Online grocery shopping saves me a ton of time and money — I only buy what I need for the week, and get it delivered directly to my car.

This time of year tends to render me slightly nostalgic as the spring weather begins to remind me of that day in March, four years ago, when the world seemed to change in an instant.
We stayed home from school and work, wore masks and watched the news anxiously for updates about a worldwide pandemic that stopped us in our tracks.
I still have my 2020 planner — spring is notoriously busy for me and I remember wondering just how I would get all of the things I had planned done that year.
One of the silver linings from the pandemic is the way we learned how to slow down and enjoy time with our family.
Quarantine or not, we learned how to live more simply and some of those lessons, while not followed to the letter as we seem to have slowly returned to a post-pandemic way of living, have stuck with me.
As I look to my busy spring season, I find myself missing the days when I could spend the day with my family, baking cookies, playing card games and not having a place in the world to be.
I don’t ever want to endure another pandemic but here are a few of the lessons I hold with me, even as we have a more normal existence. I hope they help you find a sweet simplicity to add to your days as well!
• Say Yes to Self-Care: I have written about this multiple times, but it is worth shouting from the rooftops.
Taking care of yourself and your emotional health is vital to your physical well-being.
So whether it’s enjoying that leisurely cup of coffee, staying in a bathrobe until noon or pursuing a hobby that gives you enjoyment, the pandemic was a reminder that life can change on a dime so we had better enjoy each day.
Treating yourself doesn’t have to mean a huge financial investment but finding a daily reprieve from the realities of the world can do wonders for your physical and mental health.
If binge-watching a favorite show is what you need to reset your brain, by all means, do it and do not feel an ounce of guilt about it.
If you have been putting off that dinner with a friend because you are too busy, book that date now.
Strive to do one thing that brings you joy — even if it is just for a few minutes each day — I promise you that having that to look forward to will make the daily drudgery just a little less menial.
• Embrace Ways to Streamline Life: One of the lessons I learned from the pandemic was that many of the ways that I did things before — such as grocery shopping — took a ton of time away from the things I enjoy.
Thanks to things like grocery pick-up, Zoom meetings and telehealth taught me that I can save a ton of time by using options that can save me time for other activities.
Don’t get me wrong — I am not saying a Zoom meeting is better than an in-person one — but knowing that I can accomplish something on my to do list in a more efficient way — especially if I am dealing with a case of the sniffles — has been a game-changer for how I do things.
Online grocery shopping saves me a ton of time and money — I only buy what I need for the week — and I can use the hours saved doing something with my family!
Moreover, using these conveniences — and avoiding going into the store – can provide support for folks with autism, sensory processing disorders, or social anxieties, as it minimizes stressful stimuli. Think of some ways you can use the digitalization of your life to make it simpler.
Maybe using telehealth to see your doctor or joining services like Poshmark or Mercari to purge and sell unwanted items in your closet give you the convenience of completing things on your to-do list without adding to the carbon footprint or spending time waiting in a germy waiting room.
• Do more with less: One of the greatest lessons I have taken from our quarantine time is that I do not need to fill my life with things and to dos to be fulfilled.
Simple things like a visit to my local strawberry patch or making a homemade meal from scratch became and have remained very fulfilling things in my life.
I don’t sweat the small things — like the party I wasn’t invited to — because I discovered things that brought me joy that I can turn to,
Having a bad day? Take your dog for a walk, bake some cookies for your family or bring out the Scrabble board.
The little things really are the things that make our core memories so embrace them as often as you can.
(Editor’s Note: Kristine George is a freelance journalist who resides in Easton.)