Dear Diary: Why this Calgarian is cooking in a Hawaiian themed kitchen

CBCCalgarywants to knowhow you are living these days. What are you doing differently? Have you learned, realized or observed anything?

Thisis the secondinstalment of our series, Dear Diary: In a Time of COVID-19, written by Trudy Sale. She's a registered nurse living in Calgary. This submission has been edited for clarity and length.

So much has changed over the last several weeks.

My husband and I are both still working outside of the home, and the boys have been struggling to find some routine in their day. They struggle with not being in school, not being around their friends, and not being able to be active and playing sports. The anxiety and stress level around the home haveincreased as there is so much uncertainly and loss of routine.

I had previously booked holidays for the Easter break. We had planned for a fun week with lots of new adventures. It was supposed to be a time for the family to get together and relax.

But as we know, with the social distancing orders in effect, it's impossible to go anywhere. So I thought "why don't I bring 'somewhere'here?"My boys had been asking to go to Hawaii for a while so Idecided to surprise the kids by bring Hawaii to us.

It was an amazing day!

Our kitchen was replaced with a big screen of the Hawaiianocean, we had music, dancing and games. We even had a swimming pool. Our living room became a tiki bar, with patio umbrellas and lawn chairs. We all pulled out our summer wear and Hawaiian dresses.

It was a day where no one mentioned the word COVID, or how many cases there were today. The mood around the house instantly changed and was more than I could have wished for.

I had thought we would only be doing it to be for the day, however my kids made me promise to keep it up for the entire week and so we did!

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