

  • Bourbon tasting with my parents and siblings via Zoom (Lynn)
  • Weekend happy hours with my neighbors—in our front yards standing 6+ feet apart, of course (Allan)
  • Had a Zoom cocktail hour with friends from college—and one of them we hadn’t seen in 40 years! (Tim)
  • Indulging in an adult beverage every evening (George)

18. Socializing…without the drinking

  • Girls Night video chats with friends (Melissa)
  • Video calling with my dad, daily (Todd)
  • Kid Messenger with our grandchildren—who knew there were so many moving emojis? (Lynn)
  • Party with our neighbors every night at 8:00 (Dee)

19. Doing Good Deeds

  • Sending two jokes a day to my friend who’s an ICU doctor—she’s been away from home since March, spending a week at a time in COVID-19 hospitals in Buffalo, NY and Elkhart, IN (Todd)
  • Made a gazillion masks for friends and family (Lynn)

20. Writing letters with actual paper (Denise G)

21. Using the balcony more—we never really used it before, but every time there's sun out we now sit outside to either enjoy coffee or read (Dee)

22. Writing my (next) novel (Allan)

23. Wearing a mask for long periods of time—which is fogging my glasses (Tim)

24. Gathered all my sample bottles and hotel bottles of shampoos and creams, and have challenged myself to use them all (Denise O)

25. Helping make top 25 lists for the Pepper Mill (Everyone)