It Ain't All Good, But it's All Alright

Or so goes the chorus to "Quarantine Life" by Matthew West (for the sake of something new and different to listen to, I "attended" a free [virtual] concert sponsored by the Thrivent Member Network - Heartland Region on Friday night). 

It's day 62. And while I haven't hated every second of sheltering in place - I've even enjoyed many aspects of it - I'm eagerly awaiting the green light to resume corporate worship, switch back to in-person movie nights, hold a team meeting, walk at my beloved botanical garden, go to Lunes de Jazz, get dinner or paletas or Sweet Frog with friends. 

Which is why I was encouraged by last night's presidential address. It IS all alright. We still have a curfew, but instead of 5 pm to 6 am, seven days a week, it's now 7 pm to 5 am Monday through Saturday, and 5 pm to 5 am on Sundays, through June 1. Evening walks have been reinstated!!! I didn't hear much of what was said after that. 

I can tell I'm dragging a bit on the brink of month three, but I do my best to add variety to each day and give myself something to be excited about. Scenes since my last post: 

I made banana muffins! I love bananas but shy away from baked goods that contain them since my results tend to be inconsistent. I'm thrilled with how these turned out, though! For an in-depth look, check out my first Adobe Spark Page...exploring a new tool for one of the projects I'm working on!

LAC had its 2nd spirit week! Instead of a daily dress-up prompt, the gimmick was that we had the entire week to submit a photo imitating a piece of art. Some people posed as paintings or photographs, others tried to copy famous works with marker or colored pencil...I made a cake inspired by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. Call me crazy, but I've been wanting to make a Mondrian cake ever since the Monet one I made for my mom's birthday in February 2012. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to try the Modern Art Desserts version...

I didn't even think about dressing up like the artist himself until I was elbow deep in frosting and food coloring, but it made for a nice touch!

Edible delights aren't the only thing to come out of my kitchen. I made some lavender aromatherapy play-doh!

Fellow missionary Christel & I ran a virtual 10K! Neither of us had an in-person race cancelled, but she ran across an opportunity to give back by doing something we enjoy, so we signed up together and agreed to run Friday morning. I came back from MY run to a string of messages about the arrival of baby DiLiberto and one from Christel saying she was on her way from Ponce to Mayaguez to help! (She did HER 6.21 mi. yesterday, and I did it again in solidarity.) Now we cross our fingers that her T-shirt and my medal survive international shipping and reach their destinations!

The aforementioned Matthew West concert. 

Danelle & I have been getting adventurous with our morning walks. We've explored a neighborhood adjacent to Cerro Alto a handful of times now, and today we found a back way to the botanical garden that I KNEW existed. My one failed attempt, over a year ago, resulted in getting horribly lost. The garden's still closed, but there were TONS of people walking in the vicinity, even doing Zumba and using the built-in exercise equipment at the park across the street. It was a heartening sight!

Yesterday in my home church's Bible class (on Google Hangouts since Zoom was experiencing worldwide technical difficulties...Satan would attack that on a Sunday morning!), we studied Psalm 8. I'm hopeful that there's light at the end of the tunnel for you, too, but regardless, the Psalmist's words remind us that the God of the universe is "mindful" of us and "care[s] for" us. Pray the bookend verse (1,9) with me this week (I'm going to try tacking it on to every meal prayer): 

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Time to finish the comparison chart of interactive educational tools (i.e. Kahoot!) I started yesterday. Until next time, blessings!