Sweet Quarantine (aka My Fave Distractions)

UPDATE 7/18/2020: A new video: Princess Bride at home by various actors!

UPDATE 6/20/2020: Added a Mark Rober video - he's a big source of entertainment in our house.

UPDATE 6/4/2020: A podcast and a long form article and a netflix show that are worth checking out.

UPDATE 5/24/2020: Another puzzle and sourdough bread!

UPDATE 5/18/2020: Another new section added: Puzzles!

UPDATE 5/13/2020: The creative coronavirus folks are still going strong, so I came back here to add a few more things that have made me smile the past couple of months.

One bright side of this coronavirus hullabaloo is all the creativity of people coming out in full force.  Whether it's funny memes and tweets and texts; or entertaining and instructional videos on youtube; or distracting and uplifting podcast episodes, I've certainly been grateful for the clever and creative and generous people in internet land for making such great content.  And for my family and friends who share them with me and make my day brighter!

I thought it would be fun to collect all my faves here, as a sort of time capsule of this "unprecedented historical event" we're living through.  (And on that note, we'll start with the memes and tweets and texts first.)

I saw a Utah earthquake version of this one, too - throw
that little bit in between the no school and the snow and it's
our story.

Terrell says she'll be called "Social
Distancing Sally"

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That last text from my friend Marcy is a perfect segue to the first video that I love!

(You should totally watch all of the Jimmy Fallons!)

(Ditto for the Mo shows - he is so great!  These are Cal's faves.)

This video that Kylie shared with me and the fam:

"Working out at home like"

and the resulting text string that cracked me right up:

This Disney Version from Facebook gave me a big smile this morning.

(If you have Netflix, this show is a must watch - I have loved the New York, Chicago, Montreal, Bangkok, and Dublin episodes)

(We've been longtime Mark Rober fans, but if you haven't seen anything by him on youtube
yet, this is a great one to start with! We also love his Jello pool video, too!)


This amazing and hilarious at-home rendition of The Princess Bride performed by a ton of actors is too good to miss!

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And now for the podcast section.  These are some episodes that I've been listening to lately that I love and have nothing to do with the virus or the economic impact of said virus:

• The Case of the Missing Hit ("A man in California is haunted by the memory of a pop song from his youth. He can remember the lyrics and the melody. But the song itself has vanished, completely scrubbed from the internet. PJ takes on the Super Tech Support case.")
• Anything (and everything!) from What Should I Read Next?
• Anything from The Latter-Day Saint Women Podcast (I listened to the newest episode first and it got me hooked - super good stuff!)
• Positive Parenting with Ralphie Jacobs (my SIL Shelly shared this one with me and it is super uplifting and full of helpful tips - just what I need right now!)
• A brand-new podcast called Science Diction (the episode called Meme seems especially appropriate for this post!)
• Bill Nye (yes! the Science Guy of my middle school science classes!) has a podcast called Science Rules that I've been enjoying for a while now, but he's added some extra spin-off "Coronavirus Edition" episodes, too.  I like both - the science of the virus is good information, but when I'm ready to NOT listen to anything about the pandemic, I like his usual stuff (my favorites lately were the episodes about the Hubble Space Telescope and the interview with Alan Alda)
• America's Test Kitchen has a podcast called Proof - Season 4 seems to be the best one yet, with my two favorite episodes being Raiders of the Lost Yeast and Atomic Peanuts and Gamma Grapefruit.
• Kylie shared this episode of How I Built This with the fam and I really enjoyed the conversation with Davis Smith about his company Cotopaxi. I also listened to and absolutely loved this episode with Pat Brown, the creator of Impossilble Foods.
• Planet Money has been a longtime favorite, and while most of the episodes these days are related to the economic impact of COVID-19, and while that can sometimes be really depressing, I have still found their episodes informative and entertaining.  This one was my fave as of late.
• Don't Miss This Study (they also have a youtube version, but I like the podcast-while-I-do-something-else method) for weekly Come Follow Me discussion - I really love their insights.

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How about an additional art section?  Why not?

This challenge from the Getty Museum to recreate famous pieces of art out of household items has been cracking me up.  My friend from college has been posting pics of her kids that she has been dressing up all week (that's where I first heard about it and she's doing a brilliant job), but these compilation articles are highly entertaining, too.

The kids and I have had fun trying out a couple new painting techniques this week:

• Salt Painting

• Cheater Watercolor

I'll add this to the art section: It's a blog I've been following for a while now written by a children's librarian and author. I have enjoyed her interviews with authors and illustrators and her reviews of new books to watch out for, but her sense of humor has really been amped up lately and I have been loving it.  Case in point: her pandemic-inspired Strega Corona retelling.

At the bottom of that post is a link to a facebook page of another artist who is making parody children's book covers for our current situation and they are hilarious!

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And a new section: Sourdough. Yes, I joined the craze and now all my news feeds can show me are things about sourdough starters and my texting conversations with my sister are all about sourdough and apparently I'm obsessed.  I've made a couple batches of English muffins, one pizza dough, and some overnight pancakes (all with discard).

I'm still figuring out the feeding and maintaining thing, but I finally felt brave enough for bread and it worked beautifully! Super yum and it really tasted like sourdough!  From my own little starter.  I'm so proud!

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Why did I not add a puzzle section before?  We've been doing them from the beginning!

Yellowstone

Hot Air Balloons and Cottage

Vail Village

Bag o' Bugs

Finished Beetles (with two missing pieces - not
Gregg's favorite puzzle, as you can tell)

Transcontinental Railroad (done in a morning!)

Logan Summer

Chicago

Bear Lake

Amish Harvest

Thanks to my parents for sharing so many of their puzzles with us!  This has been a fun little side-diversion, a puzzle is always out and being worked on on the table in the front room.  I love it!

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I have started reading more again, but for a while all I could handle was articles on my phone.  This one was so fabulous: The Weirdly Enduring Appeal of Weird Al Yankovic (I wouldn't even call myself a fan of Weird Al, but the article is still worth reading if you're like me!)

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Keep 'em coming!  We can use all the laughter we can get right about now, am I right?  (I'll keep updating this as the gems keep rolling in.)