Staying Focused and Upbeat During Quarantine.
Going on appointments, hosting open houses, and showing homes to our clients is the backbone of what we do. We’re usually out of the office by lunchtime doing these things and in April we are gearing up for the busiest time of the year in real estate!
Not this year! We have been ordered to stay home and shelter in place. We didn’t ask for this change and neither did you, however, here we are, worried about how this will affect our community, our loved ones, our livelihood, the economy, and our future.
We’re experiencing hardship, fear, disorientation, discomfort or worse, sickness or loss of a loved one and it is easy to become overwhelmed.
While we cannot change this, we can choose how we react to it. If you believe that mindset matters and what you focus on expands then giving attention to the silver lining is a way to overcome the setbacks we are experiencing and move forward.
Here are some of our routines to help us stay positive and focused, small victories, and where we see the silver lining in our daily lives.
If you have a moment we would love to hear from you about your routines and how you are staying positive and focused while we are under a strict stay at home order. Feel free to Contact Us or post on our Facebook page.
What Day Is It Anyway?
Keeping A Routine when everything is different
Andy’s home office. We go to work every day and “power up” as usual.
We still do our morning power-up as a team. Since we can’t get together in person we use Google Meet. We affirm who we are, what we are grateful for and what our focus for the workday is going to be. We encourage each other to remain energized and focused. We lean on Google G-Suite video and chat, and Google Docs for collaboration. Nearly everything we do is cloud-based. Do we even need a physical office anymore?
We recognize that if this crisis had occurred even 5 or 10 years ago it would have been much harder to work from home as a team and to accomplish as much as we’ve been able to with digital tools.
While technology presents problems at times, we enjoy reduced commuting time (about 2 minutes these days) and the ability to work in our comfy clothes!
We are grateful that we have work to do with active listings, a line-up of new listings ready to hit the market, and current deals that are moving forward to Closing.
A view from our window
We’re encouraged and inspired by seeing what our friends, family and our neighbors are doing and what the view from their homes is like. So we want to share what we are up to.
Abbie – Client Care Specialist
Kayaks/view from our deck, homemade bread, rolls, and monkey bread proofing in the oven, and the view of Hamlin Lake at Ludington State Park.
I left my apartment in Ann Arbor and headed up north to “shelter in place” with my parents. They live in the middle of nowhere on a beautiful little inland lake and are never in jeopardy of running out of food or, perhaps most importantly, toilet paper! They’ve been “preparedness advocates” (preppers) since Y2K! To pass the time, we’ve done a lot of canning, baking, hiking in the Ludington State Park, and puzzle building.
I have to admit that it is a hard adjustment being back home for this long after five years on my own in Ann Arbor. Not many 23-year olds rejoice to be back living with their parents and their rules but I am endlessly grateful for their support, especially financially, since I would likely not be able to pay my bills right now if they weren’t feeding me!
As time has progressed I’ve come to appreciate certain things more and more: my mom’s cooking, working with my dad in his woodshop, phone calls with grandparents, and spending time on the lake kayaking just to name a few! I definitely need the kayaking to offset eating all the homemade bread!
Mostly this time has made me appreciate my life and all the times I didn’t reach out to friends, didn’t volunteer in my community, or didn’t do something as simple as go out and take a walk in a city park. Now that I can’t do any of these things it feels surreal, and I know that someday (which could be any day) I will run out of time to spend with friends and family, time that I can’t get back.
Candice – Administrative Assistant, Listing Manager
My usual role as chauffeur, chef, and caregiver to my two young kids has quickly been turned into playmate, teacher, referee, and… still chef. We’ve been playing legos, coloring, and doing LOTS of baking. Big projects that have never fit between work/school, dinner, homework, and bath time fit nicely into our new normal. We will get to some school work eventually, but right now we are focusing on each other and the fun we can find here at home.
Our first big ambitious project was chocolate cupcakes with two kinds of frosting. We made cupcakes from scratch using a base recipe from Food Network. We used a stiff Royal Icing to pipe pink roses and green leaves onto parchment paper and left them to sit out and set. I spread purple vanilla buttercream on top of the cooled cupcakes and decorated with the Royal Icing flowers and leaves.
Andy Piper – Team Leader
Leslie Park Golf Course viewed from Leslie Park. They are exercising on the green. I might go for a run on the golf course.
So far so good. No one in my family is sick, for that I am grateful. That makes everything else easy to take. I do, however, know people that have lost loved ones to the virus. The elderly in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are particularly vulnerable and we need to do what is necessary to protect them and the workers that serve their needs. That means, don’t go out and spread the virus. Until we have the testing we are only guessing on how to control it. My heart goes out to their families that have lost their loved ones.
Here is the silver lining for me:
Two of my grown children are home and I am grateful to spend time with them. We keep busy by having family meals and are digging out old games and playing them. More family time than ever!
I’m finding my inner Betty Crooker! I set a 66-day challenge to only bake, and not buy any bread. That means baking every 3 days so far. Steve’s Turbo Bread and Steve’s Cinnamon rolls are fantastic and easy. I also dug out my daughter’s sewing machine, figured out how to use it and sewed a bunch of stylin’ face masks. I’m a little obsessed with finding the best cloth facemask designs and THIS is the one I like the best.
Working out, outside! Trail running and doing total body workouts in the yard. Fitness Blender is a YouTube channel with total body workouts. My daughter has been using it for years, but it’s new to me and I like it.
Working remotely from my home office and finding ways to streamline and cut costs while improving our systems. This was not on my radar at all only a month ago. I am finding working from home to be very effective though, thanks to great Internet service. I am grateful for how awesome the Internet has held up. It also brings needed awareness regarding the lack of availability of high-speed internet for rural and low-income households.
How have you been keeping yourself positive and productive while staying at home?
We would love to hear what your “silver lining” is and what you are doing/learning during this unprecedented time.
