What to do on a rainy day… for cheap of course.

If you’re reading this, it’s probably raining or about to rain, and you need help figuring out what to do. Maybe it’s the weekend like it was for us and you were really hoping to do something fun, but now the rain has got you trapped inside. Don’t worry because I’m here to share what my little brother and I decided to do one rainy Saturday. Take it activity for activity or be inspired by it.

The Schedule

It’s a strange itinerary but it was really enjoyable.

10:00 am - Wake Up

12:31 pm - Ingredient Scavenger Hunt

12:45 pm - Start Cooking

2:15 pm - Eat Lunch

2:45 pm - Do Dishes

4:00 pm - Play Roblox

Could the schedule have gone better? Honestly, probably not. Personally, everything lined up pretty well for a rainy day. Time passed and it didn’t feel wasted. Satisfaction.

Don’t wanna read? Here’s a video summary: https://youtube.com/shorts/BWUaoFwRpOY?feature=share

The Wake Up

We slept in of course, or at least I know I did.

Who doesn’t when the rain gently patters on the roof, drowning out the sounds of the street that would usually make its way through the window glass. Lawnmowers and yard-tenders absent, scared away by the rain that paints the streets. My sock-less feet enjoy the warmth under the blanket, moments before they touch the cold carpet of my room. I take my sweet time to get out of bed. Hence, we didn’t get started on lunch until 12:31 pm.

The Hunt

I thought it’d be fun to make a game out of gathering the ingredients that we needed to make lunch. What was on the menu? Nothing other than a gourmet homemade chili crafted by the fine hands of my little brother and I. So I decided that I was gonna see how quickly I could gather the ingredients. There were about 16 things on the list and I thought that I could easily get it done in 3 minutes without a problem. It turns out that I get a little distracted by what else could potentially taste good in the stew so by the time the timer struck 8 minutes and 10 seconds, there were 24 items fighting for space on the counter.

We didn’t have some things but that didn’t bother me because it got us thinking on our toes on what could be the replacement or whether it could be left out. I had Brandon (the little bro) film my journey but I think the scavenger hunt would’ve been more fun if we were competing to see who could get more ingredients before the list was completed. Another option was to see who can get everything in the shortest amount of time, but that would be mildly unproductive since some of the items would have to be put back for the hunt to be done again. We also could have blindfolded one of us while the other gave instructions. Maybe, we’ll try that next time.

There are so many ways to take “getting ingredients” and transform it into an exciting activity.

Our First Time Making Chili

To our surprise, it was really tasty. All we had was the ingredients and Brandon’s limited memory of the cooking video, and yet the chili still came together quite beautifully. We had ups and downs, a few shouts here and there, but that’s all part of the cooking process. Good chefs shout in the kitchen, right? I like to think of it as part of the authentic team building experience.

One mishap stands out from the rest.

You know how you have to let frozen meat thaw before you cook it? My mom always thaws it out in a bowl of water and she’s asked me several times to do it for her so I know how it works. This time, I was hoping that my mom would magically set the meat out to thaw for us when she went to work that morning. She’s usually very ahead of the game and sometimes helps prep ingredients for us before we start cooking if we tell her what we need. I didn’t tell her that we needed any meat so she didn’t get it out for us.

We started to thaw the meat about 20 minutes before we tried to cook it. Emphasis on tried. I thought we could just stir fry the rest of the ice out of the hunk of beef. Brandon and I both had a stab at literally stabbing the solid chunk with our spatula. It didn’t work. The meat on the outside was starting to cook but the core was unreachable and I didn’t want it to be unevenly cooked.

Thus, we popped it in the microwave and heated it for 2-4 minutes. We threw it back in the pot and we were able to break into the core of the beef. That’s when we realized that it definitely wasn’t beef. It was definitely pork. It didn’t matter though. No flavor difference in chili. But now, we know that pork can be as red as beef.

Time To EAT

Two words: chips and cheese. These are the perfect complement to chili. It takes an everyday meal and turns it into something that gets sold out at a restaurant. I’m happy to say that I went back for seconds. Hot chili + rainy day = cozy warm soul.

A Moment of Reality

Dishes. What’s the process for yours? In our house, we do it in turns. One person soaps the dishes and then another person rinses them. To maximize socialization and bonding, we could both work on the dishes at the same time. However, that’s not what happens. Soaping always takes longer and the rinser doesn’t like to have to wait for the next dish to appear. There’s also a bit of a traffic jam for use of the faucet if both washers are there at once.

So, I finished soaping them and then Brandon came and rinsed them. To put it in the best light, you could say that it was a moment for independence, a break from socializing, a moment to recuperate some social energy. Also, I don’t remember if we did the dishes right after lunch or if we waited until after 5 or 6 pm to do them. It sounds more ideal to keep the joyful, relaxing momentum going so I’ll say we did them after what comes next.

“That Game’s for Kids”

I used to play Roblox with my sister when I was younger. I think it was because we didn’t have Minecraft since it cost money. In reality, Minecraft was only $20 but we thought that anything above $1 was expensive. Hence, I’m comfortable with the game. However, during high school, my friends would joke about the people who played Roblox. One friend had a cousin who was obsessed with Roblox and that cousin would take his computer to play, stopping my friend from playing his own video games. At the end of the day, they’re both video games. The ones my friend plays are more intricately designed but both Roblox and his video games serve the same purpose: entertainment. Thus, I kept my heart open to Roblox even though there were people who insisted they were too mature for it.

If an 8 year old can be entertained by it, then I’m sure we can too and nothing is more childish than insisting that something is childish.

Why Roblox?

After lunch, Brandon and I parted ways for a bit. I went to watch something on Netflix while Brandon watched Youtube. While I was watching, I started to feel like Netflix was a waste of my day. Watching felt empty. Why watch a show that I wouldn’t be able to talk about with anyone I know? So, I decided that I wanted to keep the momentum of the quality bonding with my brother going. That’s when I thought of Roblox. I hadn’t played for more than a year, maybe more. My password was nothing I could think of so I had to go through the whole laborious process of resetting it by sending myself an email and then I had to look through all of my 5 different gaming gmail accounts because I didn’t remember which one was linked to the account. It was a bit of a hassle just to play Roblox but I stuck with it.

Why all this for Roblox? I knew that Roblox was one of the few things that I could easily convince Brandon to willingly and eagerly play with me. He’s not very eager to choose me over scrolling or watching a video, but Roblox is the one exception that I’ve found. It’s a game on his turf. Would I choose to play Roblox on my own over watching Netflix? Not for a moment. But in this case, I get to spend time with Brandon and Roblox is far from boring so it’s a win-win.

Once I got logged in, Brandon said that I could pick what we played. I chose Natural Disaster Survival since the game’s been around since I first started Roblox and I’m quite the pro at it (as you might be able to guess, it’s a game where your character is faced with a natural disaster and you have to find a way to survive until the disaster ends). I have an impressive 200+ wins in the game. Despite that, I found myself dying in some natural disasters where Brandon ended up living. I learned that Brandon’s really good at dodging meteor showers. I also found out the hard way that I never should move around while on a volcano. Find one safe spot and stick to it. Anyways, guess what excitingly relevant and new natural disaster was added!

Covid… I narrowly dodged the blue infectious molecules that bursted out from ill individuals.

After we got bored of that game, we both decided that we should play Murder Mystery 2. If you don’t know how murder mystery works, ask your nearest age 5+ child. They know. I’m proud to say that I won once as Murderer while Brandon didn’t win at all as Murderer, so that’s a point for me. I wish I would’ve been able to collect more coins though. I kept dying too early when I was Innocent so I didn’t get the 500 coins that I needed to buy a pet. Besides that, Brandon showed me what maps to vote for and explained what all the in-game items were. He told me about updates that I’d missed and I got to enter a world where he was an expert. He had spent days on this game and it showed in his expertise of the game’s functions and items. The best part of this game was that we could tell each other who the murderer was or where they were going if one of us died before the other.

At times, it was a walk in the park. At other times, I was running for my life.

Conclusion: It’s Nothing Special

“So what? All you did was make chili, eat it, and play Roblox. That’s nothing special.” If you thought that, you’d be right. It’s nothing special. It’s something you can do any day of the year at any time. However, there’s something special about doing it on a rainy day with your little sibling(s) or in your case, maybe a friend or your child. It’s something you can both do where there can be small turmoil but very quick resolution. It’s team building at its finest. Plus, it’s free (if you don’t count the ingredients and the device used to play Roblox but if you count those, basically nothing in the world is free).

Chili is easy to make. It’s a one pot stew that’s hard to mess up. It’s a lazy meal. Yay! Roblox has so many games. You could spend days playing just Roblox and you’d be able to play something completely different every hour. The barrier of entry for Roblox is one of the lowest that I know for video games so it’s very easy for anyone to jump onto. To be honest, Roblox can be replaced with any other activity, but it works for us because we both can find joy in it and it’s a place where Brandon can teach me what he knows.

It’s fun, simple, and precious to be able to see what someone I care for sees.