I walked into the kitchen earlier this week and was pleasantly surprised to find our girls cheerfully putting away the dishes while belting out “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. I happened to walk in on the chorus:

When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I’m feeling sad.
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad.

The lyrics hit a little close to home. I had to quickly walk out of the room so they didn’t see the tears in my eyes.

So this week I took some advice from this favorite family musical and went back to the very beginning, because it’s a very good place to start. Don’t worry, I’m not about to start singing “Do-Re-Mi;” trust me, nobody wants to hear that. But I am remembering fond times from my childhood and trying to recreate some of them for Abby and Maddy.

Together, we have carefully peeled corn and saved the husks to make dolls, planted sunflower seeds, watched movies while sharing a big bowl of popcorn, harvested collards from the garden, put together puzzles, and dusted off some board games that we often don’t have time to play.

One of my favorite things we did was make sun tea. I remember my mom had a special container used specifically for this purpose. It had a bright yellow lid and Sun Tea painted in big letters on the side. If you grew up in the 80’s, there’s a chance you remember this pitcher, too. The girls were quite curious when they discovered a large glass jar sitting on our patio. They kept checking on it and repeatedly asking if it was ready yet. It was a fun treat for everyone when we finally got to drink our iced sun tea after working in the garden all afternoon.

Although I feel like I could be spending some of this time organizing a closet or cleaning out the garage, I don’t want to. Instead, I’m choosing to relive some of my childhood memories with our children. This has helped keep me grounded. While things feel uncertain, I want to remember a few of my favorite things because then these times won’t feel so bad.