In the first week after the Cell Games, Chi-Chi was inconsolable. When the distressed recent widow's friends tried to console her (which was frequent at first), it had the opposite effect. No one's arms would ever be strong enough, or warm enough, or anything enough. When they tried to cheer her, it was considerably worse. It was like everyone was trying to get her to forget her husband while simultaneously reminding her of his cheery disposition and life outlook at every turn. It was maddening. She barely left bed. It was fortunate that Ox-King was a closet domestic, else she and Gohan might have starved.
In the second week, Chi-Chi was going through the motions. Cooking; cleaning; practicing kata; tending her vegetable garden; anything so she wouldn't have to think. She was happy that the planet was still standing. Happier still that her son had been spared in the battle for its fate. But neither balanced out the crushing grief she felt because her husband hadn't. If she thought about it too hard...well, she was making a point not to think about it. Her house was standing, her son was alive, and she had work to do.
In the third week, Gohan's home schooling resumed. Chi-Chi reasoned that he might also appreciate having something to keep his mind off their missing house member that wasn't doing chores or playing with dinosaurs in the wilderness with his grandfather (whom she'd sent home to Fire Mountain anyway), and he took to it with gusto. It had the added benefit of giving herself another distraction from not thinking about...but she wasn't thinking about that at all was she? AT. ALL. Gohan was blazing through his lessons and she'd need to plan his next curriculum soon.
In the fourth week, Chi-Chi actually took stock of her household. While they did live a fairly sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle, there were some things that couldn't be produced on their little farm or fished from the nearby rivers. And shopping was an activity that could both relieve stress and keep her mind off things she was refusing to think about wasn't it? Leaving Gohan with strict instructions to study, Chi-Chi took the nimbus to Orange Star City, determined not to think about how it felt to ride with Goku for the first time as a couple and failed miserably. It wasn't until after she'd unpacked and put everything away that she noticed her stock of certain supplies were higher than they should have been. Supplies that, as the only woman living in a house of clueless men, she was very aware of the state of at all times. Counting backwards very deliberately to the last time she'd needed them and...she swore. Loudly. Gohan was so surprised, he drove his pencil through his textbook. And his desk.