Quarantine?

Here are some hopes for quarantine from a country hick. You might be a country hick if you choose to stay home and garden. Can what you grow and also cook all meals from scratch. Country folk know what is going into their bodies and are able to pronounce all the ingredients in their foods.

We tend to take our time and living rurally makes us limit our trips into town. Why? Because the drive there and back takes enough time to require it. We plan a whole day of errands whenever we go into town, so, we hardly ever run to the store for one item.

As a society we rush-rush-rush

For years I have watched working people, getting in line at fast foods on the way home. Rushing around, taking kids to numerous after-school programs as they run around like a chicken-with-their-head-cut-off. Finally, they arrive home exhausted to open a box of cold food for dinner. Unfortunately, this routine allows no time to wind down. Rush to eat, and head to bed, and do it all over again the next day.

Before the quarantine, I’d see people buying boxed fast foods and frozen bags of ready-to-heat-up stuff. I’d wonder, has everyone forgotten how to make basic foods? Baking bread, rolling out pasta, roasts, stew, soups, whole chickens, sauces, and casseroles from leftovers. It’s not that hard and truthfully, homemade food tastes better.

Besides, a whole cart full of flour, sugar, produce, and meats amount to about half the cost of a cart full of fast food packages. I’ve often walked out of the store wondering how families can afford to buy expensive, less healthy foods like that?

Quarantine Benefits

1. I am hoping that American citizens are re-learning how to cook delicious family favorites in their own kitchens. We are discussing things, playing games, and laughing with our loved ones. We can wean ourselves off of fast foods with their chemicals and poor nutrition. If we do, our society could weigh less and be healthier.
2. We could embrace fewer activities filling each and every waking moment of our lives. We haven’t attended that plethora of activities and we have discovered that a little “downtime”, does us all good. Maybe a few of the activities can be eliminated to make things easier. Instead, we can learn how to relax and refresh ourselves.
3. When this restriction ends, it would be best if we realize that we are in charge of how we choose to live our lives. We can embrace the choice to spend time at home, with our families first, and take better care of ourselves.