Friday Five: Ongoing Pandemic Pass Times

It’s Friday, so I’m linking up with Fairytales and Fitness for Friday Five. Last April, I wrote a post about new pass times that I picked up to keep myself busy through our home stay. I’m happy to report, I’ve kept most of them up.

As usual. I’ve spent a ton of time running, blogging, trying new things and working. The five new pass times I mentioned in April were Spelling Bee, online workouts with Daily Burn, puzzles with The Husband, cooking, virtual meet-ups and Pilates.

I originally thought that I’d share some new ones, but these have stuck! Instead, here’s an update and some goals/plans.

  • Spelling Bee – I’m obsessed with this 7 letter puzzle game from the New York Times. I’ve gotten The Husband and other friends on board, too. I’ve done the puzzle every single day since mid-April and reached the Queen Bee (got all of the words twice) and “Genius” level points almost every day. Helps to be obsessive.
  • Online workouts – I tested out a few programs at the end of the year and landed on Presence Fit app and strength classes with Go! Running led by Olympian Colleen De Reuck. I tried Presence.Fit with A Sweat Life and they had a great deal for a two week free trial and then $99 for a year. The app has live and on demand HIIT, yoga and Pilates classes on iPhone (or Apple TV). Get 2 weeks free here. (iPhone only right now). The Go! Running strength classes are love and on demand, too. Want to try a class? Get a free trial here.
  • Puzzles – We just finished our 13th 1000 piece puzzle. A cool Frida Kahlo one from Eboo Piece and Love. We have several on deck from the holidays.
  • Cooking – I’ve made several recipes about 100 times (it feels like). The Chicken Enchilada Casserole modified from Gimme Some Oven, Turkey Zucchini Meatloaf from Epicurious and pan roasted chicken with roasted vegetables are the most frequent. We’ve added some new things and are trying to cook something new at least once a week.
  • Virtual meet ups – while my virtual meet ups have decreased, I’m still doing Pilates on Monday AM virtually, family every other weekend, meeting with college friends once a week and other friends weekly/monthly or occasionally. The cadence and substance of these calls is working out better than I expected.

My biggest fail last year was trying to learn Spanish with Babbel. I just fizzled out and stopped logging in. I’m trying to decide whether to start over or to try Duolingo instead. Any thoughts?

What have you been doing to pass the time? Which things do you think you’ll continue after we’re back outside? Please share in the comments.

Have a good weekend!