How Quarantine Brought An Unexpected Bonus + #MyPostMonday Linky

It's now been about 6 weeks, more or less, since we've adapted a new lifestyle, in our state known as "Stay Safe, Stay Home". It's a lifestyle that many of us don't mind, if we only had the paycheck to go along with it! I've relished the extra amount of pure, uninterrupted time given to me. At first I thought I'd be so incredibly productive, but what I found is that it took some adapting to this new windfall of around 6 hours per day! At first I didn't know what to do with myself!

After some time, I did indeed adapt and something kind of amazing and unexpected came out of it. My husband and I started playing music together! Now, we've both been musical since childhood. But it had kind of been on the back-burner for both of us. I played violin in a university orchestra in college, plus piano, and he had played the guitar, sang and composed since he was a teenager, mentored by his maternal grandparents who used to compose and perform in the Coalinga Horned Toad Derby Days and Daffodil Days both in California.  But our instruments were badly in need of repair and we hadn't played them in years. Life had gotten in the way! Several months before things went to quarantine, we both got new instruments! I got a new violin and he got a new PRS guitar! 

During our down time, we found a couple songs that we thought might sound good as violin/guitar duets. We each figured them out separately and then we got together and played. I was  impressed at how we each enhanced the other person's playing. I don't think I'd sound half as good if he wasn't there playing back-up beside me, and I know he wouldn't sound as good either! (Even though I love to listen to him strumming away on a song he heard or had known when he was in high school) 


I was so pleasantly surprised with how some of our quarantine time has turned out! When life gets back to normal again, I'd love to keep this newly discovered activity on-the-table, so to speak. I feel like it would add some new dimension to our 20 year marriage, and help us to grow more together as a couple. But that can get tricky when the demands for our time kick back into high gear. Will we continue to pursue our newfound hobby or will it get pushed back into the corner in favor of more pressing "priorities"?  

Only time will tell. I'll keep you posted on how we are doing post-quarantine. But in the meantime, the surprise of being able to play music together, rather than separately, was such a blessing and it never would have happened, were it not for the quarantine of 2020! Did anything unexpected or fun happen to you during Quarantine 2020?

Today is "My Post Monday!", a curation of my picks of the week's best original content. It's all about posts from Crafts to Camping, Wellness to Wealth, Fashion to Food, and whatever else is on the brain!  I  open up with a post of my own and then follow it up with a linky of the week's top original blog posts! It's all about what the writer thinks, believes, and knows--in other words, they are active, writing blogs. If I happen to find a great original, non-sponsored post, I'll link it up and share it with you here and on Twitter via the #MyPostMonday hashtag!  I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to!  So, in addition, if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too!  I'll visit your site, comment, promote and publicize(Affiliate links welcome)