New Things to Try At Home When You’re Bored

Are you bored and looking for new things to try at home? When I am in my normal school year routine I get stuck in a rut with everything.  I find what I like and tend to stick to it.  I rarely deviate off the beaten path and prefer things to go exactly the same, day in and day out.  I’m sure to an adventurous sort of person that sounds just boring.  However, staying in a routine is oddly comforting to me.

Naturally, when the COVID lockdown hit, all of my normal routines went right out the window!  I suddenly found myself working from home for the remainder of the school year and also with a good bit of extra time on my hands.  I’ve never been a big television watcher.  There’s only so much I like to do online, save for checking social media and reading blogs.  I was becoming bored.  But I did manage to try a few new things and I thought I’d share them here.

New Things to Try At Home When You’re Bored

Cleaning

I actually love to clean and prefer it to cooking any day of the week.  I also love organization and cannot function in clutter.  I suddenly had a huge urge to do a thorough cleaning out and deep cleaning of our home.  I stumbled across the Instagram account of Mrs. Hinch and fell in love with taking care of our home.  She documents here cleaning and life adventures, and even though she lives in England and some of the products she uses aren’t available here in the states, I follow along and always walk away inspired to do a little more.  I even ordered myself her Book of Lists to stay on track.  I highly recommend her for your cleaning inspiration!

Bible Reading

I was raised in the Christian faith and have always read a few verses in the Bible.  I even tried to read the entire Bible once but found it difficult to understand sometimes and always lost interest.  Is that terrible to say?  A few years ago I worked in a Christian bookstore and I purchased myself a Joyce Meyer’s Everyday Life Bible and sort of set it aside.  However, I picked it back up a few weeks ago and WOW!  What a difference using an Amplified translation has made for me.  I didn’t start at the beginning, I simply just chose a chapter and started reading.  However, the commentary inside makes it easier to see how everything I am reading applies to our everyday lives.  It’s definitely a HUGE piece of what I was missing in my daily routine.  Getting back into my Bible had been a huge comfort, especially with everything going on in the world here lately.  I have been highlighting like crazy in it and highly recommend this Bible dry liter that comes in a few different colors and doesn’t bleed through delicate pages.

Almond Milk

Being home and eating more home-cooked meals has made me slow down and come to realize that dairy really makes me bloated.  I love making smoothies on a hot day and decided to give almond milk a try to see if I could tolerate it for a replacement for cow’s milk.  I don’t know why I didn’t give almond milk a try sooner!  I love it!  And, depending on the brand, most of it is shelf-stable as well!

Puzzles

I have never been a big puzzle person, but my 94-year-old grandmother is.  I kept seeing in the news how stores were selling out of jigsaw puzzles because people were just looking for anything to do to keep them occupied.  I then discovered that you can actually do jigsaw puzzles online in an app as well!  I downloaded the Jigsaw Puzzle app for my iPad and do several of these a day.  They offer several free puzzles, a free puzzle of the day, and you can also purchase puzzle packs for around $2-$3 that have around 40 puzzles in each “pack”.  I have really enjoyed these and I feel like it’s helping me keep my brain sharp while passing the time.

Radio

I don’t normally listen to regular radio anymore because my car has satellite radio.  However, I discovered a new to me app that will let you listen to ANY radio station in the WHOLE WORLD at any time!  It’s called Radio Garden.  Needless to say, I have spent many hours clicking on different countries and seeing what people listen to in different places.  However, the BEST find was a radion station located in Longyearbyen, Norway called Arctic Outpost Radio.  They play tunes from 1902-1958.  I love a HUGE variety of music, but this is just some great easy listening and I often play it on our Amazon Echo Show in the kitchen so I can hear it all over the house.  All I have to do is say, “Alexa, play Arctic Outpost Radio.”  Easy!

Brownies

Chocolate….need I say more?  I am here to tell you if you have not ordered some Double Chocolate Chip Brownies from Papa John’s, well, you are missing out.  We ordered these on a whim one night with our pizza.  They are absolutely delicious!

These are just a few of the things that have brought me a little more variety and enjoyment during these long days of COVID lockdown.  Our city is pretty much returning back to normal now, but I still have almost a month and a half left to be home from work until school (hopefully!) starts back in August.

Have you discovered anything fun and different lately?

Photo by Tatiana from Pexels