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Olympic efforts to stay positive

Today marked the first annual Tomka family Olympics.


Athletes from all four corners of house gathered together to participate in feats of strength, courage and silliness.

It's amazing what you can come up with when you you are cooped up inside. Today's "boredom buster" was an absolute success. There is nothing that children love more than seeing their parents act like complete clowns.

Our take on the Olympics was a bit different from what you see on TV, but certainly no less competitive. Our "events" consisted of: basketball, spoon & cupcake races, discus throwing (aka paper plates) and biathlon.

We teamed up boys against girls. Given that I had the youngest on my team, I think I was at a disadvantage, but we still did ourselves proud. In the end, hubby and I declared it a tie as I suspect there was a fair bit of cheating on both sides. Check out the following link for a sample of the fun.
Biathlon - Tomka style

Today I also surprised the kids with a livestream drawing lesson through Yaymaker. We set up our living room as a makeshift studio, expanded the webcast on our TV, and spent a good two hours learning how to draw all sorts of dragons. The instructor was based in Boston and was wonderful at engaging the kids - he even danced around with his dog to make everyone laugh. It was nice to "virtually" meet other families form far and wide and see everyone's masterpieces shared on webcam. It was a fantastic way to spend some quiet time with the kids are really well executed. I LOVE how people are finding ways to come together through all of this. All it cost me was $15 for good quality entertainment and an experience that the kids will remember. I also love that this is a way to support artists through these difficult circumstances. Looking forward to taking a few more classes over the coming weeks/months.

The icing on the cake today, was getting to spread a little joy to my parents. We took some of our drawings and taped them to my parents' windows , facing inwards so that they can enjoy a bit of artwork while in isolation. I also dropped off some dish soap and traded it for some vanilla extract - we have entered a strange age of bartering. I half expect to see zombies roaming the streets. Goodbye cash economy, hello TP currency.

All in all, not a bad day. I try to keep the daylight hours happy and lively, but the evenings are a bit harder. The moment I'm not busy, the dark clouds start to roll in and I feel a bit overwhelmed by it all. It's exhausting...and it's only been a week. I guess we all have to settle into this new "normal" and maybe then it will start to feel less suffocating. My biggest challenge in all of this, will be myself. There's no use crying; it changes nothing. I have to learn not to wallow in it and just accept that (a) I don't have all the answers right now, (b) this is something I can't control, and (c) go with the flow.

Sending everyone love, health and whatever happiness you can glean from all of this - it's still out there, sometimes you just just need to look for it in the unexpected.

Drawing workshop through Yaymaker.

Kids showing off some artwork. 

Peek-a-boo. Looking in at Mimi and Poppa.

Andrew's dragon, as seen from inside Mom and Dad's house

My sad attempt at a baby dragon and some COVID humour

Maeve is still into St. Paddy's Day decor

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